SuperCollider Symposium 2025 | |
In the nearly 30 years since James McCartney first created the versatile SuperCollider audio programming language in 1996, it has evolved into a system of choice for a variety of composers, electronic musicians, sound artists, acoustic researchers, scientists working with sound, and the interdisciplinary overlaps of all of the above. Faculty artist Sam Pluta built his live electronics performance environment in SuperCollider, and faculty artist Ted Moore uses it for generative composition and live performance. With the support of a 2024 Johns Hopkins Nexus Award, Moore and Pluta organized and curated the 2025 SuperCollider Symposium taking place March 13 through 15 at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C., convening a host of artists, composers, performers, and researchers using the language in some way. Each day of the conference includes paper presentations, workshops, and a pair of exciting concerts—see the symposium’s website for the full schedule—as well as keynote addresses by Austrian composer Christof Ressi, senior staff software developer at Google Lucile Nihlen, and SuperCollider creator James McCartney. Free tickets to each day are available online, keynote and paper sessions will be livestreamed over Zoom, and the concerts will be livestreamed. | |
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We are all watching carefully and assessing as we learn more about the impact on higher education in these still early weeks of the new administration in Washington, D.C. As we always do, we are working closely with our university colleagues across the divisions as well as central university leadership to assess various executive orders and other actions taken, so that we can respond in a way that is fully consistent with legal requirements, and always consistent with our mission, values, and priorities as an educational institution dedicated to building outstanding artists of the future. That includes turning out artists with strong values, and a commitment to speak the truth through their art. As we have seen recently, the arts are not immune from attack. We must not take their independence for granted but rather be prepared to stand up for creativity, and the inclusion and humanity essential to the arts. We are committed to those values and will continue to instill that in our students here at Peabody.
At the same time, as noted in President Ron Daniel’s message this week to the Johns Hopkins University community, recent actions by the federal government are a direct threat to the critical mission of universities, including JHU. At Peabody we will do what we always have done. We teach our students to be flexible and adaptable, and as an institution, we work to exemplify that kind of agility and scrappiness. As we navigate these challenging terrains I expect we’ll continue to do the same, and am confident that we’ll emerge even stronger.
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Tuesday, March 11, to Saturday, March 15
The winter 2025 tour of the SF JAZZ Collective—bassist Matt Brewer, saxophonist Chris Potter, trumpeter Mike Rodriguez, saxophonist David Sánchez, drummer Kendrick Scott, pianist Edward Simon, and faculty artist and vibraphonist Warren Wolf—takes the group to Singapore and the Blue Note Tokyo early in the month before coming back stateside for a week at Birdland New York. The Collective plays two shows a night, March 11 through 15, and tickets are available online.
Tuesday, March 11, 7:30 pm EDT
Novelist Richard Powers made arresting use of scientific research about the subterranean connectivity and communication between trees in his 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning work, The Overstory. Those themes are echoed in the collaborative work A Forest Unfolding for which composers Eric Moe, Melinda Wagner, Stephen Jaffe, and David Kirkland Garner set excerpts of prose and poems about humans and trees. Novelist Powers joins the Decoda ensemble, which includes faculty artist Brad Balliett and pianist Mika Sasaki (BM ’12, MM ’13, Piano), as narrator for this concert at Carnegie Hall, featuring works by Robert and Clara Schumann, Gustav and Alma Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg, and A Forest Unfolding; tickets are available online.
Wednesday, March 14, 6:30 pm CET
Bassoonist/composer Joy Guidry (BM ’18, Bassoon), who launched her own Jaid Records this year, travels to the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb of Paris for Festival Banlieues Bleues, the forward-looking celebration of jazz and improvised music running March 14 to April 11. Guidry opens the festival with a solo set on a bill featuring Mike Ladd, Palestinian hip-hop artist Muqata’a, and the French quartet [Ahmed], which includes bassist Joel Grip (GPD ’05, Jazz Bass). Tickets are available online.
Friday, March 21, 7:30 pm EDT
Carter Brey (BM ’76, Cello), principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic, joins the New York Classical Players for this concert featuring Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello, Op. 102, David Diamond’s Rounds for String Orchestra, and the premiere of Songbird by Korean-American composer Juri Seo. The concert takes place at the Korean Cultural Center of New York in midtown Manhattan, and free tickets are available online.
