“We are here to serve humanity,” said trumpeter Sean Jones, Richard and Elizabeth Chase chair in Jazz Studies, when speaking during the artists panel at the inaugural Next Normal symposium in February. Titled Arts Innovation and Resilience in a Post-COVID World and moderated by Dean Fred Bronstein, the free symposium virtually brought together arts organization leaders, funders, and artists to discuss the financial, creative, and organizational challenges wrought by the ongoing pandemic to the creative industries worldwide. Jones was responding to a question Dean Bronstein posed: How can we be even more bold in thinking about the future? And for Jones, dreaming a future into existence requires remembering what it is that artists do. “It’s our job to tell the stories of what our fellow human beings are going through during this time,” he said. “We express the pain, we express the frustration, and we also simultaneously provide healing in this time. How do we do it? One of the things that I’ve had the great joy of experiencing over the past year is the realm of possibility. It’s important for us to think about what is possible.”

The exploration of what’s possible continues November 17 when the Peabody Institute presents Next Normal 2.0: Flexibility is the Future. The conversation will center on real-world redirects and the lessons we’ve all learned; a full roster of participating speakers and program is forthcoming.

For anyone who watches this space regularly, you know how committed I am to the Peabody Institute striving to constantly look forward, and understand the changing landscape in which our current students will launch their careers, the challenges they will face, and the unique opportunities available to those who are thinking creatively about that future. This aim is what led us to launch the Breakthrough Curriculum nearly five years ago, reconfigure and reimagine our career services into LAUNCHPad, and start cutting-edge new programs like Music for New Media, which graduates its first cohort in May 2022. It is what led us to convene an international symposium, The Next Normal, in February. And it’s what’s driving us to follow up on the key takeaways from that day of discussion involving 1,300 attendees. In November, we host the first of these follow-up sessions in a series of virtual presentations and panel discussions that will focus on the questions of how to foster increased adaptability and nimbleness in arts institutions so that our field is better equipped to meet that future, and how we train artists with that same kind of flexibility and resilience. Once again, Peabody is leading this important, ongoing conversation in the performing arts.

While no one person or single institution has all the answers, there are important and interesting actual and thought experiments happening at this moment across our field. We can all learn from each other, and as a division of one of the world’s great research universities, Johns Hopkins University, the Peabody Institute is proud to be a convener around critical issues facing the performing arts. Look for more information is this newsletter and future communications about The Next Normal 2.0 coming soon.

Fred Bronstein, Dean

Baltimore-based Malagasy-Tanzanian musician Tariq Ravelomanana wed his love of 1990s hip-hop, 1970s pop, and composers such as Erik Satie in the beat-driven, genre-bending music released under his solo moniker, Infinity Knives. Composer James David Young (DMA ’14, Composition), co-artistic director of the experimental Mind on Fire ensemble he co-founded with co-artistic director Allison Clendaniel (BM ’12, Voice) and other Peabody alumni, adapted and arranged Ravelomanana’s work for an ensemble of 15 instrumentalists, four vocalists, and electronics. Limited in-person tickets for the Mind on Fire ensemble’s performances of Young’s orchestral renditions, which takes place at the Voxel in Baltimore, are available online, and both performances will also be livestreamed.

The eleventh annual Baltimore Lieder Weekend, organized by pianist Daniel Schlosberg (BM ’00, MM ’01, Piano; KSAS BA ’00, History), spotlights “A Kaleidoscope of Black American Songs and Arias.” This year’s two free concerts feature soprano Joelle Lamarre and Schlosberg performing works by H. Leslie Adams, B.E. Boykin, John Carter, Anthony Davis, Adolphus Hailstork, Florence Price, Nkeiro Okoye, Richard Thompson, and George Walker. Both concerts take place at An Die Musik with limited seating available, registration required, and will be livestreamed.

The Pasadena Symphony kicks off its 2021-22 season with Peabody Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Ensembles Joseph Young leading the orchestra through Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto, and contemporary African-American composer Jessie Montgomery’s Banner. Tickets to the concert, held at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, California, are available online.

Pianist Awadagin Pratt (PC ’89, Piano; PC ’89, Violin; GPD ’92, Conducting) and the Trio Duende make their New York City debut with Connecticut-based Ukrainian violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv in a program that includes Johannes Brahms’ Piano Trio in C Major, Op. 87 and Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60, as well as contemporary composer Bohdana Frolyak’s Partita-Meditation for Two Violins. Limited tickets for this free concert, which takes place at the Ukrainian Institute in New York City, are available online.

Mathew Knowles was a national medical imaging sales specialist before he started a record label and music management company, igniting a blockbuster career as executive producer to more than 100 award-winning albums and soundtracks, including those of his daughters, Beyoncé and Solange. The Johns Hopkins Film and Media Studies Program, the Life Design Lab, and the Arts, Entertainment, Media, and Entrepreneurship Affinity presents Knowles’ talk “The DNA of Achievers: 10 Traits of Highly Successful Professionals,” based on his best-selling book of the same name, in conversation with Paul Jan Zdunek (BM ’91, Composition). The event will be livestreamed, and registration is required.

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Peabody Notes highlights select off-campus performances featuring Peabody performers. For other events, please visit our Peabody Conservatory Facebook page.