Two years into a pandemic that continues to upend the performing arts industry, Alysia Lee (MM ’06, Voice) understands that the arts are navigating multiple crises. Lee, the founding artistic director of the El-Sistema-inspired Sister Cities Girlchoir and a 2019-20 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow, was named the inaugural president of the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund Inc. this year, and knows that arts institutions are not only thinking about COVID-19 and new variants, but also anti-Black racism, ongoing economic inequality, and the accelerating climate crisis. The upcoming Next Normal: IDEAs for the Future of the Performing Arts symposium on April 27, which Lee helped organize, brings together a number of artists and arts leaders who refuse to permit these issues facing the performing arts to disappear in the rear-view mirror. “What I'm most excited about with this upcoming symposium is that we've seen how these conversations can be transformative,” Lee says. “Throughout the day we’ll hear from people who are working in the field of racial justice about their successes, lessons learned, and innovative ideas, and how this work connects to a longer arc of conversations and movement-building that can help drive a more humanistic version of the performing arts industry than what we see presently.”

One of the most important things a major educational institution can do is to be a convener of conversations, of ideas, a forum for imagining and grappling with the future. For me, this is why Peabody’s hosting of the Next Normal series that began in reaction to and as an outgrowth of the COVID pandemic — but indeed transcends the issues raised through COVID — is so important. This series has now engaged more than 1,300 participants in solutions-focused exploration of the long-term challenges facing the performing arts industry — and the potential for a better path forward.

This effort continues on April 27 with The Next Normal: IDEAs for the Future of the Performing Arts, a symposium that examines racial equity and inclusion in the performing arts. The day brings together a wonderfully diverse array of individual artists and administrators as presenters and panelists from across the performing arts for a deep conversation as well as uplifting examples of important work going on today. While Peabody is truly focused on anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion across areas of recruiting, community culture, and curriculum, we are just the conveners of this important conversation, and look forward to learning much along with all our colleagues.

When we consider the history and lack of diversity and inclusion especially in the classical arts, I think it’s worth remembering how important it is to approach these issues with humility and openness, to learn from those that have something to teach us. So, this “next” Next Normal will give us the opportunity to share stories of success, hear about the challenges, and celebrate together why we are so committed to this change. I myself cannot wait. I think it will be a deeply engaging conversation, and Peabody is proud to be able to bring these voices together.

Sincerely,

Fred Bronstein, Dean

Peabody Professor and Director of the Graduate Conducting Program Marin Alsop returns to the podium of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performing composer Renee Esmail’s See Me and a reimagined Beethoven’s Ninth, featuring new text from Baltimore MC Wordsmith; local choirs including the Community Chorus of Peabody; and current Peabody jazz students August Braatz (trombone), Daniel John Tomczyk (drums), Dylan Vessel (trumpet), and alumni guitarist Mike Benjamin. The concerts take place at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Tickets are available online.

Julia Asher, Rebecca Lee, and Peter Pattengill, three members of Peabody’s inaugural Dance BFA class graduating this spring, curated this evening of movement-based performances titled 3/3 as part of their capstone project. The event takes place at the Theatre Project in Baltimore, and donations to Theatre Project are encouraged in lieu of admission.

Principal guest conductor Gemma New (MM ’11, Conducting) leads the Dallas Symphony orchestra through the world premiere of Peabody faculty composer Katherine Balch’s Cello Concerto with soloist Zlatomir Fung along with Aleksandr Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances and Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The concerts take place at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas and tickets are available online.

Chelsey Green (MM ’09 Viola) joins the all-female jazz collective Jazz in Pink in the Florida panhandle for the Seabreeze Jazz Festival in Panama City Beach. The jazz big band performs on the festival’s main Aaron Beasant Park Amphitheater stage and tickets are available online.

Peabody composition professor Du Yun collaborates with the International Contemporary Ensemble, vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki from the adventurous noise-pop band Deerhoof, and multidisciplinary director Roscha A. Säidow for two new staged versions of Du Yun’s chamber operas A Cockroach's Tarantella and Zolle. The performance takes place at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in lower Manhattan and 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 Conservatory Facebook page.