Peabody alumnus Joseph Young (AD ’09, Conducting), who in 2007 became the first recipient of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra- Peabody Conducting Fellowship, has been named the Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Ensembles at the Peabody Conservatory following an international search. In this role, Young will lead the programming and direction of all Conservatory instrumental ensembles. In addition, he will work with Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, who leads Peabody’s graduate con- ducting program.
Most recently, Young served as the assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, conducting more than 50 concerts per season, including programs on the classical series, family concerts, and various other concerts geared toward specific audiences in the community. He also served as the music director of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, where he was the driving force behind the ensemble’s artistic growth.
Young’s appointment comes as the Conservatory launches the new Breakthrough Curriculum in Music Leadership this fall, a model at the forefront of arts training in the United States (See story on p. 10).
He will oversee a new instrumental ensembles program developed as part of the curriculum, which is designed to move students through a rotation of varied ensemble experiences to ensure training across a range of performing contexts, musical styles, and ensemble configurations.
“Joseph Young is exactly the right leader to shape Peabody’s reimagined ensembles program and create excellent, meaningful, relevant, and diverse performance opportunities for our students,” says Dean Bronstein. “His artistry and energy on the podium will engage and inspire both our student performers and Baltimore audiences. And his keen understanding of the varied roles artists and ensembles must play in communities today is a quality critical to the success of 21st-century musicians and music organizations.”
Young earned his bachelor’s degree in music education at the University of South Carolina and completed graduate studies with Gustav Meier and Markand Thakar at the Peabody Conservatory in 2009, earning an artist diploma in conducting.
He made his major American orchestral debut in 2008 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, returned to the Baltimore Symphony in 2016-17, and also conducted the Peabody Concert Orchestra.
He is a recipient of the 2015 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award for young conductors, an award he also won in 2008 and 2014. In 2013, he was a semifinalist in the Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition. In 2011, he was one of six conductors featured in the League of American Orchestras’ prestigious Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview. He has been mentored by many world-renowned conductors, including Jorma Panula, Robert Spano, and Marin Alsop (who selected him
as the first BSO-Peabody Conducting Fellow), with whom he continues to maintain a close relationship.
“It is an honor for me to join the outstanding artist-faculty of the Peabody Conservatory at this very exciting time,” notes Young about his appointment. “I look forward to working with the students, faculty, and leadership at Peabody to develop outstanding, flexible, engaged citizen-musicians and to make music that resonates with our communities.”
Young’s premiere appearance as the Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Ensembles took place on September 19, when he led the Peabody Chamber Orchestra in Dvořák’s Othello Overture and works by Handel and Schubert.
— Tiffany Lundquist
