Peabody and Young Audiences to Partner in Baltimore City Schools
On December 8, Peabody Dean Fred Bronstein and Stacie Sanders Evans, executive director of Young Audiences of Maryland, announced a new partnership through which Peabody students and faculty will develop and present school programs as Young Audiences artists. Young Audiences seeks to transform the lives and education of Maryland's youth through the arts by providing artistically excellent programs for students across the state. Marquee Brass - master's candidates Sam Bessen, Mike Minor, and Buddy Deshler; GPD candidate Ricson Poonin; and DMA candidate Brandon Cave - is one of the Peabody ensembles newly added to the Young Audiences roster and performed at the announcement of the partnership at Mount Royal Elementary/Middle School. The collaboration was featured by WBAL TV 11, The Baltimore Sun, and Baltimore Fishbowl.
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FROM THE DEAN
It hardly seems possible that we are at the mid-point of the 2016-17 academic year. But here we are, and so it seems a great opportunity to note some exciting upcoming events.
As always, there will be myriad wonderful performances, far too many to mention. But what comes to mind immediately is that Peabody is in the unique and enviable position of having two Peabody Symphony Orchestra concerts take place under the batons of two of our country's leading music directors of major orchestras: Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Leonard Slatkin, music director of the Detroit Symphony. The February concert with Maestra Alsop honors the memory of distinguished faculty member Gustav Meier, who directed the graduate conducting program at Peabody for nearly two decades and whose post is now occupied by his former student, Marin Alsop. In April, Mr. Slatkin will conduct a program that includes Aaron Jay Kernis' new flute concerto, written for Peabody faculty member Marina Piccinini and co-commissioned by the Detroit Symphony and the Peabody Institute among several institutions. This performance is being recorded for Naxos as part of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra's second project on the label's American Classics series.
There is much more including Peabody Opera Theatre's production of Mozart's
The Marriage of Figaro and countless other performances by faculty and students. Special guest visiting artist residencies with Midori and Eric Owens continue as well, and we look forward to Dean's Symposium visits by noted chief music critic for
The New Yorker and award-winning author Alex Ross and by Mr. Peter Sellars, one of opera's most influential and innovative thinkers and directors.
So much to look forward to as we begin the second half of this season here at the Peabody Institute. Stay tuned!
Fred Bronstein, Dean |
ON STAGE / OFF CAMPUS
Wednesday, January 11, at 8:00 pm
Steinway artist, pianist, and composer Julian Gargiulo (MM '97, Piano) will perform at Carnegie Hall as the culmination of his "Getting to Carnegie Hall" vocal competition. Mr. Gargiulo will accompany the finalists of the competition, soprano Emily Helenbrook, baritones Nathanial Olson and Dennis Wees, and mezzo-soprano Michaela Wolz in their selected works as well as the premiere of his song cycle titled Songs from the Fork.
Wednesday, January 11, 7:30 pm
Alan Choo (
GPD '16, Violin; MM '14, Violin, Early Music) will perform in a concert which features the gifted young artists selected to participate in this year's
Tafelmusik Winter Institute, a one-week specialized training institute for experienced period players. Mr. Choo will play Vivaldi's Concerto in B Minor, Op. 9, No. 12 from
La Cetra at Trinity-St. Paul's Centre, Jeanne Lamon Hall in Toronto.
Saturday, January 14, 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm
A new work by Frances Pollock (MM '15, Voice) has been selected for the Washington National Opera's 2017 American Opera Initiative Festival in the Kennedy Center Family Theater. Three new one-act operas, each inspired by the ideals of President John F. Kennedy, will be presented as part of the Kennedy Center's celebration of the JFK centennial. Ms. Pollock's opera What Gets Kept, with libretto by Vanessa Moody, explores medically assisted suicide as a family struggles with terminal illness. The performances are sold out.
Saturday, January 28, at 8:00 pm
Artist diploma candidate Meng Su (PC '09, GPD '11, MM '16, Guitar; GPD '15, Chamber Music), who is serving as artist-in-residence with the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society, will perform at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Ms. Su will play works by J. S. Bach, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, William Walton, and two works by Sérgio Assad, including the East Coast premiere of Sun Wukong's Toccata, a work dedicated to Meng Su.
Tuesday, January 31, at 7:30 pm
Preparatory alumnus Philip Glass' 80th birthday will be celebrated by the Bruckner Orchestra Linz with a concert featuring the world premiere of his Symphony No. 11 and Ifé: Three Yoruba Songs, featuring vocalist Angélique Kidjo. Glass' samba-inspired Days and Nights in Rocinha will also be on the program at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage.
Peabody Events highlights select off-campus or live-streamed performances featuring Peabody performers. For other events, please visit our Peabody Institute Concerts Facebook page. For the complete weekly list of concerts at Peabody, subscribe to Events at Peabody at peabody.jhu.edu/news.
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ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENTS
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Preparatory student Connor Chaikowsky, a 16-year-old violinist, has been chosen as one of three recipients of the Reinecke Youth Chamber Music Fellowship by the Chamber Music Society of Maryland. The fellows will be mentored by the Monument Piano Trio - Dariusz Skoraczewski (BM '94, GPD '96, Cello), Michael Sheppard (BM '98, MM '01, GPD '03, Piano), and Kaya Bryla (GPD '05, AD '11, Violin; GPD '08, Chamber Music). They will prepare Beethoven's "Archduke" Piano Trio and perform that work along with solo repertoire on April 30. Mr. Chaikowsky serves as concertmaster of the Peabody Preparatory String Ensemble.
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Peabody alumnus Ryan Dorsey (
BM '07, Composition) was recently elected as Baltimore's new 3rd District City Councilman. He was endorsed by
The Baltimore Sun and began his service to the city on December 8.
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The O'Connor Band's album
Coming Home with Maggie O'Connor (
BM '13, MM '14, Violin) has been nominated for Best Bluegrass Album of the Year for the 59th Grammy Awards.
Shadow of Sirius, a CD featuring music theory faculty member Joel Puckett's flute concerto by the same title, was nominated for Best Engineered Album, Classical category of the Grammy Awards.
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Faculty artist Amit Peled was a featured performer alongside Itzhak Perlman and Yefim Bronfman at the America-Israel Cultural Foundation's 77th Anniversary Gala Celebration at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater on November 29. The America-Israel Cultural Foundation's mission is to support and develop artistic life in Israel by awarding scholarships and grants.
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DMA conducting student Jordan Randall Smith, who serves as Symphony Number One's music director, was named one of 10 Baltimore Social Innovation Fellows by the Warnock Foundation. Symphony Number One was recognized for its work to promote social good through music and serve all of Baltimore. With the added funding and support from the foundation, Symphony Number One will be giving free concerts across West Baltimore in February and March 2017.
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RECENT RECORDINGS
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Symphony Number One released a CD titled
More, now available on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, and more. For the first time, the group released a full-length album exclusively featuring emerging composers - doctoral composition candidate Natalie Draper, Andrew Posner (
BM '15, Composition), and Jonathan Russell.
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