Peabody Alumni Win Big at the Grammys

Zuill Bailey ( BM '94, Cello) won the 2017 Grammy Awards for Best Classical Instrumental Solo and Best Contemporary Classical Composition for his performance of Tales of Hemingway with the Nashville Symphony and conductor Giancarlo Guerrero. Maggie O'Connor ( BM '13, MM '14, Violin) and the O'Connor Band, with fiddler Mark O'Connor, won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album for their debut album. Joel Watts ( BM '14, Horn; BM '15, Recording Arts; MM '15, Audio Sciences) received a Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance for his work as assistant recording engineer on the album Under Stalin's Shadow, featuring the Boston Symphony Orchestra performing three Shostakovich symphonies.

FROM THE DEAN

Those who follow this space know that Peabody has been deeply engaged over the last two years in exciting work around our Breakthrough Plan including the development of a new curriculum, new programs, and community initiatives. Much of this has been built around the strategic objective of enhancing the core training of professional musicians at the highest level by layering on and integrating into that training a broad set of skills that will define the 21st century musician and musical life in the decades ahead. With many critical pieces now defined, over the last six months, we have been hard at work to weave this academic vision for training into a clearly defined and reinvigorated model for Peabody going forward, a model that brings together the academic needs with every aspect of our business at Peabody, from curriculum to resource development. 
 
This model for the future takes the form of a five-year rolling plan that is addressing every aspect of our work including enrollment, scholarships, implementation of the Breakthrough Curriculum, diversity, recruitment of new faculty, new interdisciplinary initiatives, Peabody's expanding community activities, online, and new Conservatory and Preparatory programs to be launched in the next few years, all built with an underlying financial structure that emphasizes excellence, expansion of the Peabody brand, and sustainability.
 
I will continue to use this space and other opportunities as this five-year vision comes together to delve more deeply into various aspects of our future. Faculty, staff, and students are now bringing all this to life before our collective eyes, and I look forward to highlighting these initiatives as we go forward. 




Fred Bronstein, Dean
ON STAGE / OFF CAMPUS

Saturday, March 4 - Saturday, March 18

Faculty artist Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano, will portray the mother of Emile Griffith - the closeted gay boxer whose knockout of a homophobic rival in the early 1960s led to unexpected tragedy - in Terence Blanchard's "opera in jazz" Champion at the Washington National Opera. Ms. Graves premiered the role in 2013 with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. 
 

Sunday, March 5, 3:00 pm

DMA candidates Min Sang Kim, countertenor, and Sungpil Kim, pianist, will perform in University of Maryland, Baltimore County's Linehan Concert Hall as part of INTERPLAY, a teaching and performance collaboration between UMBC and Peabody. The program will include music by Handel, Purcell, Schubert and Heggie, as well as Korean art songs. As part of the residency, they will lead three class sessions under the mentorship of music faculty member Stephen Caracciolo in which they will coach UMBC vocal students on musical and career preparation skills.


Saturday March 11, 3:00 pm; Sunday, March 26, 2:00 pm

As winner of the 2016 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition, sophomore Junhong Kuang, a guitar student of Manuel Barrueco, will perform two concerts this month: on Saturday March 11, at 3:00 pm, he'll play at the Shriver Hall Concert Series, and on Sunday, March 26, at 2:00 pm, he'll play at the Chamber Music Society of Maryland. Works by Gaspar Sanz, Johann Sebastian Bach, Fernando Sor, Joaquin Rodrigo, and more are on the programs.
   

Thursday, March 23 - Sunday, March 26      

Composition faculty artist Amy Beth Kirsten (DMA '10, Composition) and director Mark DeChiazza will premiere  Quixote, a new evening-length theatrical work, as the culmination of their appointment as the inaugural artists for PeARL, Performing Arts Research Lab, at Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J. Sandbox Percussion - Victor Caccese (BM '11, Percussion), Terry Sweeney (BM '13, Percussion), and Ian Rosenbaum (BM '08, Percussion), and Jonathan Allen - and HOWL ensemble will perform the piece.


