Peabody Stages Bernstein’s MASS
The Peabody Institute will present Leonard Bernstein’s uniquely dramatic, evening-length concert work MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers for one night only on Friday, October 26, at 7:30 pm. Not performed in Baltimore since 2008, Bernstein’s MASS brings together hundreds of performers from across the Baltimore community in a musically eclectic exploration of truth, faith, and what we can believe in. Peabody Director of Graduate Conducting Marin Alsop, Peabody Opera Theatre Director Samuel Mungo, Music Supervisor Leslie Stifelman, choreographer and Peabody Conservatory Dance Chair danah bella, actor and tenor soloist Curtis Bannister, hundreds of Conservatory and Preparatory student performers, and community partners including the Morgan State University Choir will be involved, joining the worldwide celebration of the centennial of Bernstein’s birth. Tickets are $45 or $15; seating is general admission within the tiered pricing sections. For tickets, call the box office at 667-208-6620 or visit peabody.jhu.edu/mass to reserve tickets online. The performance, which will be staged in west Baltimore’s New Psalmist Baptist Church, will be live streamed.
From the Dean
My first direct experience with Bernstein’s MASS was in presenting it at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in November 2003, on the 40th anniversary of the November 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas. For that auspicious occasion, the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy wrote a letter supporting the performance which I read from the stage that evening. In it, Senator Kennedy said, “Bernstein’s extraordinary MASS was first performed at the opening of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in our nation’s Capital. It was commissioned to celebrate my brother’s life and legacy. Its message is hope, and the impact a single life can have for the good of others. President Kennedy believed that ‘One person can make a difference and that each of us should try.’ His greatest legacy is those people he inspired to enter public service and to recognize the nobility in serving our fellow citizens here and around the world. All who have ever extended the hand of friendship and assistance to another have contributed hope to our world. It is fitting that this should be the message of this most poignant evening.”

Some 15 years later, Senator Kennedy’s letter rings true, as do President Kennedy’s words, perhaps now more than ever. This upcoming performance of MASS is indeed in celebration of the Bernstein centennial, which seems to have come along at exactly the right time. MASS, with its focus on questions of faith and our institutions, and the role and accountability of each of us as individual citizens, is uniquely timed and somehow needs to be heard, again.  
 



Fred Bronstein, Dean
On Stage/Off Campus
Friday, October 12, 8:00 pm

Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair in Jazz Studies Sean Jones will be joined in concert by Peabody faculty artists Nasar Abadey, drums, and Tim Green, saxophone. Miles Brown will also appear on bass, and the group will be joined by tap dancer Brinae Ali. The performance will be held at Baltimore’s Motor House.

Friday, October 12, 9:00 pm

Doctoral candidate and recipient of the Presser Award Lior Willinger (BM '14, MM '16, Piano) will present 10 world premieres of works with social justice themes. Pieces by Peabody faculty artist Judah Adashi ( MM '02, DMA '11, Composition), Zhangyi Chen ( MM '11, DMA '15, Composition; MM '15, Music Theory Pedagogy), Ledah Finck ( BM '16, Violin; MM '18, Violin, Composition), faculty artist Wendel Patrick, Frances Pollock ( MM '15, Voice), and faculty artist David Smooke ( MM '95, Composition) will be premiered. The performance is part of the Active Listening Series at the Spectrum in Brooklyn, N.Y. The program will be repeated at Peabody’s Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall at 8:00 pm on Tuesday, October 16.

October 14-16

Conservatory Dance Chair danah bella will perform her original work and teach master classes at the Illuminations: Cultural Resonance in Contemporary Bodies Festival, a new dance festival at the University of California, Irvine. The festival explores new narratives regarding culture, difference, and social justice through the art form of embodied performances.

Friday, October 19, 7:30 pm; Saturday, October 20, 8:00 pm; Sunday, October 21, 2:30 pm

Zuill Bailey ( BM ‘94, Violoncello) will make his Madison Symphony Orchestra debut performing the Elgar Cello Concerto under the baton of guest conductor Tania Miller. The concert, titled “Epic Romance,” takes place at the Overture Center for the Arts, Madison, Wis. 

Sunday, October 28, 3:00 pm

Nola Richardson ( MM '10, Voice Pedagogy; MM '11, Early Music Voice) will be a soloist in the Baltimore Choral Arts Society’s performance of Brahms's German Requiem. This performance features the “London Version” for chorus and piano four-hands with Michael Sheppard ( BM '98, MM '00, GPD '03, Piano) and Leo Wanenchak ( BM ’79, Piano, Music Education) and will be held in Goucher College’s Kraushaar Auditorium.

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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
Najette Abouelhadi
Najette Abouelhadi ( BM ’17, Cello) accepted new positions with the Chicago Civic Orchestra and the Chicago Sinfonietta. She studied with Alan Stepansky.
Thomas Dolby 
Peabody faculty artist Thomas Dolby, head of the Music for New Media program, will deliver the keynote address during the opening ceremonies of the Audio Engineering Society’s New York 2018 International Convention. His address, called “The Conscious Sound Byte,” will focus on next-generation sound technologies. The convention runs October 17-20 in New York. 
Brian Kay
Brian Kay ( BM ’13, MM ’15, Lute) has been named the first artistic leadership fellow and made a core member of Apollo’s Fire, part of the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra. His responsibilities will center on serving as co-director of five new Baroque Bistro performances. He was also recently appointed Instructor of lute in the Historical Performance Department at Case Western Reserve University. 
Anna-Christina Phillips 
Anna-Christina Phillips ( BM ‘08, Clarinet) was promoted to associate dean of entrepreneurial musicianship at the New England Conservatory. She also teaches arts marketing at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  
Roc Xu 
Roc Xu ( MM ‘18, Audio Science) has been hired as assistant director of recording service at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Recent Releases

Composition faculty artist Du Yun has released a new album, Dinosaur Scar, a collaboration with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), of which she was a founding member. The album captures the synergy that comes as a result of musicians who have absorbed a composer's language over many years, and a composer writing with specific performers in mind. 

Devin Gray ( BM ’06, Jazz Percussion) and his band Dirigo Rataplan released a new recording, Dirigo Rataplan II. The group includes Ellery Eskelin, Dave Ballou, Michael Formanek, and Gray, and they will tour with the CD in the United States and Europe. 

Piano compositions by Friedrich Gulda are included on this NAXOS album by Martin David Jones ( MM ’90, DMA ‘93, Piano). The works combine notated music with large improvised sections, thus fusing the classical and jazz traditions. 

L’abri Trio - doctoral candidates Bonghee Lee, piano, Kenny Baik, saxophone, and Mauricio Rey Gallego, cello - released Trois Couleurs. The album of works by Beethoven, Poulenc, and Piazzolla celebrates themes of three distinctive styles, colors, and appreciation of the beauty of sound. The trio is a finalist at the Pro Musicis International Award competition to take place in New York on October 15.