The Peabody Conservatory celebrated its graduating students with inspiring performance, thoughtful words, and a little bit of humor at the Conservatory’s 144th Graduation exercises, where more than 250 degrees and diplomas were awarded—including to our undergraduate and graduate student speakers, Olina Kilbury (BM ’26, Composition) and Caitlin Glastonbury (MM ’26, Vocal Studies). “The world right now is desperate for joy, beauty, and honesty—what better way to connect with others than through human-made art?,” Kilbury reminded her classmates, while Glastonbury invited everybody in attendance to make a sound in unison, pointing out that “we feel and know intimately that music is an extension of our humanity,” adding that “we as its creators and performers are the human element at the intersection of culture, religion, politics, and art,” an idea reinforced and strengthened during her time at Peabody. View their complete remarks and the entirety of both the undergraduate and graduate ceremonies on YouTube. | | A Legacy in Print: Cheers to 150 Years of Johns Hopkins | | |
Raise a glass to 150 years of discovery, impact, and community! Join fellow alumni and friends in the Windy City for a celebration of our Sesquicentennial honoring Johns Hopkins University and the upcoming release of Johns Hopkins: The First 150 Years by Andrew Jewett and Jonathan Strassfeld.
Chris Celenza, Dean of the Krieger School of Arts & Sciences, will moderate a dynamic panel conversation with the authors exploring the social history of Johns Hopkins—its people, its purpose, and its profound impact on the world.
Enjoy drinks, a celebratory toast, and hearty hors d'oeuvres with your fellow Chicago Hopkins community June 4 at the The Wellsley.
Reconnect, reflect, and celebrate 150 years. Register now to join us and help shape the next chapter of Johns Hopkins.
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Peabody’s 2026 Graduation was, as always, a festive occasion as we celebrated the success of our students and their accomplishments, launching them off to the next exciting phase of their artistic lives. As we do that, we turn our attention to the new academic year and prepare to welcome a new cohort of students. Capitalizing on the major investment we made in financial aid three years ago to meet full demonstrated need with no loans for domestic undergraduates, this spring Peabody admitted its most selective class of undergraduate students ever for fall 2026. Over a two-year period prior to this year, Peabody’s admit rate for undergraduates went from 48% to 26% and its yield from 26% to 36%, reflecting both the excellence and access afforded by that financial aid commitment. Continuing that trend, for the fall 2026 cohort, the admit rate dropped further to 23%, with yield continuing to increase to 40%. This means that in just three years, Peabody has moved from admitting one in two undergraduate applicants from a competitive pool to nearly one in five. That dramatic change in selectivity, while more challenging for our applicants, means that Peabody is more competitive than ever in attracting the most promising students. In addition, the Doctor of Musical Arts program, which moved to a tuition-free model, has seen the admit rate go from 29% to 6% in just two years, while the incoming Master of Music cohort is among our strongest in recent years.
As we catch our breath we already look forward to welcoming both new and returning students—fall will be here before we know it!
| | More news about Peabody alumni, faculty, and students can be found below and online. Please keep sending us your news: career achievements, fellowships awarded, competitions and prizes won, commissions earned, albums released, and whatever else you’re currently pursuing. | | | |
Friday, June 5, through Sunday, June 14
New York City-based curator/producer ChamberQueer celebrates Pride and explores the climate crisis with the Together on the Precipice festival over the first two weekends in June. The festival features a pay-what-you-can kickoff at the Mitu580 theater in Brooklyn on June 5, an after-hours event honoring queer voices in art and literature at the Morgan Library June 11, an interactive sound-walk curated by ChamberQUEER co-founder Danielle Buonaiuto (MM ’12, Voice) at the Green Wood Cemetery June 13, and more.
Saturday, June 6, through Sunday, June 21
IN Series artistic director Tim Nelson (BM ’04, Composition) drew from ancient Indian literary texts for The Song of Sakuntala, creatively intermingling Indian classical and Western Baroque music. IN Series presents the world premiere of The Song of Sakuntala, starring Teresa Ferrara (MM ’18, Vocal Performance) with Niccolo Seligmann (BM ’15, Early Music) in the pit, at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, D.C., June 6-14 and at the Theatre Project in Baltimore June 19-21.
