Renée Fleming Premieres New Kevin Puts Song Cycle
Letters from Georgia
, a new song cycle based on the letters of painter Georgia O'Keeffe and composed by Pulitzer Prize-winner and Peabody composition faculty artist Kevin Puts, will receive its world premiere performances this week, sung by four-time Grammy Award-winning soprano Renée Fleming and accompanied by the Eastman Philharmonia under the direction of Neil Varon. There will be two performances on Saturday, November 12 at 8:00 pm at The Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre in Rochester, N.Y.; and Monday, November 14 at 8:00 pm at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in New York City. The song cycle was commissioned by Dr. Puts and the Eastman School of Music, Dr. Puts' and Ms. Fleming's alma mater.
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FROM THE DEAN
You may have heard that Peabody is in the process of an exciting initiative designed to add to the traditional Peabody experience by providing our students with opportunities to surround their artistic development with skills essential to cultivating effective and flexible citizen-artists. Over the last year, two task forces here at Peabody have engaged more than 50 faculty, students, administrators, and alumni on issues of curriculum and ensemble performance. So many have contributed to this process. I am especially grateful to our alumni who through surveys and thoughtful dialogue have helped us immeasurably in shaping this new frontier based on their own professional experiences.
The Peabody Institute Breakthrough Curriculum will infuse our grand tradition with new perspectives to create a model at the forefront of arts training in the United States. Students will develop skills in written and oral communication; cultivate skills in programming, audience development, music entrepreneurship, and citizen artistry; and develop a digital portfolio with which they can propel their careers in any direction immediately upon graduation. In addition, instrumentalists will have ensemble training that emphasizes the flexibility increasingly needed for success in the music world. Through four phases that we call EXPLORE, BUILD, IMPLEMENT, and LAUNCH, this new initiative will engage every student, undergraduate and graduate, in meaningful training experiences across these critical areas, always led by the guiding goal of excellence and musical accomplishment.
Beginning in fall 2017, the Breakthrough Curriculum will fully integrate entrepreneurship and artistic citizenship training into the traditional training for which Peabody is renowned. We'll continue to refine and perfect this path as we walk down it, but in putting a stake in the ground around this critical issue, Peabody is using its rich history as the oldest conservatory in the United States to lead the way in new directions of professional music training and a new vision for how a modern conservatory can relate to the world around it.
Fred Bronstein, Dean |
ON STAGE / OFF CAMPUS
Thursday, November 10, 12:00 pm
Soprano Sarah Baumgarten (
MM '15, Voice/Pedagogy) and Conservatory voice coach Patrick O'Donnell, piano, will perform in a multimedia presentation in the Pickford Theater the
Library of Congress as part of The Jüdische Kulturbund Project. The project tells the story of Jewish musicians and performing artists who organized in 1933 Nazi Germany and performed until the "Final Solution" in 1941.
Friday, November 11, 7:30 pm
Michael Britt (BM '94, Organ) will be accompanying a screening of the silent film Steamboat Bill Jr. at the Brown Memorial Church in Baltimore on. Mr. Britt will provide an improvised accompaniment to simulate how many movies were screened accompanied by organ in the early 20th century as a more affordable alternative to a full orchestra.
Sunday, November 13, 2:00 pm
Soprano Amanda Williams (MM '14, GPD '15, Voice), mezzo-soprano Claire Galloway Weber (MM '15, Voice), tenor Mike Dodge (MM '16, Voice), master's student baritone Rob McGinness, and DMA conducting student Michael Repper will be featured in Chamber Music Society of Maryland's concert titled Robert Frost: A Celebration at Towson Unitarian Universalist Church. The program will feature folk pieces by Brahms and Copland, followed by a setting of Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken by Thompson. The concert will be narrated by program director of WBJC 91.5, Jonathan Palevsky (MM '86, Guitar).
November 27 through December 21
Soprano Emily Noël (MM '06, Voice) and Brian Kay (BM '13, MM, '15, Lute) will be featured performers in the Folger Consort's Second Shepherd's Play at the Folger Shakespeare Library. This retelling of the Nativity story combines beautiful music and a moving story for the holiday season.
Saturday, December 3, 11:00 am
Peabody Children's Chorus member Gabriel Orsini will sing the boy soprano solo in
The Snowman, presented by the
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. The 13-year old attends Sudbrook Magnet Middle School and has been singing with the Children's Chorus under the direction of Doreen Falby since he was 6 years old. He studies voice with Madeleine Gray at the Peabody Preparatory.
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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Sophomore Olivia Castor was awarded second prize, faculty artist Jasmine Hogan (BM '11, MM '14, AD '16, Harp) third prize, and Jordan Thomas (BM '13, MM '15, Harp) an honorable mention in the World Harp Congress 2017 Hong Kong's Creative Media Competition. Also, the entire Peabody harp 2016-17 studio was awarded an honorable mention for their "Dimensions" project. Dan Yu (BM '97, MM '99, Harp) serves as the World Harp Congress' artistic director.
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Alyssa Spratta John (
MM '14, Trumpet)
won an audition and a spot in the Navy Fleet Band. She will be a member of the Band, after completion of boot camp. She was previously a finalist for both the Band of the Golden West (Air Force) and the United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps.
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Sophomore Timothy Jones, a piano student of Marian Hahn, won the Maryland state regional division of the Music Teachers National Association Competition. He advanced to the divisional MTNA competition to take place in January. Mr. Jones also won first place at the Wonderlic Competition last April, receiving a cash prize and a concert performance.
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Distinguished Visiting Artist Eric Owens was named Musical America's 2017 Vocalist of the Year. Mr. Owens will be recognized at a ceremony in Carnegie Hall this December, as well as a tribute article published in the annual Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts.
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Dreams of the Fallen by Jake Runestad (
MM '11, Composition) will make its Carnegie Hall debut as a part of Park Avenue Chamber Symphony's concert, Honoring our Veterans on Saturday, November 19. The work for piano, chorus, and orchestra explores the impact war has on an individual and is inspired by poems of Brian Turner. Then, Mr. Runestad's composition
I Will Lift Mine Eyes will be performed for Pope Francis at the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City by Schola Cantorum of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis on Sunday, November 20.
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RECENT RECORDINGS
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Sergio Cervetti (BM '67, Composition) has released a CD of new works that was recorded in Havana, Cuba, last April. Intersections features Mr. Cervetti's And The Huddled Masses for clarinet quintet which speaks to the legacy of immigration from Central and South America to the United States. Mr. Cervetti, who immigrated to America from Uruguay in 1962, crafts a beautiful rendering of the hope and desperation that motivates so many to leave their homelands, including Cuba, for refuge in the United States.
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Brian Kay (
BM '13, MM, '15, Lute) released a CD titled
Moonsong of his original music combining elements from rock, pop, hip-hop, blues, jazz, folk/traditional, classical, early, and Middle Eastern styles.
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Faculty artist David Smooke (MM '95, Composition) released a CD titled Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Deaths under New Focus records. The titled work was recorded by the Peabody Wind Ensemble, directed by Harlan D. Parker, with Dr. Smooke on toy piano. The piece Some Details of Hell featured the Lunar Ensemble, conducted by Gemma New (MM '11, Conducting), with soprano Lisa Perry (MM '11, Voice), Stephanie Ray (MM '12, Flute), Gleb Kanasevich (BM '11, Clarinet), John Wilson (BM '10, MM '12, GPD '14, Piano), and Peter Kibbe (BM '12, Cello). The release features a wide range of compositional techniques, including micro tonality, a deft timbral and orchestral brushstroke, and extended performance techniques.
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