The 2024 Musical America Guide to Summer Festivals includes more than 120 national and international listings where 21st-century performing-arts students and artist-educators spend their summer “break” performing, teaching, mentoring, learning, and, in general, continuing their training and networking in the field.
The thing is, only 96 days passed between Commencement 2024 and the first day of the fall 2024 semester, meaning those summer activities took place in a compressed amount of time. We caught up with a few of our faculty and students about the art they created, performed, and experienced over a short, sweet summer.
Chamber Music and Master Classes in the Swiss Alps
“Zauberklang, co-founded with my husband Andreas Haefliger, has become a pretty cool and meaningful cultural event in the area. The festival was conceived to bring world-class performances to the intimate and stunning setting of Bürglen’s baroque church in the birthplace of William Tell. The up-close experience with these artists has created a unique atmosphere that has generated new tourism in the area, and the finale featured a somewhat unusual program with Avi Avital, the star mandolinist, and Anneleen Lenaerts, principal harpist of the Vienna Philharmonic. Together, we performed an evening of trios and duos for flute, mandolin, and harp—super fun. That season finale concert was also the opening for the Marina Piccinini International Master Class, which we launched for the first time in Switzerland, bringing more than 25 American flutists to the Alps. This intensive master class, originally founded at Peabody in 2008, offers a unique cultural and educational experience. Many of the participants were from Peabody, including the winner of our concerto competition, second-year student Freddy Branson, who will perform with the Farnborough Symphony in England as part of his prize.”
— Marina Piccinini, Professor
Debuting a New Commission as Artist-in-Residence
“This summer I was the Composer-in-Residence at the Moritzburg Festival in Dresden, where two of my pieces were programmed. In addition to my string quartet ‘The Funambulist’s Double,’ previously commissioned by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, I was commissioned to write a string octet for the festival’s finale concert August 18. My piece Nachts im Monströsensaal was performed by Chad Hoopes, Stella Chen, Benjamin Beilman, Mira Wang, Ulrich Eichenauer, Lars Anders Tomter, Floris Mijnders, and the festival’s artistic director Jan Vogler, and German critics described this music as ‘imaginative’ with particular praise for its evocative use of the ‘Dresden Amen’ melody, and its ‘strings that hovered like veils of mist coalesced into an impulsive, almost ghostly activity.’ My next project is a piano quartet commissioned by Music@ Menlo chamber music festival, which will have its debut in March 2025.”
— Benjamin Scheer (DMA ’24, Composition)
Cultural Exploration and Intense Training in Amsterdam
“Over the summer I led a transformative four-week study abroad program in Amsterdam, supported by the Hopkins Global Education Office and Peabody. The program offered seven Dance BFA students intense training, totaling eight hours of dance each day. Participants also attended 10 international performances during the Juli Dans Festival and explored the city’s cultural offerings with visits to the Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum, and NXT Museum. ‘My time in Amsterdam went far beyond the technical aspects of dance; it was an exploration of self, art, and the power of stepping into the unknown,’ notes third-year undergraduate Jillbeth Rivera, reflecting on the experience. ‘The rigorous training, coupled with the exposure to new and diverse dance forms, broke through the plateau I had been feeling and opened a new chapter in my artistic journey.’”
— Kelly Hirina, Assistant Professor of Dance
Rediscovering Roots in the Czech Republic
“I traveled to the Czech Republic to perform in the Prague Summer Nights Festival Orchestra. We gave concerts in the cities of Tábor, Kutná Hora, and Prague, under wonderful conductors, including Laura Jackson of the Reno Philharmonic and James Burton—a Peabody alum! I’m half Czech myself, and I was very excited for the opportunity to visit the country as a performer. My dad was born in Brno during the Soviet period and escaped to North America as a child, so it was amazing to return to my roots and meet Czech musicians at important cultural sites like the National Theatre and Smetana Hall. I also had the chance to visit some family members in the Moravian countryside who I have only met before on Skype!
One of the highlights of the program was getting to perform in the world premiere of Iryna Aleksiychuk’s piece about Ukrainian identity, womanhood, and resilience, Go Where The Wind Takes You, in Smetana Hall. It was an incredibly meaningful experience and I was proud to play classical music in solidarity with Ukraine, especially under the guidance of the composer herself. I also really enjoyed exploring cities—my festival roommate, soprano Jennifer Morafkova, was one of a few other Czech students in the program and introduced me to many of her favorite childhood locations in Prague, like Petřin Tower. She helped me vastly improve my fragmented Czech vocabulary—I can now proudly order a coffee without being immediately clocked as an American—and we had a great time strolling through museums, enjoying little shops and medieval churches, and sharing koláčes in the markets as we reflected on our shared cultural history!”
— Suzanka Belik, undergraduate student
Teaching in China
“My second time to venture over to China for a teaching program brought so many fringe benefits: experiencing and learning more about this culture and the more unique aspects of two different regions; deepening my ability to empathize with my Chinese students at Peabody by experiencing a bit of the culture shock many of them must feel; discovering possible strengths and weaknesses of the vocal training Chinese students are receiving and how best to learn from those and further hone my teaching approaches to better move our students forward. Bonus: my niece was able to join me and we had excellent adventures together!”
— Elizabeth Futral, Marc C. von May Distinguished Chair of Vocal Studies