Today the box office at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University opens for its 2016-17 season – featuring world-renowned guest conductors, acclaimed faculty soloists, and talented student ensembles – and beginning this year all concerts at Peabody are free. The season opens with renowned guest conductor Leon Fleisher, Peabody’s Andrew W. Mellon Chair in Piano, leading the Peabody Symphony Orchestra with faculty soloists on Saturday, September 24. Director of Peabody’s Graduate Conducting Program Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; and Leonard Slatkin, music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre National de Lyon, will be at the helm of the PSO in three performances – October 28, February 4, and April 15. Alumni conductors Joseph Young, the first recipient of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra-Peabody Conducting Fellowship and now assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and Steven Jarvi, winner of the 2009 Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Award, will return to their alma mater to lead performances by the Peabody Concert Orchestra on October 7 and November 4. All concerts at Peabody, including those led by guest conductors and main stage operas, will be FREE; some require tickets for reserved seating.
“As Peabody seeks to engage our students and faculty more deeply in the community directly through new curricular initiatives, we look forward to welcoming more of the community to campus as our guests,” notes Fred Bronstein, dean of the Peabody Institute. “By making all concerts free, we want to reinforce that music has no boundaries, and there is something for everyone at Peabody.”
Other highlights from the 2016-17 season include:
- Industry thought leaders Aaron Dworkin (October 10), Blair Tindall (November 28), Alex Ross (February 6), and Peter Sellars (April 17) will speak in the 2016-17 Dean’s Symposium Series.
- The Variations on Goldberg series deconstructing Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations and examining it from unique perspectives: October 13 with alumnus Felix Hell, organ; November 8 with the Aspen String Trio; January 26 with faculty artist Alexander Shtarkman, piano; April 18 with faculty artist Adam Pearl, harpsichord; and a lecture/concert on November 7 featuring all the performers in the series.
- A special concert on Friday, October 28, celebrating the 150th anniversary and recent acoustic renovations of Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall.
- Fully-staged performances of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel November 18 and 20 and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, one of the most popular works in the repertoire, March 9-12.
- Works by masters of the contemporary canon including Michael Torke and John Adams (Peabody Modern Orchestra, November 2, March 17), Christopher Theofanidis (Peabody Concert Orchestra, February 10), and Michael Daugherty and Mason Bates (Peabody Wind Ensemble, April 28), along with a special April 29 appearance by the singular Ensemble Klang.
- Peabody’s newest contemporary music ensemble Now Hear This will highlight the music of Georg Friedrich Haas in two concerts, December 7 and May 6.
- An April 15 performance by the Peabody Symphony Orchestra with faculty artist Marina Piccinini, flute, and Leonard Slatkin, guest conductor, of Aaron Jay Kernis’ Flute Concerto, which the performers will also record this year for the PSO’s second Naxos CD.
- Master classes led by 2016-17 distinguished visiting artists: world renowned violinist Midori; and bass-baritone Eric Owens, prominent on major opera stages across the world today. Mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade and baritone Sherrill Milnes are among the other acclaimed performers visiting campus to conduct master classes.
The Peabody Box Office opens on Wednesday, September 7, to reserve free tickets. For more information, call the new box office number at 667-208-6620 or visit the events calendar at peabody.jhu.edu/events, where tickets can also be reserved online.
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About the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University
Located in the heart of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon Cultural District, the Peabody Institute was founded in 1857 as “the first major intellectual and arts center in an American city” by philanthropist George Peabody. Now a division of Johns Hopkins University, the Peabody Institute trains musicians and dancers of every age and at every level, stages nearly 1,000 concerts and events each year, and extends music and musical training throughout the community. Building on its rich history of professional music training at the highest level and focused on the four pillars of excellence, interdisciplinary experiences, innovation, and community connectivity, Peabody is taking on the challenge of what it means to prepare artists for a world that is constantly changing yet still deeply in need of what music brings to the human experience.
