Peabody’s historic Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall went dark from last May through April, receiving much-needed renovations. During this time, Peabody’s large ensembles fanned out across Baltimore to perform in a variety of venues around and outside Mount Vernon. Students were introduced to unfamiliar spaces, new collaborations, slightly complicated logistics, and diverse audiences. The results? A newly acquired nimbleness and a deeper appreciation of the complexities of the performing life.
Big, Beautiful, and Modern
During their time at Peabody, students became familiar with the little idiosyncrasies that characterize Friedberg Hall. They learned to project their voices to fit the space, negotiate the passerelle, and find their favorite seats in the house. Performing outside that familiar place brought surprises and adjustments.
Joseph Young, Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Ensembles, leads the Peabody Symphony Orchestra at the Peggy and Yale Gordon Center for Performing Arts.
Guest artist Jon Faddis, on trumpet, joined the Peabody Jazz Ensemble at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson.
In November 2025, Peabody collaborated with Morgan State University students and faculty to produce Street Scene, the opera by Kurt Weill based on Elmer Rice’s Pulitzer Prize–winning 1929 play of the same name, with lyrics by Langston Hughes. The production, co-directed by Peabody Opera’s managing artistic director Mary Duncan and Morgan State professor Marquita Lister with guest conductor Steven White, was performed at Morgan in the Murphy Fine Arts Center’s Gilliam Hall—a study in contrasts to Friedberg.
“When we went to Morgan, the first thing I noticed is that their hall is big, beautiful, and modern,” says Jaiden Wettstein, a senior Vocal Studies major. “Look up and there’s miles and miles of fly space. The stage is ginormous. And they’ve got a pit out in front.”
“And we were like, ‘Whoa, this is crazy in comparison to Friedberg.’”
Gilliam Hall seats 2,000, and that “ginormous” space requires adjustments in performances. Peabody students accustomed to performing opera unamplified had to learn to be comfortable with microphones and an orchestral sound enhanced by the specific acoustics of the hall. They also needed to rethink their stage presence. Hannah Winston, a graduate student, recalls advice the student performers received from Morgan State’s Lister.
“Ms. Lister emphasized not to ‘play small,’ even if only the first section on the ground level of the audience is partially full,” Winston says. “She said it has to extend beyond us to really be heard, which is definitely different from performing in Friedberg. You had to make yourself bigger and make your actions more readable.”
Wettstein calls the experience at Morgan “a real window into production.”
Joseph Young, Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Ensembles, leads the Peabody Symphony Orchestra at the Peggy and Yale Gordon Center for Performing Arts.
Big, Beautiful, and Modern
During their time at Peabody, students became familiar with the little idiosyncrasies that characterize Friedberg Hall. They learned to project their voices to fit the space, negotiate the passerelle, and find their favorite seats in the house. Performing outside that familiar place brought surprises and adjustments.
In November 2025, Peabody collaborated with Morgan State University students and faculty to produce Street Scene, the opera by Kurt Weill based on Elmer Rice’s Pulitzer Prize–winning 1929 play of the same name, with lyrics by Langston Hughes. The production, co-directed by Peabody Opera’s managing artistic director Mary Duncan and Morgan State professor Marquita Lister with guest conductor Steven White, was performed at Morgan in the Murphy Fine Arts Center’s Gilliam Hall—a study in contrasts to Friedberg.
“When we went to Morgan, the first thing I noticed is that their hall is big, beautiful, and modern,” says Jaiden Wettstein, a senior Vocal Studies major. “Look up and there’s miles and miles of fly space. The stage is ginormous. And they’ve got a pit out in front.”
“And we were like, ‘Whoa, this is crazy in comparison to Friedberg.’”
Gilliam Hall seats 2,000, and that “ginormous” space requires adjustments in performances. Peabody students accustomed to performing opera unamplified had to learn to be comfortable with microphones and an orchestral sound enhanced by the specific acoustics of the hall. They also needed to rethink their stage presence. Hannah Winston, a graduate student, recalls advice the student performers received from Morgan State’s Lister.
“Ms. Lister emphasized not to ‘play small,’ even if only the first section on the ground level of the audience is partially full,” Winston says. “She said it has to extend beyond us to really be heard, which is definitely different from performing in Friedberg. You had to make yourself bigger and make your actions more readable.”
