Peabody Faculty Receive Hopkins Awards
Three Peabody faculty members will receive funding for their innovative project proposals through significant Johns Hopkins University awards programs. Musicology faculty member Laura Protano-Biggs is the recipient of a
Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award, which honors early-career faculty, for her project: "Operatic Technologies in Late 19th Century Italy." Musicology faculty member Susan Forscher Weiss was awarded an inaugural
Digital Education and Learning Technology Acceleration, or DELTA, grant for "Hacking Harmony," asking Peabody music students to partner with other Hopkins students to create apps, devices, or wearable tech items that allow the user to explore and learn about an aspect of music performance or music history. Guitar faculty artist Serap Bastepe-Gray (
BM '96, MM '99, Guitar) is part of an interdisciplinary team of researchers chosen to receive a
Johns Hopkins Discovery Award for the proposal, "Step Into My Brain: Experiencing Depressive Brain with Virtual Reality."
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FROM THE DEAN
May 23 was
commencement day at Peabody, and a very special moment in the year. Graduation is always uplifting and inspiring. This year, Peabody awarded 242 degrees to 225 students: 67 bachelor's degrees, 40 graduate diplomas, 128 master's degrees, and seven doctorates. It would have been impossible to not feel the sense of pride and accomplishment as students walked across the stage to receive their diplomas. Several students received awards for outstanding achievement. And, in one of the highlights of the day, theory and ear training faculty member Clinton Adams accepted the Excellence in Teaching Award. The time students have spent in Adams' classes over the years has clearly led to some of their most memorable and impactful experiences. Similarly impactful, Leon Fleisher, approaching 90 and celebrating nearly 60 years at Peabody, was awarded the George Peabody Medal. Since he has won just about every other award in the classical music field, it seemed high time for this one, which brought more joy to the day. Finally, commencement speaker Deborah Rutter, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, offered valuable and insightful advice to graduates about the rapidly changing landscape that they enter today, and how their own creativity, flexibility, and ability to think anew about connecting arts with people offer an exciting and dynamic opportunity to live meaningful and satisfying artistic lives. All in all, it was a great day!
Fred Bronstein, Dean |
ON STAGE / OFF CAMPUS
Tuesday, June 12, 7:00 pm
Master's candidate Camila Agosto, composition, will have the world premiere of her work,
todavia, at
National Sawdust in New York City. The Refugee Orchestra Project will perform the piece as part of the inaugural Hildegard Competition concert. Agosto was a runner-up in the competition and faculty artist Du Yun was a judge.
Netanel Draiblate (
MM '07, GPD '09, Violin) will perform in the final concert of the
Festival Baltimore, which will feature Mendelssohn's piano trios and a sextet. The concert will take place at University of Maryland, Baltimore County's Linehan Concert Hall. Alumnus Svet Stoyanov (
BM '03, GPD '05, Percussion) and faculty artist Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet, also performed for the festival.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's
New Music Festival will feature Peabody faculty artists Marin Alsop; conducting; Kevin Puts and Du Yun, composition; and Katherine Needleman, oboe. The festival takes place in spaces all over the city, including Peabody's Leith Symington Griswold Hall, and will conclude with a symphonic concert featuring
Slow Portraits by Du Yun and the world premiere of
Moonlight, an oboe concerto by Puts.
Thursday, June 21, 7:30 pm
Composition Department Chair Michael Hersch (
BM '95, MM '97, Composition) will be the featured performer in a concert by the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in England's
Aldeburgh Festival. In addition to Hersch as pianist, faculty artists Ah Young Hong, soprano, and Gary Louie, alto saxophone, will perform in a program of all Hersch works, including the European premiere of his
I hope we get a chance to visit soon. Hersch was also the featured composer of the Ojai Festival in California earlier this month.
Saturday, June 29, Sunday, June 30, 8:00 pm
Peter Bay (
MM '80, Conducting) has organized and will conduct a production of Leonard Bernstein's
MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers. The production, in Bay's hometown of Austin, Texas, will include 300 cast and crew members and the involvement of all of the major performing arts organizations in Austin. This production is in celebration of the 100th birthday of Bernstein. The Peabody Institute will also be presenting the
MASS on Friday, October 26, at 7:30 pm. More details coming soon.
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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Peabody faculty artist Nasar Abadey, jazz, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the DC Jazz Festival on Friday, June 15, in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, in recognition of his stellar contribution to the art form. Chucho Valdés will also receive the award. Abadey will also perform at the festival on Saturday, June 16, at 5:30 pm.
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DMA candidate Brandon Cave, trumpet, has won an audition and a position with the Navy Fleet Band.
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DMA candidate Sun-A Park, piano, won first place in the 2018 Serge and Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Award. She performed a gala recital at the Musicians Club of New York on May 5. The competition identifies and presents some of the very best upcoming artists.
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Master's candidate Jonathan Rush, orchestral conducting, participated in the 2018 New York Conducting Workshop Conducting Competition and won first place for the Respighi Prize in Conducting. As a result, Rush made his professional orchestra debut with the Chamber Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall on June 7.
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Igor Yuzefovich (
BM '02, GPD '04, Violin) has been appointed joint leader of the BBC Symphony. He will continue as concertmaster of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra as well until March 2019, after which he will relinquish his position with the SSO.
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RECENT RELEASES
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Juliet McComas (
BM '71, MM '74, Piano) recently released a two-disc set,
A Musical Retrospective, presenting the finest and best loved Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and contemporary works for solo piano.
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Dariusz Skoraczewski (
BM '94, GPD '96, Cello) released
Complete Bach Cello Suites and will perform a two-part release concert at
An Die Musik in Baltimore on Saturday, June 16 and Saturday, June 23, at 2:00 pm.
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A song by Professional Studies faculty member Derrick Wang is featured on a new recording
Notorious RBG In Song. The collection of world-premiere recordings salutes the life and work of legal pioneer Ruth Bader Ginsburg in celebration of her completion of 25 years on the United States Supreme Court. The album includes the aria, "You are Searching in Vain for a Bright-Line Solution," from Wang's opera
Scalia/Ginsburg.
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Faculty artist Amit Peled, cello, released
To Brahms, with Love: From the Cello of Pablo Casals featuring Brahms cello sonatas Nos. 1 and 2 and accompanied by Noreen Polera, piano. These sonatas were recorded by Maestro Casals in the 1930s on the same cello used by Peled today, adding legacy to this special recording.
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