Mary Miller, new chair of the Peabody Institute Advisory Board (PIAB), views last October as a pivotal time for the 167-year-old Peabody Institute, when students and faculty performed in front of hundreds of attendees at the opening ceremony and dedication of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C.
That morning, Carl DuPont, assistant professor of Voice, and Wordsmith, artistic partner with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, performed a captivating interpretation of My Country ’Tis of Thee. Later, inside the expansive glass building, about 80 Peabody students from the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, NEXT Ensemble, and Graduate Jazz Ensemble performed “A Celebration of American Music,” a program that highlighted works from eight composers, including Leonard Bernstein, Billy Childs, and Dana Maiben. And the entire Peabody Dance Company filled the building with a site-specific work.
“Peabody was front and center at that event,” Miller says. “It highlights how Peabody is rising up in the constellation of schools at Johns Hopkins and becoming even more visible. When you have growth, it makes so many things possible.”
Miller has been connected to Peabody since moving to Baltimore in 1986 to take a job at T. Rowe Price. She enrolled in lessons at the Peabody Preparatory to continue her development in piano, which she has played since she was a child. Her son, Seamus Miller, now a multi-instrumentalist, got his start in music through the early childhood program at the Preparatory. Miller even served as a member of the PIAB from 2000 to 2009.
Now, in her new role as chair, Miller brings a wealth of experience in finance-focused corporate and government positions. She worked in investment management at the T. Rowe Price Group, Inc., for 26 years, spent five years with the U.S. Treasury, and completed a year-long position as interim senior vice president for finance and administration at Johns Hopkins University. In 2020, she ran for Mayor of Baltimore, an experience she calls a “labor of love” for the city that has been her home for nearly four decades.
For almost 25 years, Miller has used the experience she’s gained from these prominent positions to help boost arts-related organizations around Baltimore by serving on a variety of leadership boards. “I was on the finance committee or the investment committee, my usual assignments,” she says. “Thinking about how to make an organization stronger or make it thrive is what I really enjoy doing.”
For example, in the early 2000s, when Miller chaired the board for the Baltimore Choral Arts Society—“My first foray into the arts in Baltimore,” she says—she focused on establishing an endowment to provide income and improve the organization’s financial strength so staff could continue to pursue artistically important projects. Later, as a board member with the Baltimore Museum of Art, she was instrumental in dissolving the museum’s admission fee, then raising more endowment funds to offset the minor loss in income. Since the admission fee was a perceived barrier to entering the museum, this move led to a significant increase in attendance for the BMA.
Today, Miller is thrilled to chair the PIAB during a season full of ambitious plans that will enhance the external environment on the Peabody campus. “The last nine years have really focused on improving the curriculum, programming, faculty, and enrollment. These are all critical things,” she says. “Now there’s a focus on the physical space and improving the student experience.”
Capital planning has been under way for several years and includes plans for new student housing, increased and improved programmatic space, and a reimagined campus dining experience.
“I want to make sure the board is supportive of these projects and giving good direction so we can continue to see this positive story unfold,” Miller says. “People see that something is thriving and they want to be a part of that, and that’s what I see at Peabody. I’m excited about this moment.”