Wettstein calls the experience at Morgan “a real window into production.”
Guest artist Jon Faddis, on trumpet, joined the Peabody Jazz Ensemble at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson.
“They had a full set crew,” he explains. “They were building things as we were rehearsing. Bringing things up and down on the rails. Sets coming in and out. Putting up lighting fixtures. It was a really cool learning experience to see all of that working as we were preparing our stuff.”
Also rewarding was the opportunity for Peabody students to collaborate directly with the students, faculty, and staff at Morgan. Casts from each school initially practiced at their home institution and then drove cross-town to meet on each other’s campus. Counterparts shared the stage, took direction, and learned choreography together.
Graduate student Sara Nealley, an assistant stage manager for Street Scene, relished the chance to meet and work with a veteran sound and lighting crew while running supertitles in the tech booth. The experience has led to new friendships, she says, something Lister encouraged. “After our last dress rehearsal, Ms. Lister gave a little speech,” Nealley says. “She thanked us for our hard work and said, ‘You are all welcome back at any time because you are now part of the msu fabric.’”
“I thought that was really beautiful, and I’m going to go back this spring to see their production of Once on This Island,” says Nealley.
Reaching New Audiences
While working as an usher, Vocal Studies graduate student Shinyeong Kim was moved by what she described as the reverent and cozy atmosphere during a performance at Baltimore’s Grace & St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. But she also noted the different procedures student workers need to abide by in the space. “We have to move things more carefully because that is a really old building and the floors are made of stone,” she says. “We don’t want to damage anything.”
At the thoroughly modern Gordon Center in Owings Mills in Baltimore County, undergraduate bass trombonist Taylor Esbenshade appreciated the change of scene and spending time on the leafy campus. “It’s very pretty,” he says. “We would eat on the patio out back. We also warmed up outside, and I rarely ever play outside. It’s a whole new perspective.”
Performing James Kallembach’s Antigone: The Writings of Sophie Scholl with the Peabody Camerata at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C., says graduate student Elena Paul, gave the production a deeper resonance because of the geographical location.
“Performing a very powerful, feminist set in a politically charged place like D.C. felt quite powerful and wasn’t something I necessarily expected to feel when I got on the bus outside Peabody,” Paul says. “The location gave the piece a different context.”
If there was one major challenge the students named in playing off campus, the unanimous answer was logistics. While getting to a downtown church, the Theater Project, or the Creative Alliance in Highlandtown could be as easy as a short walk or Uber ride, commuting to Morgan State University or further out in the county to Goucher College or the Gordon Center meant extra coordination and time.
Nealley gives a little sigh when she remembers carrying a clipboard to check off which students were taking the bus and who was providing their own transportation to Morgan State. Esbenshade bemoaned the 35-minute trip to the Gordon Center several hours before he was set to perform with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in a program conducted by Marin Alsop. Living five minutes from campus, Esbenshade says he could arrive 15 minutes before rehearsal already warmed up and ready. “If I’ve forgotten something, I can just go back to my apartment across the street and grab it,” he says. “So commuting is entirely different, but that’s probably what you do as a symphony musician in an orchestra: commute, deal with traffic, find parking.”
Another logistical challenge to playing outside the city: Fellow Peabody students are less likely to attend, something normally de rigueur for classmates.
The silver lining, students say, is the opportunity to perform for a whole new audience. Just as concerts at the Bloomberg Center can introduce D.C.-based music lovers to Peabody performances, offering concerts in non-campus spaces, such as the Peabody Dance Company at the Baltimore Museum of Art, can make it easier for more people across the region to discover and appreciate the work of student and faculty performers.
Taylor Hillary Boykins (MM ’14, Voice) joined the Peabody Camerata for a performance at Grace & St. Peter’s Church.
Dancer Evelyn Au performing at the BMA.
Taylor Hillary Boykins (MM ’14, Voice) joined the Peabody Camerata for a performance at Grace & St. Peter’s Church.
Reaching New Audiences
While working as an usher, Vocal Studies graduate student Shinyeong Kim was moved by what she described as the reverent and cozy atmosphere during a performance at Baltimore’s Grace & St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. But she also noted the different procedures student workers need to abide by in the space. “We have to move things more carefully because that is a really old building and the floors are made of stone,” she says. “We don’t want to damage anything.”