Wednesday, March 26, 7:00 pm PDT
Baritone faculty artist Randall Scarlata has forged a rich creative partnership with the celebrated pianist Gilbert Kalish, performing and recording song cycles such as their Grammy-nominated version of Franz Schubert’s Winterreise. Kalish celebrates his 90th birthday this year, and he and Scarlata put together a program celebrating that milestone for this intimate recital at Sacramento State University’s Capistrano Music Hall; 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.
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Composer and vocalist Joshua Bornfield (DMA ’13 Composition; MM ’14, Music Theory Pedagogy) won the commission prize of the 2025 NYC songSLAM Competition for “Shift,” featuring baritone and DMA candidate Michael Manganiello (MM ’21, Vocal Performance and Pedagogy), pianist Stephanie Baird (MM ’21, Vocal Accompanying), and the poetry of Tom Haviv. | | |
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Baltimore Symphony Orchestra bass section member and faculty artist Nina DeCesare recently launched the Artemis Bass Initiative, a mentorship program, seminar series, and symposium for women and nonbinary bass players. The Initiative’s programming starts this month with a virtual panel discussion about Women in Bass on March 8 and a seminar about challenging the culture of silence in music on March 15. | | |
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Composer Alexandra Gardner (MM ’97, Composition) was named one of the Lucas Artists Residency Program’s 2024 International Music and Composition Fellows at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California. Over the next three years, Gardner will be able to make use of one of Montvalo’s free-standing, state-of-the-art live/work spaces to focus on current projects. | | |
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The University of Toronto Jazz Studies department named Sean Jones, Peabody’s Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair of Jazz Studies, its 2025 John and Claudine Bailey Distinguished Visitor in Jazz. Jones will work with UT’s student 10 O’Clock Jazz Orchestra and Small Jazz Ensembles for a March 19 concert. | | |
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Pianist and current DMA student Narae Lee (MM ’19, Piano), a collaborative pianist at East Carolina University, recently won the principal keyboard position with the York Symphony in Pennsylvania. A student of Boris Slutsky, she joins the Symphony for its 2025-26 season. | |
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Flutelore
In 2024 Mary Matthews (MM ’10, Flute) commissioned a pair of flute concerti to explore folklore, fairytales, and proverbs. The result is Flutelore (Big Blue Records), a new album featuring Cherise Leiter’s Four Proverbs and Nicole Chamberlain’s Animalis performed by the Newfound Chamber Winds, which includes Dillon Meacham (BM ’14, Bassoon). Flutelore is available to stream or purchase online.
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“Pillar V”
Recipients of the 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant Award, Sandbox Percussion—Jonny Allen, Victor Caccese (BM ’11, Percussion), Terry Sweeney (BM ’13, Percussion), and Associate Professor Ian Rosenbaum (BM ’08, Percussion)—was profiled on a February episode of PBS’ Great Performances in February that included a performance of composer Andy Akiho’s “Pillar V.” That segment is now viewable on online, and the ensemble wrote a blog post breaking down the work.
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Rise
The Neonatica duo of saxophonist Alan Theisen and vocalist and professional studies faculty Megan Ihnen (MM ’09, Voice) started out as a contemporary classical ensemble and has evolved into a nimble performing outfit as comfortable with genre-straddling avant-pop as it is onstage in the recital hall. Its new single “Rise,” the duo’s second collaboration with New Orleans-based producer SkyFaux is available to stream or purchase online.
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Power of Music in Healthcare | Performers, music teachers, and arts administrators are invited to explore the Power of Music in Healthcare in an intensive, week-long professional development course taking place on Peabody’s Baltimore Campus and at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in June. Led by Sarah Hoover, with insights from guest experts including musicians, music therapists, arts in health practitioners, and hospital staff, this program provides a comprehensive overview of music’s role in healing, one aspect of which was recently featured in the New York Times. | | |
Peabody Alumni: registration is now open for JHU Alumni Weekend 2025, taking place April 4-6. Check out the schedule, plan your visit, and register for a variety of learning opportunities and celebratory events at alumni.jhu.edu/reunion. | | |
More news about Peabody alumni, faculty, and students can be found 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. | | | Your generosity supports Peabody’s mission: to elevate the human experience through leadership at the intersection of art and education. |
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