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The Gerda Lissner Foundation supports emerging singers to help them pursue their craft through competitions and young artists showcases, and on March 22, the Foundation presents an Afternoon with Peabody Conservatory in The Greene Space at New York’s classical radio station, WQXR. Curated by Marc C. von May Distinguished Chair of Vocal Studies Elizabeth Futral with music direction by Peabody Opera’s Laurie Rogers, the free recital features performances by Cierra Byrd (MM ’20, Voice), a 2022 Lissner Voice Competition grant winner, and current Vocal Studies graduate students Rira Kim, Julie Knott, Daniel LaRue, Sara Neally, and Holden Turner. Free tickets for the concert are available online, and the performance will be livestreamed.
This showcase is one example of Peabody’s reach beyond our Baltimore home base. Just this month in New York City, you’ll find a plethora of performances featuring Peabody faculty, students, and alumni. Faculty artist Felipa Lara's new orchestrations of Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated will be debuted March 12-17 by the New York Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, as part of Carnegie Hall’s United in Sound: America at 250 festival programming. Also part of that festival, conductor Carolyn Kuan (GPD ’04, Conducting) leads the American Composers Orchestra on March 11. Artemis, voted DownBeat magazine’s “Group of the Year” for the third consecutive year in the 2025 Reader’s Poll and featuring Jazz Studies faculty artist Allison Miller on drums, hits Carnegie Hall March 13. And Marin Alsop, director of the Graduate Conducting Program, leads the Philadelphia Orchestra through John Adams, George Gershwin, and Sergei Prokofiev at Carnegie Hall March 31.
| | Register Today for Alumni Weekend | | |
In honor of JH150, all Johns Hopkins divisions will come together for All-Alumni Weekend, April 17-19, 2026—an opportunity to celebrate as one university. Explore the full Schedule of Events, and make plans to join Peabody programming highlights including:
- Friday, April 17, 12:30 pm—Hopkins at Home(wood) The Sound of Care: Music Meets Medicine
- Friday, April 17, 5:00 pm—150 years and Just Getting Started
- Saturday, April 18, 10:30 am—The Other Peabody Library Tour: Arthur Friedheim Library and Peabody Archives
- Saturday, April 18, 11:00 am—Hopkins at Home(wood) Building Community and Connection in Baltimore
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As we move beyond the first year of Peabody’s Building on the Breakthrough strategic plan, this moment offers an important opportunity to reflect on progress across its five focus areas. Thanks to the dedication of our faculty and staff, meaningful momentum is evident across each dimension of the plan.
Academic Programming continues to be a centerpiece of Peabody’s advancement. Systematic internal program reviews are strengthening our core Conservatory offerings while supporting informed strategic decision making. Recent milestones include the launch of a flexible modality Master of Music in Music Education, expansion in Music, Engineering and Technology programs, and the introduction of innovative degrees and tracks including Hip Hop and Recording Arts Production. Alongside these developments, new work is under way to examine the evolving relationship between AI and creative practice. Student success remains central, with expanded advising, admissions risk assessment, and curricular enhancements in place to continue improving graduation rates.
Financial Aid initiatives are delivering transformative results. Strategic growth in need based and merit aid has strengthened undergraduate selectivity and yield, while full tuition funding for the Doctor of Musical Arts program has significantly enhanced graduate competitiveness. Preparatory pipeline programs and expanded advising capacity further reinforce Peabody’s commitment to access, excellence, and student success. Together, these efforts are reshaping the financial landscape for students across all levels.
Through Expanding Our Reach, Peabody is deepening its presence across Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, and the global arts community. Active participation in the university-wide arts initiative, expanded experiential learning through LAUNCHPad and the Breakthrough Curriculum, and a bold new vision for Peabody Extended Learning signal a broadened institutional footprint. At the same time, alumni engagement efforts and new international recruitment strategies are strengthening Peabody’s global connections.
Our People and Culture goals reflect a continued focus on community wellbeing and excellence. Progress includes a new first year orientation experience, expanded recruitment strategies, completion of a faculty compensation study, and new investments in staff engagement through leadership development and onboarding initiatives. These efforts reinforce Peabody’s commitment to being an inclusive, supportive, and inspiring place to work and learn.
Finally, the Mount Vernon Campus transformation is advancing on multiple fronts. The acquisition of the Waterloo Apartments, planning for new student housing, major renovations to existing facilities, and infrastructure upgrades—including the reopening this spring of Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall following major renovations—are reshaping the physical environment to better support student life and artistic excellence.
Together, these accomplishments mark a significant step forward in Peabody’s strategic journey. I am deeply grateful for the collective efforts driving this progress and look forward to sharing continued updates as our work moves ahead.
| | More news about Peabody alumni, faculty, and students can be found below and 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. | | | |
Wednesday, March 11, through Wednesday, March 18
Ben Wendel’s new BaRcoDe (Edition Records) album features the Canadian saxophonist/composer experimenting with electronics and percussion, resulting in music that straddles contemporary jazz, chamber music, and electroacoustic textures. Faculty artist Warren Wolf joins the BaRcoDe ensemble for seven dates across Europe, starting in The Hague, Netherlands, before continuing to Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Milan, and Zurich. Tickets are available online.