Saturday, March 25, 10:00 am

The Caelus Piano Quartet - sophomores Mei Zhan, violin; Setareh Parvaresh, viola; Marcie Kolacki, cello; and J.T. Hassell, piano - has been invited to participate in Maestro Benjamin Zander's "Interpretations of Music: Lessons for Life" master class in Boston. This series will be broadcast by the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. Their appearance was made possible in part by a Peabody Career Development Grant.

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.    
   
ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENTS


Alexandra Gardner      
Alexandra Gardner (MM '97, Composition) has been commissioned by the Seattle Symphony for the second time. This season Ms. Gardner will create a new community composition with LGBTQ youth who are experiencing or have experienced homelessness, as part of the Seattle Symphony's Simple Gifts initiative. Additionally, she will be the Merriman Family Young Composers Workshop director and lead 10 students in a 12-week program that culminates in a performance of world premieres on June 5.

Jenny Lin      
Jenny Lin ( AD '98, Piano) has completed a recording to accompany the children's book Melody's Most Musical Day, written by Ben Finane, illustrated by Mikela Prevost, and published by Steinway and Sons. Melody's Most Musical Day is inspired by Ms. Lin's childhood, including visits to her grandmother's house to have lessons and practice piano. Each page of the book has an accompanying song, ranging from Tchaikovsky to Mozart to Gershwin. She was featured on Classical Minnesota Public Radio's podcast New Classical Tracks discussing the book. Find more information and purchase Melody's Most Musical Day here.

Sejoon Park      
Sejoon Park ( BM '12, Piano), who studied with Boris Slutsky, commissioned a new work by music theory faculty member Joel Puckett as part of Astral's Micro-Commissioning Program. The program was created to encourage the development of new music by providing Astral artists with funds to commissions short works for their instrument or voice. Mr. Park will perform the world premiere of A Lullaby With My Daughter on Sunday, March 5, at 3:00 pm, in Philadelphia. Mr. Park was Astral's National Auditions winner in 2014.

Daniel Sabzghabaei      
Daniel Sabzghabaei, a master's composition student studying with Kevin Puts, was selected as a composer fellow for the 2017 Intimacy of Creativity Festival in Hong Kong taking place February 26 through March 6. He is working in collaboration with Master of the Queen's Music Judith Weir and co-founder/associate artistic director of the New York Festival of Song Michael Barrett. Mr. Sabzghabaei's song cycle Four Glimpses of Desire will be premiered at the festival by tenor Jonathan Blalock on Sunday, March 5, at 4:00 pm.

Lior Willinger      
GPD candidate Lior Willinger ( MM '16, Piano) has been selected as the recipient of The Presser Foundation Graduate Music Award for his project to commission short piano solo works for social justice causes. The pieces will be video-recorded with interviews with each composer as part of a YouTube series. Performances of the works will be scheduled around Baltimore to raise funds for the causes. A citizen-artist and a new music enthusiast, Mr. Willinger is the artistic director of Baltimore's If Music Be the Food concert series which raises support and awareness for those who are food-insecure.

RECENT RECORDINGS


Sergio Cervetti (BM '67, Composition) released a new CD titled Sunset at Noon under Navona Records, which remembers the untimely or tragic passing of individuals who lost their lives to terminal illness, or were the victims of mankind's indifference, prejudice and neglect. Six works spanning two decades from 1995 to 2015 are as diverse by genre as the men, women and children to whom the works are dedicated. Some were personal acquaintances. Many are nameless and unknown. 

Ian Rosenbaum ( BM '08, Percussion) has released his debut solo album titled Memory Palace on VIA Records. The album features music by Timo Andres, Christopher Cerrone, David Crowell, Tawnie Olson, and Paola Prestini ( '95, Composition) and features performances by Gina Izzo and Brooklyn Rider.

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