Bloomberg Gift to Johns Hopkins University

To members of the Peabody Community:

I write to you today to share some wonderful news about Peabody.  If you have not already seen it, I attached Michael Bloomberg’s piece which appeared in the New York Times yesterday and the message from President Ron Daniels to the Johns Hopkins University community regarding the extraordinary gift that Mayor Bloomberg has made to the University.

As a direct result of this remarkable and indeed historic gift, Peabody will receive a $50,000,000 contribution to its endowment.  The expressed purpose of the gift is to increase access and affordability to undergraduate education for students in the United States.  As is the case with competitive music schools, scholarships are largely merit based at Peabody.  This gift will not replace the awarding of merit scholarships for certain students, but will provide new dollars to directly target eligible undergraduate students in order to provide greater access and affordability for those with demonstrated need, beginning with the Fall 2019 admission cycle.  In addition, we will reach out to students with the greatest need to begin to ease their burden next semester.

Over the coming weeks we will be finalizing additional details and communicating further information regarding this exciting development.  As we shape the best way to put the income from this new endowment to work for Peabody, we are thrilled that this gift will make it possible for Peabody to improve affordability for talented students from around the country, as we continue to build excellence in the Conservatory.

I don’t have to tell you that this is an enormously exciting and exhilarating moment for the University.  I am especially grateful to President Ron Daniels and Provost Sunil Kumar –and, of course, Michael Bloomberg — for their wonderful support of Peabody.

I hope you have a beautiful Thanksgiving holiday.

Sincerely,

Fred Bronstein
Dean