The Peabody Symphony Orchestra on Saturday will
perform a rendition of Stravinsky's Greetings Prelude, aka
Happy Birthday, at its season-opening concert.
It will be a happy birthday indeed, and quite a
momentous one.
The upcoming Peabody concert season, which officially
began last week with a performance by the Baltimore
Consort, will help commemorate the institute's 150th
anniversary and will feature 24 Peabody alumni and faculty
artists from all musical genres. In effect, the concerts
held this month kick off an 18-month-long celebration that
will color every aspect of Peabody life, according to
Jeffrey Sharkey, the institute's new director.
"We want to use this milestone occasion to raise the
visibility of Peabody and bring in the community even more,
to more or less build upon our grand reopening of a few
years ago," Sharkey said in reference to Peabody's $26.8
million makeover that was completed in spring 2004. "We
want even more people to come through our doors and use us
as a resource."
In February 1857, philanthropist George Peabody
founded the institute, the first academy of music to be
established in America. Located in Baltimore's Mount Vernon
Square, the institute began with the idea of bringing
culture to the city's residents. Under the direction of
well-known musicians, composers, conductors and Peabody
alumni, the institute has grown from a local academy to an
internationally renowned cultural center. Since 1977, the
institute has operated as a division of Johns Hopkins, and
each year Peabody stages more than 800 musical and dance
performances in Baltimore and elsewhere.
In addition to the 150th tie-in to the current concert
season, Peabody plans to host several anniversary-related
events over the next 18 months, highlighting the artistic
and academic breadth of the school. Alumni also plan to
honor the event in a series of concerts, hoped to be 150 in
total, held at various venues throughout the world in
February.
Sharkey said he wants Peabody to use the coming year
to develop a new audience, reconnect with alumni and show
music's important role in society. The anniversary has been
titled "A Season of Celebration: 150 Years of Music for the
World."
"We view this anniversary celebration as a wonderful
tie-in with the university's Knowledge for the World
[fund-raising] campaign, hence the name," Sharkey said. "We
want to do our part to further arts for this and the wider
community."
The opening performance of the Peabody Symphony
Orchestra season will be held at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept.
30, in Friedberg Hall. The orchestra — featuring
Jenni Bank, a mezzo-soprano and winner of the Sylvia L.
Green Voice Competition — will perform works by
Stravinsky, Hector Berlioz and Peabody alumnus Dominick
Argento.
In the coming concert season, Peabody will present new
and recent works by Peabody composers in addition to
traditional works from the classical to jazz traditions.
The season will also feature the return of many alumni
artists, including members of the Monument Piano Trio, who
will perform at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 27, in Peabody's
Friedberg Hall; and conductor Kate Tamarkin, for the
Peabody Opera Theatre's production of Mozart's Marriage of
Figaro, Nov. 16 to 19. As part of the citywide Free Fall
Baltimore program, the opening night of the opera will be
free, with advanced reservations required.
Featured alumni in the spring include jazz trumpeter
Dontae Winslow in a March 23 appearance with the Peabody
Jazz Orchestra and cellist David Hardy as soloist for an
April 28 performance with the Peabody Symphony
Orchestra.
In conjunction with the anniversary celebration, the
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in January will present four
consecutive performances featuring members of the Peabody
Symphony Orchestra, performing works of Strauss and
Stravinsky at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and
Strathmore Music Center in Montgomery County. The new music
director of the BSO, Marin Alsop, the first woman to head a
major American orchestra, has been named distinguished
visiting artist to the Peabody Conservatory, helping to
develop talent in the school's highly selective conducting
program.
Hajime "Teri" Murai, Peabody's director of orchestral
activities and the Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Music Director,
said that Peabody continues to attract the finest young
musicians worldwide and that the new undergraduate class
will only enhance the school's reputation. He adds that
recent orchestra rehearsals have offered him a glimpse of
the high-level performances to come.
"I think Peabody is still one of the best-kept secrets
in terms of quality of performance for the cost of
admission," Murai said. "There is not a better bargain in
town. It's in everyone's interest to increase the diversity
of our audience and to show everyone firsthand what we can
offer."
For a list of all Peabody events, go to
www.peabody.jhu.edu/events. To contact the box office,
call 410-659-8100, ext. 2, or e-mail
boxoffice@jhmi.edu.