After a year that saw all of Peabody’s large ensembles performing away from their home venue, the renovated Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall reopens this weekend, with Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Ensembles Joseph Young leading the Peabody Symphony Orchestra through Paul Dukas’ Fanfare from La Péri, Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome, Richard Strauss’ Don Juan, and current DMA candidate Zhishu Chang’s Mottle, winner of the 2025 Macht Orchestral Composition Competition. With new and improved rigging and lighting systems, major acoustical renovations, and upgrades to the 50-year-old orchestra pit lids, the reopening of Friedberg Hall marks the first major milestone in Peabody’s campus reimagining project and ensures the hall remains a flexible, dynamic performance and gathering space for the decades to come. A Celebratory Return to Friedberg Hall begins at 7:30 pm on Saturday, April 11. Obtain free tickets online if you’re in the area, or tune in via livestream.

Register Today for Alumni Weekend

In honor of JH150, all Johns Hopkins divisions will come together for All-Alumni Weekend, April 17-19, 2026—an opportunity to celebrate as one university. Explore the full Schedule of Events, and make plans to join Peabody programming highlights including:

• Friday, April 17, 12:30 pm—Hopkins at Home(wood) The Sound of Care: Music Meets Medicine
• Friday, April 17, 5:00 pm—150 years and Just Getting Started
• Saturday, April 18, 10:30 am—The Other Peabody Library Tour: Arthur Friedheim Library and Peabody Archives
• Saturday, April 18, 11:00 am—Hopkins at Home(wood) Building Community and Connection in Baltimore

In recent years Peabody has continued to make great strides as an institution through expansion of its core Conservatory programs; innovations at the intersection of music and technology, in arts and health, American music, and so much more; now augmented by transformational investments in financial aid in the undergraduate and doctoral programs—investments that are making Peabody more selective and more accessible than ever in its long history. Today, Peabody stands on the cusp of a new era that finds its roots deep in its tradition of high-level conservatory training and, at the same time, looks forward with innovative thinking about how to prepare the most gifted young artists for successful, varied, and meaningful careers in the performing arts. 

As our institution has grown in enrollment, programs, and stature, the gap between the quality of what is happening in our practice rooms, performance halls, and classrooms and what our campus can support has become more acute. For that reason, we have chosen this moment to ensure that the outstanding quality of work here at Peabody is equally reflected in the physical environment in which our faculty and students teach and learn. And we want our facilities to reflect that same combination of deep tradition and looking to the future that characterizes the artistic and academic experience here at Peabody.

In a major step forward, this week we reopen a renovated Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall, with new systems, lighting, acoustic enhancements, and restorative cosmetic work that bring this hall truly back to life. This is the first step in a major capital improvement project now underway. This fall, students move from existing on-campus housing to apartment-style living at the Peabody Residential Commons. That move makes way for a major transformation that awaits the residential towers, to be reimagined for expanded program space that will include new practice rooms, rehearsal and performance spaces, and other student amenities, representing the most expansive investment in and undertaking of capital improvements in new and renovated facilities since the founding of the Peabody Institute in 1857. 

Today, we celebrate this milestone with much more to come.

Sincerely,

Fred Bronstein, Dean

Thursday, April 9, 7:30 pm EDT

When longtime Washington, D.C., resident Richard Smallwood passed away in December at the age of 77, gospel lost one of its most celebrated songwriters, singers, and bandleaders. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra honors his towering legacy with GospelFest: A Tribute to Richard Smallwood, featuring Jonathan Taylor Rush (MM ’19, Conducting) leading the BSO through a program curated by Distinguished Visiting Faculty Darin Atwater and featuring Eric Conway's (BM ’85, MM ’87, DMA ’95, Piano; JHU Bus MA ’93, Management) Morgan State University Choir alongside the choirs of Bowie State, Coppin State, and Howard universities. Tickets are available online.

Friday, April 10, 7:30 pm EDT

Professional Studies instructor and soprano Laura Strickling (MM ’06, Vocal Studies) was nominated for the Best Classical Vocal Solo Album GRAMMY® in 2022 for Confessions, which featured Joy Schreier on piano. Strickling and Schreier are joined by cellist Carrie Bean for a free concert at First and Franklin Presbyterian Church in Baltimore as part of the Spire Series.

Friday and Saturday, April 24 and 25, 7:00 pm

Protestra founding artistic director Michelle Rofrano (MM ’16, Conducting) returns to Baltimore this month to lead the Maryland Opera production of Madama Butterfly. Starring Kate Jackman (MM ’11, Voice) as Suzuki and Claire Iverson (BM ’21, Voice) as Kate Pinkerton, and directed by James Harp (BM ’81, MM ’82; Voice), Madama Butterfly is staged twice at the Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore, and tickets are available online.

Friday, April 24, through Sunday, May 10

Gemma New (MM ’11, Conducting) makes her Houston Grand Opera debut conducting The Barber of Seville, composer Gioachino Rossini’s and librettist Cesare Sterbini’s beloved comedic masterpiece. Performances take place at Brown Theater in the Wortham Theater Center and tickets are available online. 

Saturday, April 25, 10:00 and 11:30 am CDT

Houston Symphony Associate Conductor Gonzalo Farias (GPD ’18, Conducting) leads the HSO through a family-friendly selection of works for Abracadabra! A Magical Musical Adventure. The concerts include John Williams’ works from the Harry Potter movies, Joe Hisaishi’s work from Spirited Away, and more. The performances take place in Jones Hall in Houston, Texas, and tickets are available online.

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Peabody Notes highlights select off-campus performances featuring Peabody performers. For other events, please visit our Peabody events page.

Danzando Para Los Oidos

Flautist Anna Meyer (MM ’04, Flute) is joined by jazz drummer Maria Marmarou for Danzando Para Los Oidos (BCM+D Records), an exploration of Astor Piazzolla’s six short Tango-Études arranged for alto flute and improvised percussion. The title track, by composer Rhyun Green, is a solo work for alto flute whose title translates as “dancing in the ears.” Danzando Para Los Oidos is available to stream or download.

Gilly’s Garden

In addition to being a recipient of OPERA America’s 2026 Discovery Grants from its Opera Grants for Women Composers, Composition DMA candidate Gillian Rae Perry is also an accomplished solo artist who used her New Music USA 2025 Creator Fund grant to record, produce, and release Gilly’s Garden, a concert-hall approach to an autobiographical 1970s singer/songwriter album. Over 15 songs and interludes, Perry—joined by a contemporary percussion duo and additional singers—reflects on her life over the past few years, which includes losing her father to cancer and moving across the country. Gilly’s Garden is available to stream or purchase online.

Live at Keystone Korner

Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair of Jazz Studies Sean Jones and trumpeters Rex Richardson and Dave Ballou hit the stage of Baltimore’s Keystone Korner for a pair of April 2025 concerts as the Keystone Trumpet Project, joined by faculty artist Richard Johnson, bassist Blake Meister (BM ’08, Jazz Double Bass), and drummer and guest faculty artist Eric Kennedy. Featuring arrangements for three trumpets of Ballou and Richardson originals, as well as Hank Mobley’s “Up, Over, and Out,” Live at Keystone Korner (Summit Records) is available to purchase or stream online.