Bassist Orin O’Brien made history in 1966 when she became the first woman to join the New York Philharmonic. While American orchestras have made some inroads to diversifying their musicians since—a 2023 League of American Orchestras report revealed near parity in men’s and women’s representation in orchestras today—women musicians are still more likely to be working in smaller-to-medium budget orchestras than in larger ones such as the NY Phil. 

O’Brien reflects on her career in the 2024 Academy Award-winning Best Documentary Short The Only Girl in the Orchestra, which screens October 8 at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, as part of the Johns Hopkins Stories That Matter series. A panel discussion featuring O’Brien, Only Girl director Molly O’Brien, and faculty artist Nina DeCesare follows the screening, and the evening concludes with a short performance featuring Conservatory student musicians. The free event is sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center and the Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Graduate Film and Media program, and registration is required.

Registration Now Open

Registration is now open for two special pre-concert receptions this fall: October 22 at the Peggy and Yale Gordon Center for Performing Arts, ahead of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra concert with Marin Alsop conducting; and October 30, when Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair of Jazz Studies Sean Jones brings the Peabody Jazz Ensemble to the Creative Alliance. Register today!

The extraordinary quality of the Peabody faculty, the breadth and depth of our curriculum, and now the transformational investments made in financial aid over the last two years are having a material impact on the Conservatory. With the 2025-26 academic year well under way, it has become evident that students this year comprise one of the most competitive classes in our history as borne out by admissions statistics. Over a two-year period, Peabody’s admit rate for its undergraduate class—a measure of selectivity—has gone from 48%, or accepting one in two students from a highly qualified pool, to 26%, or one in four for the class of 2029. At the same time, yield—the percentage of accepted students who matriculate—rose from 26% to 36%. In addition, access without regard to financial resources has been significantly strengthened as illustrated by the percentage of Pell-eligible students increasing from 15% to 30% and FLI students (first generation, low income) growing from 24% to 40% over this same two-year period. This is also the first year that the Doctor of Musical Arts program (DMA) is tuition free. Here, too, the impact has been dramatic with an admit rate that has gone from 27%, or one in four students, to just 7%, less than one in ten, in just one year, with yield increasing from 39% to 78%.

These statistics tell a story of Peabody’s rapidly increasing competitive position among our top peers. I’m excited to see what happens next, and where we go from here.

Sincerely,

Fred Bronstein, Dean

Wednesday, October 8, 8:00 pm EDT

Ancient and modern visual arts and music explore questions of historical reconstruction and the aestheticization of violence for the Unwrung two-day event co-organized by faculty artist Michael Hersch (BM ’95, MM ’97, Composition) and Johns Hopkins History of Art Assistant Professor Jennifer Stager. Flautist Emi Ferguson leads an Air as Archive workshop on October 7, and she is joined on October 8 by soprano and faculty artist Ah Young Hong, theorboist John Lenti, and violinist Miranda Cuckson for a concert featuring Hersch’s “unwrung, apart, always” at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Baltimore. Both events are free and open to the public.

Wednesday-Sunday, October 8-11

Dancer-choreographer Armani Colon (BFA ’25, Dance), who recently joined the Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company as an apprentice for the 2025-26 season, is a featured choreographer and performer at the Latinx Movement Festival at Dance Place in Washington. Dance faculty artist Gabriel Mata launched the festival in 2024 to celebrate the expansive artistry of Latinx dance artists and cultural workers across the country; tickets are available online.

Friday, October 10, 7:30 pm CDT 

Chicago’s Q Brothers Collective has updated and remixed classic theater works with hip-hop—what it dubs “add-rap-tations”—since 1998, and Rome Sweet Rome, its latest collaboration with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, injects ’90s hip-hop and New Jack Swing into the backstabbing intrigue of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Acting-singing double-threat Curtis Bannister (GPD ’10, Voice), a production understudy, stars as lead Caesar/Octavius for the October 10 performance, and tickets are available online.

Sunday, October 19, 12:00 pm CDT

Jasmine Pigott (DMA ’24, Tuba), recently named an Ithaca College Outstanding Young Alumni and tuba professor at Rowan University, spends October touring her recital program of familiar repertoire mixed with popular music and her own works. Featuring stops in California, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia, on October 19 her tour comes to the day-long OcTUBAfest at Southwestern Illinois College.

Sunday, November 2, 5:00 pm EST

Sonnambula, the early music ensemble co-founded by Amy Domingues (MM ’12, Viola da Gamba), recently released Passing Fancy: Beauty in a Moment of Chaos (Avie), and makes its debut performance as the first ever ensemble-in-residence at the Frick Collection in New York City, joined by acclaimed bass-baritone Davóne Tines for A Black Masque. 

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

Abstractions

Professor and Director of the Graduate Conducting Program Marin Alsop leads the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra through four orchestral works by English composer Anna Clyne—including Restless Oceans, a work written for Alsop and the Taki Concordia Orchestra. Abstractions (Naxos) also includes Within Her Arms, Color Field, and the titular work—a BSO commission under Alsop. Abstractions is available to stream or purchase online.

Baltimore Jazz Collective

For its eponymous Baltimore Jazz Collective debut album, the sextet of Brinae Ali, Alex Brown, Kris Funn, Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair of Jazz Studies Sean Jones, Todd Marcus, and Quincy Phillips perform original works, as well as arrangements and interpretations of some Charm City classics, such as Sisqó’s “Thong Song” and Rod Lee’s “Dance My Pain Away.” Baltimore Jazz Collective is available to stream and purchase online.