Peabody Alumnae Win Opera America Grants
Three of the eight composers awarded funding this year through Opera America's
Opera Grants for Female Composers program are Peabody alumnae. The works include
Island of the Moon by Faye Chiao (
MM '07, DMA '16, Composition), which is about the queen of a sinking island hoping to save her people by moving them to a neighboring realm;
Marie Begins by Ellen Fishman-Johnson (
DMA '95, Composition), which has the audience guiding Marie's trajectory in this interactive work, making choices for her at the end of each two- to six-minute scene to help her pull her life together; and
Stinney: An American Execution by Frances Pollock (
MM '15, Voice), which follows the true story of George Stinney Jr., the youngest person to be legally executed in 20th-century America. The program grants a total of $100,000 to eight female composers to further their work.
|
FROM THE DEAN
Graduation day is always among the most inspiring of the year, when we get to send our newly minted Peabody alumni out into the world. The
2017 Peabody Conservatory Graduation, our 135th, saw nearly 180 students complete their degrees or diplomas, encompassing a wide range of musical disciplines. Piano faculty member
Alexander Shtarkman received the Excellence in Teaching Award, and Preparatory alumna and world-renowned violinist
Hilary Hahn spoke to the graduates in a warm, personal, and casual address about perseverance and taking care of one's self. As we moved past this graduation, I also noted to myself that this was indeed a moment of transition for Peabody, as we embark this fall on the new Breakthrough Curriculum, itself designed to better prepare all our students for the world they will enter.
Apropos of the subject of graduation and alumni, this past week I traveled to Taiwan and Korea for annual performances by Peabody's vibrant alumni groups - we have more than 200 alumni in Taiwan and 350 in Korea, our largest alumni base outside the U.S. We also took this opportunity to visit with incoming students and their families. It was a whirlwind five-day trip that was a great reminder of the growing strength of the Peabody "brand" in Asia, and a chance to reconnect with old friends and build relationships with new ones.
It has been an extraordinarily busy year at Peabody, and I wish all members of our community a refreshing and productive summer!
Fred Bronstein, Dean |
ON STAGE / OFF CAMPUS
Wednesday, June 7, 7:00 pm
Mezzo-soprano Elspeth Davis (MM '06, Voice) and Sandbox Percussion - Victor Caccese (BM '11, Percussion), Terry Sweeney (BM '13, Percussion), Ian Rosenbaum (BM '08, Percussion), and Jonathan Allen - will premiere two works, Timo Andres' Austerity Measures and Christopher Cerrone's Goldbeater's Skin, at National Sawdust in New York on June 7.
Thursday, June 8-Tuesday, June 13
Brian Kay (BM '13, MM '15, Early Music) is the co-director of Apollo's Fire's Mediterranean Roots program, with six performances in the Cleveland area. Mr. Kay will also perform with Ronn McFarlane ('79, Guitar) in his group Ayreheart at this year's Boston Early Music Festival on Monday, June 12.
The Peabody Consort, an early music group founded by faculty artist Mark Cudek (MM '82, Lute), will revive its "Words and Music of Three Faiths" program at Second Presbyterian Church in Baltimore. This collaboration between Peabody; the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies; Second Presbyterian Church; and local religious faith leaders will include readings by Rabbi Geoff Basik, Imam Derek Amin, and Rev. Thomas Blair. The Peabody Consort will repeat the music from this program at the Indianapolis Early Music Festival on Sunday, June 25, at 4:00 pm.
Thursday, June 22-Sunday, June 25
Winchendon Music Festival, founded and directed by Andrew Arceci (
BM '08, Double Bass, Viola da Gamba), will celebrate its second season at Old Centre Church in Winchendon, Mass. Mr. Arceci and Emily Noël (
MM '06, Voice) are members of Floyds Row who will perform on
Sunday, June 25, at 7:00 pm. The festival features international artists performing French and Italian Baroque music, old Scottish folk music, pieces by early New England composers, and selections from the Great American Songbook.
Thursday, June 29, Friday, June 30, 7:30 pm; Sunday, July 2, 11:00 am
Nikita Borisevich (
GPD '13, Violin; GPD '15, Chamber Music; MM '17, Violin) and DMA candidate Margarita Loukachkina will appear as guest artists at the
Sitka Summer Music Festival, under the artistic direction of Grammy award winner Zuill Bailey (
BM '94, Cello), in Sitka, Alaska. The pair will perform the chamber music of Bach, Taneyev, Tchaikovsky, and Prokofiev alongside renowned artists, Paul Rosenthal, violin; Navah Perlman, piano; Martin Sher, viola; and Jia Kim, Zuill Bailey, and Melissa Kraut, cellos.
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.
|
ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENTS
|
Leela Breithaupt (BM '93, MM '96, Flute) has been awarded a 2017-18 Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship, sponsored by the Indianapolis Arts Council and Lilly Foundation Inc. The $10,000 fellowship will support Ms. Breithaupt's historical manuscript research in Paris and the production of a CD for her ensemble, Les Ordinaires, which will feature Allison Edberg Nyquist (BM '84, Violin) and Jory Vinikour ('83, Piano).
|
|
A new concerto by Viet Cuong (
BM '11, MM '12, Composition) titled
Re(new)al was premiered by Sandbox Percussion - Victor Caccese (
BM '11, Percussion), Terry Sweeney (
BM '13, Percussion), Ian Rosenbaum (
BM '08, Percussion), and Jonathan Allen - with the Albany Symphony's new music ensemble, The Dogs of Desire, on June 2 at the American Music Festival. This piece was commissioned by General Electric, and each of its three movements deals with one of their renewable energy initiatives - hydro, wind, and solar.
|
|
On May 11, Lukasz Kuropaczewski (
AD '08, Guitar) was awarded the Meritorious for Polish Culture medal by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland in recognition of his distinguished cultural contribution. In September, Mr. Kuropaczewski will participate in a three-day visiting artist residency at Peabody, made possible by the Levi Family Distinguished Visiting Artist Fund.
|
|
Marquee Brass - DMA candidate Brandon Cave, trumpet; David Deshler (
MM '17, Trumpet); Samuel James Bessen (
MM '17, Horn); Ricson Poonin (
GPD '17, Trombone); Michael James Minor (
MM '17, Tuba) - has been selected as one of five chamber groups to participate in Ensemble Connect's Audience Engagement Institute, an eight-day series of tuition-free workshops. Ensemble Connect - a program that prepares musicians for careers that combine musical excellence with teaching, community engagement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership - presents its first Audience Engagement Institute for established chamber ensembles in Carnegie Hall's Resnick Education Wing from June 8 to 15.
|
|
Composer Jake Runestad (
MM '11, Composition; MM '12, Music Theory Pedagogy) is one of four artists chosen for a McKnight Fellowship for Composers by the McKnight Foundation. The award, which includes $25,000 in unrestricted funds for each recipient, acknowledges excellence in the field of music composition. The four fellows were chosen from a pool of 55 applicants.
|
|
RECENT RECORDINGS
|
DUO Stephanie and Saar, featuring Stephanie Ho (
GPD '03, Piano) and Saar Ahuvia (
MM '04, GPD '04, Piano), released a new CD,
Bach: The Art of Fugue. This third release by the pair on New Focus Recordings marks the first ever complete piano duo recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's enigmatic final work.
|
|
Dorotea Racz (BM '10, MM '11, Cello), Dmitry Samogray (BM '11, Piano), Gleb Kanasevich (BM '11, Clarinet), and flautist Ginevra Petrucci have released a CD featuring the chamber music of American composer Robert Muczynski under the Brilliant Classics label.
|
|
|
|
|
|
