On February 12, 1857, the Peabody Institute's founding document was signed, outlining George Peabody’s goal “to establish and endow an Institute in this City, which, I hope, may become useful towards the improvement of the moral and intellectual culture of the inhabitants of Baltimore, and, collaterally to those of the State; and, also, towards the enlargement and diffusion of a taste for the Fine Arts.” The date has traditionally been observed within the Peabody community as Founder’s Day, celebrating this pioneering act of philanthropy and the “instrument of permanent good” that it created. With its focus on both our history and our highest aims, Founder’s Day this year set the tone for the introduction of the Peabody Institute’s rearticulated mission statement. This mission statement and its accompanying core values, drawn from both the lived experiences and the aspirations of our community, provide a framework to help guide Peabody’s future while also honoring our past.

One of the important pieces of Peabody’s Breakthrough Plan 2024, launched in 2019, was the recognition that we were long overdue for reframing Peabody’s mission statement and identifying our core values. Renowned business strategists and authors Jim Collins and Jerry Porras identify in their book Built to Last the profound importance of what they call Core Ideology to institutions. Collins and Porras define two pieces to this “ideology”: Core Purpose, or what we call Mission, is an organization’s “fundamental reason for being,” while Core Values represent an organization’s “essential and enduring tenets.”

We began reconsideration of Peabody’s mission in 2019 by engaging in a deep and institute-wide dialogue that included faculty, staff, students, and volunteers, eventually honing all that work over several years (with a few pandemic-related detours), all resulting today in a revitalized mission which we believe truly represents the 21st-century Peabody, and a set of Core Values that speak to the “DNA” of who we are as an institution. I truly believe that our restated mission—To elevate the human experience through leadership at the intersection of art and education—elegantly and compellingly captures the essence of Peabody’s highest ideals. You can read more about our new mission and values statement, which we rolled out recently, most fittingly, on Peabody’s Founder's Day.

Sincerely,

Fred Bronstein, Dean

The Washington National Opera presents the DC premiere of Blue, the opera by Tony Award–winning composer Jeanine Tesori and NAACP Theatre Award–winning librettist Tazewell Thompson inspired by contemporary events and Black literature. Both Joseph Young (AD ’09, Conducting), Peabody's Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Ensembles, and Jonathan Taylor Rush (MM ’19, Conducting), the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Associate Conductor, serve as conductors over its six-performance run, with Young on the podium March 11, 13, and 19, and Rush on March 17, 22, and 25. Blue opens March 11 at 7:00 pm at the Kennedy Center, and tickets for the entire run are available online.

Trombonists Huai-En Tsai (MM ’06, DMA ’12, Trombone), Nitzan Haroz from the Philadelphia Orchestra, Shachar Israel from the Cleveland Orchestra, and Matthew Guilford from the National Symphony Orchestra perform selections of solo repertoire and a trombone quartet with concert pianist Gwhyneth Chen at “Trombone Extravaganza.” The repertoire includes composers such as Alexandre Guilmant, Astor Piazzolla, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, as well as contemporary works from Ming-Yi Lin and Ying-Chen Kao (MM ’06, Composition). The Trombone Extravaganza takes place at Capital One Hall's Vault Theater in Tysons, Virginia, and tickets are available online.

Coloratura soprano Alicia Hurtado (MM ’20, Voice), who has upcoming roles in Opera Modesto and San Francisco Pocket Opera summer 2023 productions, is joined by tenor Max Hosmer and pianist Jordan Williams for “High Cs, Soldiers and Sondheim,” featuring selections from The Barber of Seville, Daughter of the Regiment, West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, and The Phantom of the Opera. The concert takes place at the Mistlin Art Gallery in Modesto, California, and tickets are available online.

In fall 2021 Maestra Susanna Mälkki and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra performed the world premiere of Peabody faculty composer Felipe Lara’s gorgeously dizzying Double Concerto featuring soloists Claire Chase (flute) and esperanza spalding (bass/voice). This spring Mälkki, Chase, and spalding bring that work to the U.S. for performances on both coasts. From March 23 to March 25, Mälkki leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chase, and spalding through Lara’s work on a program also featuring Antonin Dvořák's Slavonic Dances, Op. 46; tickets are available online. From March 29 to March 31, Mälkki, Chase, spalding, and the New York Philharmonic perform Double Concerto on a program also featuring Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question and Igor Stravinsky's Petrushka (1947) version; tickets are available online.

As part of Women’s History Month, the National Gallery of Art welcomes UCLA Professor of Piano Inna Faliks (BM ’99, MM ’01, GPD ’03, Piano) and the latest installment of her Music/Words series mining the interconnections among music, poetry, and literature. “In the Footsteps of The Master and Margarita” alludes to Mikhail Bulgakov's darkly satiric Stalin-era novel, and the Ukrainian-American Faliks commissioned both Veronika Krausas’ Master and Margarita Suite for Piano and Maya Miro Johnson's Manuscripts Don't Burn for the project, pairing them with Franz Liszt's Mephisto Waltz and Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata Opus 111. The concert takes place in the National Gallery’s West Garden Court; tickets are free but registration 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.