What's the cost of the twelve days of Christmas?

Peabody Preparatory dancers and Conservatory singers joined PNC Bank to reveal how much it would cost to buy those lords a-leaping, ladies dancing, and five golden rings this year. Twelve Peabody students performed the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" at The Gallery on December 2, animating PNC Bank's announcement that the "Christmas Price Index" rose by one percent in 2014 - a cost of $27,673.21 for one set of each of the gifts given in the song. PNC Bank is a proud supporter of the Estelle Dennis/Peabody Dance Training Program for Boys.


FROM THE DEAN

As I mark six months as dean of the Peabody Institute, I am excited about the work we're doing. We are entering an energizing process of repositioning Peabody within the world of conservatories, in Baltimore, and within Johns Hopkins University. The years ahead will be a stimulating period of growth, focused on excellence, innovation, and leading the way in adapting to the changes in the American and international classical music landscape.

 

As we work together to accomplish big goals, our success requires clarity and a sharpening of our vision in key areas around excellence, interdisciplinary experiences, innovation, and community connectivity; and that we build the capability to reach these longer term objectives.Therefore, we are implementing a "Breakthrough Plan," focusing on structural refinements, capacity building, and innovation over the next two years. This will require additional resources, so we have established a special Dean's Fund, raising $2.5 million to support the Breakthrough Plan.I am very pleased to report that JHU President Ron Daniels has made a generous 2:1 challenge to raise these dollars. You can read more about the Breakthrough Plan in my December Newsletter.

 

Please accept my best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season.
PEABODY EVENTS

Friday and Saturday, December 5 and 6, 7:30 pm 

Jenny Lin (AD '98, Piano) will join Philip Glass, who attended the Peabody Preparatory, and eight other pianists in the world premiere of Glass' Complete Piano Etudes at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The concert is part of BAM's Next Wave Festival. Lin was recently hailed as "the intrepid pianist" by The New Yorker


Saturday, December 6, 8:30 pm and 10:00 pm           

Faculty artist and trombonist Alan Ferber will lead his Alan Ferber Nonet in the Jazz at the Johns Hopkins Club series. The group will play two sets at the Johns Hopkins Club on the Homewood campus, 3400 North Charles Street. Series artistic director and Peabody director and chair of Jazz Studies, Gary Thomas, was featured in The Baltimore Sun Magazine article, "Baltimorean Gary Thomas is world-class jazz saxophonist" by Mary Carole McCauley.  

 


Sunday, December 7, at 4:00 pm

Einav Yarden (GPD '03, MM '05, Piano) will play a recital at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. The performance will include Bach's English Suite No. 2, Ravel's Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, and Schubert's Sonata in G major, D. 894. Yarden has been praised for her CD, Oscillations, which juxtaposes works by Beethoven and Stravinsky. 
   

Thursday, December 11, at 8:00 pm          

The Preparatory's Pre-Conservatory Violin Program will perform with The Piano Guys at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. A true blend of classical music with pop, The Piano Guys became an internet sensation through their original self-made music videos. The PCVP will be performing "Beethoven's 5 Secrets" to what is expected to be a sold-out crowd.  

 


Sunday, December 14, at 6:30 pm

The Baltimore Consort will perform "Adio Espa�a: Romances, Villancicos and Improvisations" at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The free program of Spanish Renaissance music is presented in honor of El Greco in the National Gallery of Art and Washington-Area Collections: A 400th Anniversary Celebration
   
PEABODY PEOPLE


Leela Breithaupt
Leela Breithaupt (BM '93, MM '96, Flute) was featured on the cover the October issue of Flute Talk magazine, in which the first of her series of articles on historically informed performance for modern flutists was published. She has taught "Go Baroque" master classes on this topic at the Rice University Shepard School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.


Jennifer Nicole Campbell
Jennifer Nicole Campbell (BM '14, Piano), an MM student of Brian Ganz, won first prize in the 2014 Newark Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition on November 9. The prize includes a cash award and a performance with the NSO in their Symphony Series in the spring of 2015. Simeone Tartaglione (GPD '09, Conducting) serves as music director of the Newark Symphony Orchestra.
 

Angel Lam 
Angel Lam (MM '03, DMA '11, Composition; MM '05, Music Theory) recently premiered a composition written for the celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, in collaboration with their department of Contemporary dance and Chinese dance. Of days and nights was written for er hu, zheng, harp, piano, double bass and percussion. The piece premiered in Hong Kong and toured from May to June of this year in Shanghai.


Hollis Robbins 
Humanities Department Chair Hollis Robbins authored a chapter in a book, Economics of the Undead, recently published through Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Each chapter of the book represents a variety of economic perspectives as applied to the living dead. Robbins' chapter, titled "Killing Time: Dracula and Social Discoordination," shows how Dracula was a threat not just to jugular veins, but to the standard of time that enables coordination in a modern economy. 


Markand Thakar 
Co-Director of Peabody's Graduate Conducting program Markand Thakar, who is the music director of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, will present a Winter Conducting Workshop, December 14-18. Ten fellows will have three-plus days of conducting the musicians of the BCO in music by Mozart, Elgar, and Beethoven. Thakar's book Looking for the 'Harp' Quartet was mentioned in Alex Ross' New Yorker column, "Deus Ex Musica: Beethoven transformed music-but has veneration of him stifled his successors?" in the October 20 issue.


RECENT RECORDINGS


Elizabeth Anderson (MM '86, Composition) released a monographic CD of electroacoustic works, produced by the label empreintes DIGITALes.

The newest release by Opus Two - Andrew Cooperstock (DMA '88, Piano) and William Terwilliger, violin, with special guest Ashley Brown, soprano -features transcriptions by Jascha Heifetz and Eric Stern. The CD, under Azica record label, was called "excellent" by American Record Guide in the November/December issue.

Haydn and the English Lady
Released by Navona Records, a recording by Patrick Hawkins (BM '92, Organ) includes works by Franz Joseph Haydn and Maria Hester Park, illustrating the diversity and refinement of classical repertoire. Hawkins is an early keyboard specialist who has performed throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe.

Senza misura
Duo Boh�me, the San Francisco-based flute/guitar pair of Lyle Sheffler (BM '10, Guitar) and flutist Courtney Wise, put together an eclectic new album featuring works by Ravel, Faure, Giuliani, Shankar, Tedesco, Ibert, and Borne/Bizet.

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