Monday, March 16, 7:00 pm GMT
Pianist, accompanist, and educator Da-Hee Kim (DMA ’19, Piano) performs the London premiere of composer Nicholas Scott-Burt’s complete 24 Preludes for Piano, celebrating the release of Da-Hee’s debut solo release of those same works for Divine Art Recordings. The London premiere takes place at the 1901 Arts Club in the Waterloo district, and tickets are available online.
Thursday, March 19, and Friday, March 20
Faculty artists Ah Young Hong (BM ’98, MM ’01, Voice) and Michael Hersch (BM ’95, MM ’07, Composition) have forged one of the more arresting composer-vocalist collaborations since Hong debuted Hersch’s monodrama opera On the Threshold of Winter in 2014. Hong, violinist Yumi Onda, and oboist Antje Thierbach perform the world premiere of Hersch’s Trauerrefrain, songs after texts by German poet Anja Utler, at the Schumann-Haus in Leipzig—tickets available online—and March 20 at the Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche in Berlin.
Friday, March 20, 7:00 pm CET
Distinguished Artist in Residence Vadim Gluzman recorded Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks’ melancholy concerto for violin and string orchestra, “Distant Light,” in 2020. Gluzman joins the Gävle Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of conductor Christian Reif, for a performance of the piece on a program that includes works by Lil Lacy and Carl Reinecke. Tickets are available online.
Thursday, March 26, through Sunday, March 29
The Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tenn., has become one of North America’s most adventurous music gatherings since its 2009 debut, spotlighting a range of genre-straddling artists working in and among the fringes of classical, jazz, electronic, metal, and rock. The 2026 edition includes three performances by Sō Percussion, which includes Eric Cha-Beach (BM ’04, GPD ’05, Percussion), on March 27, March 28, and March 29. And Preparatory alumnus Brandon Woody and his band Upendo perform March 29. Visit the festival website for tickets and passes.
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Peabody Notes highlights select off-campus performances featuring Peabody performers. For other events, please visit our Peabody events page.
| | | | Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Writing Seminars and Peabody Musicology Professor Anna Celenza’s latest book, On the Record: Music That Changed America (W.W. Norton), intertwines her rigorous scholarship about how music functions in society with a sweeping narrative of the songs, sounds, performers, and composers whose art has left indelible impacts on American culture, identity, and policy. Celenza discusses On the Record March 24 at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore and April 7 as part of Johns Hopkins Humanities on the Hill series at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C. | | | | Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in Performing Arts and Health Kris Chesky presented his work on Occupational Health in Music at the 2026 National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA) Annual Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, drawing on insights from the First Global Summit on Occupational Health in Music held at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in 2025. | | | | Bobby Ge (MM ’20, Composition) was the winner of the inaugural Call for Scores competition for the Second Ending Ensemble, the New York-based orchestra whose mission is to pair “warhorse symphonic works” with those by emerging composers. Ge’s work will be debuted by Second Ending on June 14 at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, on a program with Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, “Titan.” | | | | Charles Hulin, Elizabeth Moak | Pianist/composer Charles Hulin (BM ’94, DMA ’02, Piano) and pianist Elizabeth Moak (BM ’83, MM ’86, DMA ’03, Piano) were honored by Steinway & Sons for their educational contributions. Hulin, who directs piano and music theory at Southeastern University in Florida, was inducted into the Steinway Music Teacher Hall of Fame. Moak, an associate professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, received a Steinway Top Teacher Award. | | | | Actor/singer Laura Whittenberger (GPD '14, Voice) plays Sherlock Holmes in a U.S. national tour production of The Hound of the Baskervilles produced by Aquila Theatre. Playwright James Lavendar adapted Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel for the stage, and the New York City-based theater company took this production on the road, hitting Louisiana, Texas, and Missouri in February and continuing on to New Mexico, Kentucky, Virginia, and Pennsylvania in March and April. Visit Aquila Theatre’s website for ticket information. | | |
Project Resonance
The Bergamot Quartet—faculty artist Sarah Thomas (BM ’17, MM ’19, Violin), Ledah Finck (BM ’16, Violin, MM ’18, Violin, Composition), Irene Han (MM ’18, Cello), and Amy Huimei Tan (GPD ’20, Viola)—released six new videos as part of its Project Resonance collaboration with composer/fiddler Dan Trueman exploring the Hardanger stringed folk instrument of Norway. For these works, Bergamot plays four Hardanger instruments made by luthier Lynn Berg, and the video recordings capture Project Resonance’s latest efforts to create new repertoire for this quartet of Hardanger instruments, working with both traditional tunes and experimental/contemporary musical ideas.
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To Whom This May Concern
Composer, arranger, and trumpeter Dontae Winslow (BM ’97, MM ’99, Trumpet) plays tuba and faculty artist Tim Green plays saxophone on “Be Great” and “Pay U on Thursday,” respectively, on To Whom This May Concern (Blue Babes Records), the first new album by Philadelphia multihyphenate Jill Scott in 15 years. The album is available to stream or purchase online.
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Panorama
The new album by two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Karen Amrhein (’96) includes six multi-movement works, including the symphonic poem Little Nemo in Slumberland, an homage to Winsor McCay’s groundbreaking comic strip that was originally written for faculty artist Harlan D. Parker and the Peabody Wind Ensemble. Recorded in Slovakia and performed by the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Panorama: Selected Orchestral Music of Karen Amrhein (Navona Records) showcases the composer’s creative breadth.
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