The New York Times found Peabody composition professor Kevin Puts and librettist Greg Pierce’s new opera “direct, effective theater, with a cinematic quality in its plush, propulsive underscoring” when the Philadelphia Orchestra world premiered The Hours as a concert presentation earlier this year under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. This month Nézet-Séguin leads the Metropolitan Opera through its fully staged New York debut, with an all-star lineup of divas. Based on Michael Cunningham’s beloved 1999 novel that was adapted into an Oscar-winning 2002 movie, The Hours tells the stories of three generations of women—played by Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara, and Joyce DiDonato—thematically connected through Virginia Woolfe’s modernist classic novel, Mrs. Dalloway. The Hours debuts November 22 at the Metropolitan Opera House, with additional dates to December 15, and will be broadcast live on radio and in movie theaters December 10. Tickets are available online.

As detailed above, the premiere of Kevin Puts’ new opera The Hours at the Metropolitan Opera is another milestone for this Pulitzer Prize winner and faculty member of Peabody’s distinguished Composition Department. The achievements of this program continue to be extraordinary. I am especially proud of the fact that the Peabody Conservatory does not pay “lip service” to music of our time but rather showcases it, front and center. Conservatories, as the name would imply, tend to “conserve” and while Peabody has plenty of centuries of performance tradition represented, the Composition Department represents one of our largest and most active areas of study, and at 70 students is among the best programs of its kind in the world today.

Kevin Puts is a great example of Peabody’s preeminence in composition, but it doesn’t stop there. Another Pulitzer Prize-winning faculty member, Du Yun, very recently was awarded the highly prestigious Vilcek Prize in music for 2023, which honors immigrants in biomedical science and rotates prizes in humanities and the arts. Previous recipients include Yo-Yo Ma and Osvaldo Goljov. And just recently we hosted an outstanding interdisciplinary event on our campus, Staging Poppaea: Gender, Power and Violence, which included a film screening and symposium on faculty composer Michael Hersch’s latest opera, Poppaea, featuring faculty soprano Ah Young Hong in a 2021 Wien Modern performance. Earlier this year Composition chair Felipe Lara had performances by both the Los Angeles and New York philharmonics, while faculty composer Oscar Bettison was featured at one of New York’s preeminent venues for new music, Columbia’s Miller Theater. This is but a few examples of the work that is ongoing by our Composition faculty in the field currently—all are remarkably active and successful.

And this is before we even get to our tremendously talented Composition students. I could go on and on, but this is just by way of saying again how remarkably proud we are of Peabody’s Composition program—it is indeed second to none today!

Sincerely,

Fred Bronstein, Dean

The Israeli Chamber Project's pandemic-delayed commemoration of the passings of modernist composer Igor Stravinsky, in 1971, and lush Romantic Camille Saint-Saëns, in 1921, finally comes to North America, with flute professor Marina Piccinini joining the ensemble on its six-concert tour, performing Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie for Harp and Violin, Op. 124; Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale Suite; Arnold Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9; Maurice Ravel's Introduction and Allegro; and Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin in an ICP-commissioned arrangement. The Israeli Chamber Project makes its Kennedy Center debut—tickets available online—before continuing to New York, Kingston, Ontario, and Detroit.

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s fourth Women in Classical Music Symposium presents four days of performances, discussions, and networking with and among inspiring women in the field November 6-9 at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in downtown Dallas. Speakers include soprano Julia Bullock, Houston Grand Opera CEO and general director Khori Dastoor, Colburn School of Performing Arts drama chair Debbie Devine, composer Angélia Negrón, and Director at the Beckmen YOLA Center in Los Angeles Camille Delaney-McNeil (MM ’11, Flute). Delaney-McNeil speaks on a panel devoted to work-life integration on Tuesday, November 8, and conference information is available online.

The cutting-edge Evolution Contemporary Music Series, launched in 2005 by Peabody faculty artist Judah Adashi (MM ’02, DMA ’11, Composition), returns to in-person performances presenting Roomful of Teeth singing works by Wally Gunn, Gabriel Kahane, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Missy Mazzoli, and Peter Shin. The Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble performs at 2640 Space in Baltimore and tickets are available online.

Over the summer Juliano Dutra Aniceto, a conducting DMA candidate and student of Marin Alsop, was named the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra assistant conductor and conductor of the Hopkins Concert Orchestra. The Brazilian conductor makes his first podium appearance November 13, leading the HCO in Jean Sibelius’ Andante Festivo, Claude Debussy’s Danse Sacrée et Danse Profane, Astor Piazzolla’s Adiós Nonino and Tres Minutos con Realidad, and César Guerra-Peixe’s Mourão at the Bunting-Meyerhoff Interfaith Center on the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus. The concert is free, though registration is required.

Peabody Accompanying Coordinator and Preparatory piano faculty Teodora Adzharova (MM ’11, GPD ’13, DMA ’20, Piano) developed a passion for the underplayed piano sonatas by Dmitri Shostakovich, making it a goal to present and perform them as often as she can. Over the summer she recorded his Preludes, Op. 34, and Piano Sonata, Op. 61, for her upcoming debut solo album, and on November 30 she plays and discusses Shostakovich’s two piano sonatas in a lecture-recital at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Linehan Hall. 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.