Peabody Holds Virtual Commencement
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Author Alex Ross, winner of a 2008 MacArthur Fellowship and longtime music critic for
The New Yorker, will address the graduates and receive the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America during the Peabody Conservatory’s 2020 Commencement ceremony, which will be held online. Ross has been the music critic of
The New Yorker since 1996 and his 2007 book,
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, won a National Book Critics Circle award and the Guardian First Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. This year marks the Peabody Conservatory’s 138th graduation exercises, and the first to be held virtually. 72 Bachelor of Music degrees, 95 Master of Music degrees, eight Master of Arts degrees, 32 Graduate Performance Diplomas, two Artist Diplomas, and 16 Doctor of Musical Arts degrees are scheduled to be conferred. To join the virtual Commencement ceremony, which begins at 10:00 am on Wednesday, May 20, visit
peabody.jhu.edu/commencement.
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As we approach the close of the 2019-20 academic year, I am pleased to report a strong outcome in Peabody Conservatory admissions for fall 2020. Peabody received the commitment of 315 admitted students, exceeding our goal of 296, in addition to nine double degree students. Of the 324 members in the entering class, 54 students (17 percent) are underrepresented minorities, among the highest proportion in Peabody’s entering classes in recent years. Sixty-three percent of the incoming class are domestic students with 37 percent international. While we are delighted with this admissions result, we remain keenly aware of potential obstacles to attendance that may exist both for our international populations and some domestic students in this environment.
To address this, we have assembled a task force comprised of 25 faculty, staff, and students drawn from across the Conservatory which is developing instructional models under which Peabody will be able to operate and meet its mission at the highest possible level in the coming academic year. This is a complex and challenging process that must be informed primarily by two essential values: ensuring the safety, health, and security of the entire Peabody community – faculty, staff, and students – and delivering the highest level educational experience for our students. We are confident that we’ll be able to meet these objectives and look forward to sharing additional details soon.
For now, stay safe and healthy!
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Felipe Lara and Du Yun
Today, Thursday, May 14, at 6:00 pm EDT, Claire Chase will play a four-hour new music marathon in collaboration with
Music on the Rebound, featuring works by Peabody composition faculty members. Chase will perform two works written for her by Assistant Professor Felipe Lara,
Meditation and Calligraphy and
Parábolas na Caverna, as well as Professor Du Yun's
An Empty Garlic. All proceeds from the event will benefit the New Music Solidarity Fund.
Taylor-Alexis Dupont and Gleb Kanasevich
Wade Davis
Cellist Wade Davis (
MM '11, GPD '13, Baroque Violoncello) performs Camille Saint-Saëns'
Le Cygne (The Swan) in a
video featuring 32 premier ballerinas from 22 dance companies in 14 countries in support of Swans for Relief. Organized by Misty Copeland and Joseph Phillips, 100% of the funds raised will be distributed to the dancers' companies' COVID-19 relief funds.
Marina Piccinini
More than 70 alumni and all current students from Professor Marina Piccinini's flute studio from the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia collaborated to
record a special arrangement Elgar’s “Nimrod” from
Enigma Variations by junior flute student Hannah Tassler.
Daniel Vnukowski
Concert pianist Daniel Vnukowski (
BM '03, Piano), who studied with Leon Fleisher, live streamed performances in April, reaching over a million hits on social media and over 500,000 video views. He will continue to hold Saturday
live stream concerts from home during the month of May.
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Peabody Notes highlights select online performances featuring Peabody performers. For other events, please visit our Peabody Conservatory Facebook
page.
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Dean Fred Bronstein spoke about the challenges and opportunities arts organizations are presented with in response to COVID- 19 in an
article posted on the Johns Hopkins University HUB. He said, "the pandemic is a genuine life lesson on adapting and being flexible in what it means to create a performance for an audience."
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Zach Gulaboff Davis (
MM ’19, Music Theory Pedagogy; DMA ’19, Composition) has been awarded the Beyer Composition Award in Chamber Music for his first string quartet,
On the Trajectory of Light. The award from the National Federation of Music Clubs comes with a $4,000 prize.
On the Trajectory of Light was premiered and toured by the Beo String Quartet during their fall 2019 “Refractions” tour.
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Senior Mofan Lai has been named one of two recipients of the 2020 Johns Hopkins University President's Commendation for Achievement in the Arts, a service award established in 1989 to honor a graduating senior who has contributed extensively to the arts by service to the Homewood and/or Baltimore communities.
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Preparatory alumna Leia Sofía Méndez, who was a composition student of Judah Adashi, composed a musical tribute to the Hubble Space Telescope, launched 30 years ago in April. The work was played at a web seminar organized by the National Science Teaching Association on April 29. Méndez is a first-year music composition major at the University of Delaware.
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Elizabeth Sarian (
BM '17, GPD '18, Voice) is working with the Atlanta Opera recording '
singing telegrams' for health care workers, hospital patients, and seniors. Sarian was featured in a video and article on CNN for her work and is also featured on
Peabody’s ArtReach.
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David Chentian (
MM '15, Cello, Piano Pedagogy; GPD '16, Cello) recently released two new albums on major music platforms,
Cello Spirit and
Charming Cello. Chentian teaches at the Mason Community Arts Academy.
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Finbarr Malafronte (
BM '08, MM '09, Guitar), who studied with Manuel Barrueco, released a new album with the label Quartz. The album is entirely composed of Malafronte’s arrangements of music by Jean-Philippe Rameau and Domenico Scarlatti.
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Daniel Schlosberg (
BM '00, MM '01, Piano; A&S BA '00, History) performs on this new recording,
Rebellious: Music of Julius Eastman. He is one of four pianists on the work
Gay Guerrilla with Billy Childs, Scott Dunn, and Louise Thomas.
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Call for Submissions: Peabody ArtReach
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Peabody ArtReach is a new collection of resources and performances to help our artistic community weather the COVID-19 pandemic and stay connected. You can enjoy the amazing performances, teaching moments, healing resources and more that Peabody students, alumni, faculty, and staff have been creating during this time by visiting
Peabody ArtReach online. If you are a member of the Peabody community who has created content in response to the crisis, you can also be a part of this online community project by submitting your creative work to be considered for ArtReach and the Friedheim Library's ArtReach archive, which will serve as a lasting record of our creative processes and innovation during a difficult time. Please visit the
ArtReach archive to learn more and submit your materials.
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