Denyce Graves Honored
Mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves is one of three international opera stars receiving the 2022 OPERA NEWS Award in recognition of having “made her mark on the world of opera and beyond, not only through her unique vocal artistry but as an eloquent ambassador for the arts, a dedicated educator and a champion of America’s underrepresented cultural heritage” (OPERA NEWS). Graves, Peabody’s Rosa Ponselle Distinguished Faculty Artist, baritone Quinn Kelsey, and soprano Elza van den Heever will be fêted at the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s black-tie gala in early April, one of several noteworthy events on Graves’ public schedule this spring. She appeared in, and served on the humanities advising team to, the documentary Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands that aired on PBS in February. And in May, Graves returns to the Minnesota Opera, making her opera directorial debut in a production that includes soprano Symone Harcum (MM ’18, Voice) singing the role of Micaela.
From the Dean
One of the things that continues to amaze me about Peabody is that it is rooted in such a deep tradition of training musicians, and now dancers, with the highest level of core performance and technical skills—the kinds of skills that have been passed down literally over hundreds of years and through generations. At the same time, Peabody is now a modern, forward-looking institution with a vision of innovation and change, so critical to adapting to a world that is ever-changing—and not always for the better: one only has to look at the last few years and the disruption of a pandemic that no one would have predicted, or a dangerous war of aggression in eastern Europe today. Part of what we must do is teach artists to find their own individual and unique voices in this world, and to teach them how to make those voices matter.

There are several important examples of this work going on today at Peabody. I’m thinking specifically of the work that our Culturally Responsive Curriculum Task Force has been engaged in, to find meaningful and critical ways to expand the range of creative voices traditionally taught in professional performing arts curriculums, especially the world of classical music. We need for our students’ experiences to both include the core traditions that are so critical to musicians and dancers, and to broaden their views and their appetites for a diverse and creative set of voices and experiences, which they can then carry into the professional world.

And this work extends to not just broadening the content of current programs but looking to fertile areas for future development. We are now preparing to graduate the first class of our Dance BFA and Music for New Media programs this May, followed in June by the launch of a pilot low-residency master’s degree program in composition. Even as we cross these thresholds, it is not too soon to be thinking about what new areas of focus will be important avenues in the professional world. To this end, I am excited about work being done to develop new and expanded programs at the intersection of technology and performance—where Peabody already has very strong current programs in New Media, Computer Music, Recording Arts, and Composition, providing a foothold for Peabody expansion across these areas.

My point is that whether it’s around critical issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, or the influence and expanding intersection of where technology is meeting performance to spawn new avenues of expression, Peabody is both prepared and eager to ensure that the innovations of today really become our traditions of tomorrow, and find their important and prominent place in our existing traditions.



Fred Bronstein, Dean
On Stage
Thursday, March 3, 8:00 pm EST

Assistant Professor of Composition Felipe Lara’s Chambered Spirals received its world premiere at Peabody during the fall residency of the Talea Ensemble. The International Contemporary Ensemble, under the direction of Vimbayi Kaziboni, performs the introspective, half-hour work at Columbia University’s Miller Theater in a program that also includes his Metafagote (2015) for solo amplified bassoon and six pre-recorded bassoons, which was co-written with, and will be performed by, Rebekah Heller. Tickets are available online.

Saturday, March 5, 7:30 pm EST 

Composer Joshua Bornfield (DMA ’13 Composition; MM ’14, Music Theory Pedagogy) turned to texts by Rabbi Jules Harlow, Catalan poet Josep Palau i Fabre, and Psalm 97 for his Houses of Peace, which celebrates the return of love and light after very dark times. The Handel Choir of Baltimore, who commissioned the piece, premieres Bornfield’s new work for cello and chorus with Peabody faculty artist Amit Peled in a program also featuring the work of faculty composer Kevin Puts and other Baltimore composers. The concert takes place at Grace United Methodist Church in Baltimore, and in-person and livestream tickets are available online.

Friday, March 18, 8:00 pm EDT; and Sunday, March 20, 2:00 pm EDT

Professor of Composition Kevin Puts and librettist Greg Pierce bring Michael Cunningham’s 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Hours to the concert hall in a co-commission by the Metropolitan Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Renée Fleming, Jennifer Johnson Cano, and Kelli O’Hara perform in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s staged debut prior to its full production debut at the Met this fall. The concert takes place at Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, and tickets are available online.

