Twice-weekly guitar classes for people with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) may improve patients’ mood, anxiety, and quality of life, a recently published peer-reviewed study in the Parkinson’s Disease journal suggests. The study, a collaboration between the Peabody Institute and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s Department of Neurology, was made possible in part by a Peabody Dean’s Incentive Grant, and the resulting paper is an early step toward exploring the guitar as a musical intervention for people with PD in community settings. The paper, “GuitarPD: A Randomized Pilot Study on the Impact of Nontraditional Guitar Instruction on Functional Movement and Well-Being in Parkinson’s Disease,” was co-authored by Dr. Alexander Pantelyat, a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine assistant professor of neurology and Dr. Serap Bastepe-Gray (BM ’96, MM ’99, Guitar), Peabody assistant professor of guitar joint-appointed to Hopkins’ School of Medicine Department of Neurology, and the project involved Peabody faculty artists Zane Forshee (MM ’01, GPD ’03, DMA ’11, Guitar) and Sean Brennan (BM ’14, GPD ’19, Guitar; MM ’17, Guitar/Pedagogy) as well as other colleagues and students at Peabody, the School of Medicine, and Hopkins’ International Arts + Mind Lab of Pedersen Brain Science Institute. The authors note that while several studies suggest that musical training on percussion instruments or piano may have positive effects on motor, emotional, and cognitive deficits in patients with PD, “GuitarPD” is, to their knowledge, the first published study on PD involving the guitar—the affordable, portable instrument of choice for many music therapists.

Greetings and Happy Summer! Today I provide an update on the development of Peabody’s planning project for major capital improvements to our historic Mount Vernon campus.

Just recently we completed a phase two pre-study focused on reconfiguring and reimagining our programmatic space around future needs. This followed on the first phase of the pre-study, which focused on student housing and dining renovations. Both phases were completed with the assistance of the architectural firm Hord Coplan Macht and have provided important data and input on all aspects of future capital needs at Peabody. The next critical phase that we enter in the coming months is a trustee-approved formal feasibility study that will dig deeper into programmatic space needs as well as the best path to major upgrades for student amenities, including housing and dining. This next phase will bring together all aspects of campus improvements that Peabody will undertake, as well as providing a clearer assessment of our most viable options and the resources needed to achieve our goals.

From the beginning of our consideration of a major capital improvement initiative for the Peabody campus, a process that began nearly two years ago, we have understood that this initiative will be transformational in bringing Peabody’s physical infrastructure in line with its great trajectory of growth in enrollment as well as innovation in curriculum and programs. It is in that spirit that we enter into this next critical phase of planning, in which we will further hone our vision for a 21st-century campus that matches Peabody’s emerging and growing position as a 21st-century performing arts laboratory and educational institution.

I look forward to further updates as we refine and move toward implementation of these capital improvement plans.

Sincerely,

Fred Bronstein, Dean

Gemma New (MM ’11, Conducting) leads the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra through an evening that pairs sprightly symphonic works with a pair of sumptuous orchestra and voice works. The program includes Samuel Barber’s Medea’s Meditation and Dance of Vengeance, Op. 23a, Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25 (“Classical”), Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ah! Perfido, Op. 65, and Barber’s rhapsodic Summer of 1915, Op. 24. The concert takes place at the Chautauqua Institution amphitheater in western New York. Tickets are available online.

Sandbox Percussion—Jonathan Allen, Victor Caccese (BM ’11, Percussion), Ian Rosenbaum (BM ’08, Percussion), and Terry Sweeney (BM ’13, Percussion)—visits the Chamber Music Northwest summer festival in Portland, Oregon, this week for a trio of concerts. On July 14 and July 16, the ensemble collaborates with pianist Ellen Hwangbo and baritone Kenneth Overton for performances of George Crumb’s A Journey Beyond Time: American Songbook II. On Tuesday, July 19, Sandbox performs its recent Grammy and Pulitzer Prize in Music-nominated album, Seven Pillars, composed by Andy Akiho. The July 14 performance takes place at the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, the July 16 performance takes place at Reed College’s Kaul Auditorium, and the July 19 performance takes place at the Alberta Rose Theatre; tickets for each concert are available online.

The Young Victorian Theatre Company celebrates its 50th season as Baltimore's Gilbert & Sullivan troupe under the leadership of Catrin Davies (BM ’03, Voice), the company’s first woman artistic director, with a production of the comic The Pirates of Penzance starring Hana Abrams (MM ’20, Voice/Pedagogy), Mercy Calhoun-Dion (BM ’19, Music Education; MM ’20, Voice), Zoë Christine (MM ’21, Voice), Cassidy Dixon (MM ’21, Voice/Pedagogy), Tess Ottinger (MM ’20, Voice/Pedagogy), Daniel Sampson (MM ’19, Voice/Pedagogy), Cara Schaefer (BM ’06, Voice), Lukas Schmidt (MM ’18, Voice), Hannah Wardell (MM ’18, Voice), and Thomas Hochla (MM ’16, Voice) as the very model of a modern Major-General. Tickets are available online.

Composer Jacob Wilkinson (MM ’21, Composition), with assistance from a Peabody career development grant, researched the music of the Moravian Church that originated in the 15th century of the contemporary Czech Republic. Moravian Church settlers were among America’s earliest chamber music composers, and Wilkinson explored the musical life of Moravians at a Maryland church whose archives include an 1831 list of more than 250 musical works original to the congregation. Sopranos Mira Fu-En Huang (MM ’22, Historical Performance Voice), Marie Herrington (BM ’20, Voice), Nicole Stover (MM ’22, Voice), bass John T.K. Scherch (MM '17, Voice/Pedagogy), and organist Jordan Prescott (MM '19, Organ) perform a Concert of Moravian Vocal Music based on Wilkinson’s research at Graceham Moravian Church in Thurmont, MD. The event is free and will be livestreamed.

Last month Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra Jazz ensemble released its debut recording, We’re Still Here, which featured a few original commissions and a piece by trumpeter and artistic director Sean Jones. This month, Jones—the Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair of Jazz Studies at Peabody—takes NYO Jazz on its first tour, starting at Carnegie Hall before heading out to seven cities over two weeks. NYO Jazz is joined by Grammy-nominated guest vocalist Jazzmeia Horn on July 28 at the renowned Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage in 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.