Sunday, June 7, and Tuesday, June 9
In February, Chicago-based composer Alexa Rinn (MM ’14, DMA ’21, Composition) was named one of the six Copland House Cultivate 2026 Fellows, who spend a week at Aaron Copland’s National Historic Landmark home near New York City. The intensive includes a pair of performances by the Copland House Ensemble showcasing their new works: June 7 at the Copland House in Brewster, NY, and June 9 at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Elebash Hall.
Wednesday, June 10, 7:00 pm EDT
Alto saxophonist and composer Thomas Schinabeck (BM ’25, Jazz) leads a quartet at the BOP STOP at the Music Settlement in Cleveland. Tickets are available online—and the show will be livestreamed over BOP STOP’s YouTube Channel at showtime for free, with donations encouraged to directly support the band.
Monday, June 15, 1:00 pm EDT
Sandbox Percussion—featuring faculty artists Victor Caccese (BM ’11, Percussion), Ian Rosenbaum (BM ’08, Percussion), Terry Sweeney (BM ’13, Percussion), and Jonathan Allen—leads its eleventh annual weeklong percussion seminar at the New School this month that includes the quartet performing Steve Reich’s complete Drumming at Tishman Auditorium in New York City. Tickets are free and registration is required.
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Peabody Notes highlights select off-campus performances featuring Peabody performers. For other events, please visit our Peabody events page.
| | | | Composer and French hornist Layan Atieh (BM ’22, Horn), who joins the music faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this fall, received an Artistic Lens award as part of Johns Hopkins Sesquicentennial Awards program. Atieh is working on Veritas vos Liberabit: Music Written, Performed, and Recorded by Peabody Alumni with Maddalena Ohrbach (BM ’22, Voice) and Taylor Wang (BM ’24, MM ’25, Piano). | | | | Faculty artist Zane Forshee (MM ’01, GPD ’03, DMA ’11, Guitar) collaborated with faculty artist Wendel Patrick, director Katherine Helen Fisher, and faculty artist Colette Krogol’s Orange Grove Dance company to create Breaking Counterpoint, an immersive performance experience. The project received an Artistic Lens Award, part of the Johns Hopkins Sesquicentennial Awards Program. Forshee was also named a 2026 Stavros Niarchos Foundation Resident Artist at the Parkway Theatre, where Breaking Counterpoint will receive a full performance run. | | | | Claire Lewis (MM ’25, Conducting) was named the Martha R. and Preston A. Peak Conducting Fellow for the 2026-27 season of the Dallas Opera. During her fellowship, Lewis will work closely with Dallas Opera music director Emmanuel Villaume and chorus director Paolo Bressan, conduct two student matinee performances of Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince, and more. | | | | The Setas Piano Trio—current DMA student Amir Kadamani González (MM ’24, Violin), undergraduate cellist Adrian Bostian, and David Lécuyer (GPD ’25, Piano)—took home a Bronze Medal at the 53rd Annual Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. The trio was also accepted to perform in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s chamber music class series, working with renowned pianist Anne-Marie McDermott. | | |
Across the Seven Nights
Across the Seven Nights is the debut album by pianist and composer Kaili Ho (BM '18, MM ’20, DMA ’23, Piano), showcasing seven original solo piano works. The album is available to stream or purchase online.
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“Storm”
Gener8ion, the multimedia duo of French DJ/producer Surkin and filmmaker Romain Gavras, released a new music video for “STORM,” featuring Swedish rapper Yung Lean and dancer Micah Shapiro (BFA ’25, Dance) as a member of the dance ensemble.
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Tapescape
Levi Lu’s (MM ’25, Computer Music) four-channel interactive sound installation Tapescape is currently installed as part of the Outside Linear Time exhibition at Harvestworks on Governor’s Island in New York City through August 23.
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Transported
Professor of Music and director of the Music Cognition Lab at Princeton University Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis (BM ’98, Piano) follows up her The Psychology of Music: A Very Short Introduction with Transported: The Everyday Magic of Musical Daydreams (Norton). In an exploration of the vivid, spontaneous images, stories, and memories we experience while listening to music, Margulis argues that these common reveries offer a powerful and underappreciated window into how we think, feel, and connect.
| | First in Excellence. Next-Stage Artistry. | | Johns Hopkins has a 150-year history of pioneers, discovery, and impact. The First-to-Next series pairs present-day Hopkins trailblazers with earlier greats who paved the way for their work. Hear from piano student Dora Chen about how lessons from the legendary pianist Leon Fleisher guide her playing today. | | | | |