Wednesday, March 23, 7:30 pm EDT

Decoda returns to Carnegie Hall for a night of 21st-century music featuring the world premiere of Peabody composition professor Michael Hersch’s anonymous beneath the lemon trees for ensemble and soprano. The contemporary ensemble, co-artistic directed by Peabody faculty artist Brad Balliett, also performs the world premiere of Gilad Cohen’s The Last Battle of King Sorrow, the New York premiere of Xiao Bao He’s "When We Are Poor," as well as Alice Jones’ Dark is a way and Y'all don't wanna listen by Joy Guidry (BM ’18, Bassoon). Tickets are available online.

Saturday, March 26, 7:30 pm PDT; and Sunday, March 27, 4:00 pm PDT

During her time as the California Symphony Young American Composer-in-Residence, Peabody faculty composer Katherine Balch finished Illuminate, a work for three solo voices and orchestra based on French poet Arthur Rimbaud’s proto-surrealist collection Les Illuminations. This month the California Symphony finally gets to perform the pandemic-delayed world premiere of Balch’s work in a program that also includes pieces by Thomas Adès, Claude Debussy, and Maurice Ravel. The concerts take place at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California, 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.
Artistic Achievements
Marin Alsop
Following a busy season on the film festival circuit, The Conductor—the documentary about Marin Alsop, Peabody professor and Director of the Graduate Conducting Program—makes its network television debut as part of PBS Great Performances series in celebration of women’s history month. It airs Friday, March 25, at 9:00 pm EDT, and PBS suggests checking local listings.
Sam Bessen
Sam Bessen (MM ’17, Horn), the Eleanor and Lester Levy Family Curator of Sheet Music and Popular Culture at the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries, curated Grace Notes in American History: 200 Years of Songs From The Lester Levy Sheet Music Collection. The exhibition, which runs March 15 through July 31 in the George Peabody Library, spotlights 100 19th- and early 20th-century songs and instrumentals from the collection.
Pei-Hsuan Lin
Pei-Hsuan Lin (MM ’19; GPD ’21, Vocal Accompanying) returns to the Aspen Music Festival and School this summer as a Collaborative Piano Vocal Fellow. During her summer 2021 fellowship, Lin served as masterclass pianist for Renée Fleming, Lawrence Brownlee, Stephen King, Julia Bullock, Rachelle Fleming, and Golda Schultz.
Gemma New
Gemma New (MM ’11, Conducting) was appointed artistic advisor and principal conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, becoming the first woman in the NZSO’s history to become principal conductor. In August, New conducts three NZSO concerts in Wellington and Auckland with Peabody Preparatory alumna Hilary Hahn.
Robert Pippin
Robert Pippin (DMA ’19, Conducting) became the second Northwest Missouri State University faculty member to be named the Dennis C. Dau Endowed Professor of Instrumental Music. The two-year appointment includes funding to underwrite guest artists, travel, and other experiences designed to enhance students’ learning.
Recent Releases

Jerfi Aji (DMA ’11, Piano) won the Recording Prize at the Sicily International Piano Competition in January 2019, allowing the Turkish pianist to record this collection of selected solo piano works by Alexander Scriabin. Poems, Colours, Flames is Aji’s debut solo recording and can be found on streaming services.

Jazz vocalist Irene Jalenti (BA ’14, Jazz Voice) applies her distinctive voice to four originals and six covers on her debut album, Dawn (Antidote Sounds). Backed by a nimble quintet including Peabody jazz faculty trumpeter Sean Jones and vibraphonist Warren Wolf, Dawn showcases Jalenti’s deep, agile register.

During the pandemic mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke commissioned 17 composers in their 40s or younger to write new songs. The result, how do I find you (Pentatone), delivers an engaging and eclectic array of art songs by Timo Andres, Gabriel Kahane, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, and more—including Frances Pollack (MM '15, Voice), who collaborated with librettist Emily Roller for the comic “#MasksUsedToBeFun.”

On Beethoven Lachenmann (haenssler CLASSIC), pianist Moritz Winkelmann (GPD ’11, MM ’14, Piano) puts the virtuosic last three sonatas by Beethoven in conversation with contemporary German composer Helmut Lachenmann’s Wiegenmusik (1963) and Marche fatale (2017). “There is a feeling that both [composers] are paramount spirits,” Winkelmann says in the online trailer for the album, “who in a way lead us and guide us.”
The Next Normal: IDEAs for the Future of the Performing Arts
Save the date for the next installment of Peabody’s Next Normal series on Wednesday, April 27: a free, virtual event examining inclusion, diversity, equity, and anti-racism in the performing arts.

How might we reimagine the performing arts industry and performing arts training to advance racial equity in the field, broaden and diversify the range of creative voices heard and seen on our stages, and build expanded audiences that fully reflect the diversity of current and future communities? Participants are invited to share their collective knowledge in examining these questions, with a focus on overcoming barriers and elevating solutions.
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