At the thoroughly modern Gordon Center in Owings Mills in Baltimore County, undergraduate bass trombonist Taylor Esbenshade appreciated the change of scene and spending time on the leafy campus. “It’s very pretty,” he says. “We would eat on the patio out back. We also warmed up outside, and I rarely ever play outside. It’s a whole new perspective.”
Performing James Kallembach’s Antigone: The Writings of Sophie Scholl with the Peabody Camerata at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C., says graduate student Elena Paul, gave the production a deeper resonance because of the geographical location.
“Performing a very powerful, feminist set in a politically charged place like D.C. felt quite powerful and wasn’t something I necessarily expected to feel when I got on the bus outside Peabody,” Paul says. “The location gave the piece a different context.”
If there was one major challenge the students named in playing off campus, the unanimous answer was logistics. While getting to a downtown church, the Theater Project, or the Creative Alliance in Highlandtown could be as easy as a short walk or Uber ride, commuting to Morgan State University or further out in the county to Goucher College or the Gordon Center meant extra coordination and time.
Dancer Evelyn Au performing at the BMA.
Nealley gives a little sigh when she remembers carrying a clipboard to check off which students were taking the bus and who was providing their own transportation to Morgan State. Esbenshade bemoaned the 35-minute trip to the Gordon Center several hours before he was set to perform with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in a program conducted by Marin Alsop. Living five minutes from campus, Esbenshade says he could arrive 15 minutes before rehearsal already warmed up and ready. “If I’ve forgotten something, I can just go back to my apartment across the street and grab it,” he says. “So commuting is entirely different, but that’s probably what you do as a symphony musician in an orchestra: commute, deal with traffic, find parking.”
Another logistical challenge to playing outside the city: Fellow Peabody students are less likely to attend, something normally de rigueur for classmates.
The silver lining, students say, is the opportunity to perform for a whole new audience. Just as concerts at the Bloomberg Center can introduce D.C.-based music lovers to Peabody performances, offering concerts in non-campus spaces, such as the Peabody Dance Company at the Baltimore Museum of Art, can make it easier for more people across the region to discover and appreciate the work of student and faculty performers.
Yingying Zong, right, plays Anna Maurrant in Street Scene, a collaboration with Morgan State Opera, at the Murphy Fine Arts Center.
Preparatory students perform with the Young Peoples String Program at Goucher College.
When Esbenshade ushered at the Gordon Center, he noticed “a whole new audience base.” At Peabody concerts, he explains, ushers come to recognize audience members who regularly attend concerts, as well as their classmates. At the Gordon Center, he recalls, “I had never met probably most of the audience there. But they were super nice and super friendly.”
Wettstein also points out the opportunity new spaces offer in introducing some audiences to a whole new world of music. “Moving location means that you’ll have at least one different audience member for your performance,” says Wettstein. “That’s where the growth potential is. If you get that person through the door one time, they could come back again and again.”
While the students continue to find deep value in moving house temporarily—learning to be flexible, making new connections, refining their approaches to varied performance halls—they also look forward to being back on the Friedberg Hall stage. Esbenshade misses his seat in the balcony. Winston has a soft spot for the historic architecture. And Kim is looking forward to concerts within walking distance and, she says, to “welcoming the community back to our home.”
Yingying Zong, right, plays Anna Maurrant in Street Scene, a collaboration with Morgan State Opera, at the Murphy Fine Arts Center.
When Esbenshade ushered at the Gordon Center, he noticed “a whole new audience base.” At Peabody concerts, he explains, ushers come to recognize audience members who regularly attend concerts, as well as their classmates. At the Gordon Center, he recalls, “I had never met probably most of the audience there. But they were super nice and super friendly.”
Wettstein also points out the opportunity new spaces offer in introducing some audiences to a whole new world of music. “Moving location means that you’ll have at least one different audience member for your performance,” says Wettstein. “That’s where the growth potential is. If you get that person through the door one time, they could come back again and again.”
While the students continue to find deep value in moving house temporarily—learning to be flexible, making new connections, refining their approaches to varied performance halls—they also look forward to being back on the Friedberg Hall stage. Esbenshade misses his seat in the balcony. Winston has a soft spot for the historic architecture. And Kim is looking forward to concerts within walking distance and, she says, to “welcoming the community back to our home.”
Preparatory students perform with the Young Peoples String Program at Goucher College.