In high school, guitar undergraduate Penelope Shvarts became interested in music advocacy and its power to drive social impact after joining the youth fellowship program NEXTGen Musician, run by Midori & Friends. Since coming to Peabody in 2023 to study with Manuel Barrueco, Shvarts has taken on roles that allow her to champion her fellow emerging musicians. She’s a member of the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society’s student advisory committee and was secretary-treasurer for the Peabody General Assembly for the 2024–25 year, serendipitously during a time when the student government’s priority of improving financial aid aligned with ongoing institutional work in that area. Shvarts was also awarded a 2024 Peabody Archives Recital Research Grant to study the first three decades of the Peabody Guitar Department’s programming with the intention of advocating for a more diverse classical guitar repertoire.
How did you get interested in playing the guitar?
My parents were both dancers, so they wanted me to do something creative.I tried dance when I was 5 years old, but it wasn’t for me. So they looked into music and asked me what instrument I wanted to play. At the time, I really liked Hannah Montana. I decided playing guitar is the closest I could get to being Hannah Montana. I got put into Suzuki, then pivoted to flamenco guitar, then classical got incorporated a couple of years after that.
What inspired you to get involved with NEXTGen Musician?
In high school, I was really interested in the structure of government along with music. The NEXTGen Musician program is a hybrid of student advocacy and music education, so this program was a bridge between those two worlds. Every week, there would be a workshop geared toward a topic like public speaking or letter writing, then you would also get a free music lesson. I really loved the organization and how strongly they felt about music education, so I became an intern. Now I help them think about new types of events and how to engage different audiences, and I look for funding for existing and proposed programs.
Why was it important to you to get involved with the Peabody General Assembly?
Guitar is not the first instrument you think of when you think of classical music, so I wanted to make sure the voices of guitarists were heard. But then I really fell in love with Peabody and wanted to see it succeed, and that meant addressing issues outside of guitars. My freshman year, we had a meeting with the deans about financial aid; not long afterward Peabody announced it would begin meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need for all [domestic] undergrads and eliminate loans from financial aid packages, so Peabody students can ideally focus on classes and tests and not the cost of attendance. Across the board, we were all very happy.
How did you get the idea for your research project?
I was looking at old guitar music I had lying around my house and I realized all of the composers were men. I could not think of a single piece I played that was not written by a man. I decided if I want to be a teacher and a performer, I could not continue this pattern. I had to do something.
I voiced this idea about studying non-male composers to Peabody LAUNCHPad. They steered me toward this grant from the Arthur Friedheim Library and I decided to study the history of the Peabody Guitar Department from 1966 until 1998 by looking at the recitals and composers. Peabody has every recital program in books, and there were almost 1,800 pieces of music performed. Only five of them were composed by women. As part of the grant, I also commissioned a piece by a non-male composer: Una Piccola Canzone by fellow Peabody student Ellis Mensah.
Now I’m compiling a list of all the non-male composers I can find who have written for the guitar and I’m seeing if I can commission some more. Then I’m hoping next semester to have a non-male composer recital in the community to engage more audiences. It’s my goal with the students I teach and the concerts I perform to incorporate more diverse programming.