Mozart’s childhood was spent on tour. From the age of 6, he maintained an often-grueling travel schedule, crisscrossing 18th-century Europe in the company of his 5-year-older sister Marianne and their father, Leopold, visiting one court after another. Both children had been instructed by their father, but the young Mozart’s talents were so prodigious that he soon began searching out others to learn from, especially the great musicians of his time.
Joseph Haydn, 24 years Mozart’s senior, was the continent’s preeminent composer and therefore a worthy subject of study. Mozart would later claim to have learned how to write string quartets by studying Haydn, and when the two eventually met, a fast friendship ensued. So much so that two years later, Mozart dedicated a series of six quartets to his teacher and friend. He wrote to Haydn in the published edition, “Your approval encourages me more than anything else and I entrust them to your care, in the hope that they are not wholly unworthy of your favor.” In conversation, Mozart captured the spirit of the relationship when he would address Haydn simply as “Papa.”
There are instructors. There are teachers. And then there are those who transcend pedagogy to become role models and counselors, lodestars on the uncertain path to the future. They are the mentors, the very word itself recalling a tradition of protection, guidance, and care celebrated back to the dawning of Western civilization, and the original Mentor, a “comrade-in-arms of noble Odysseus.”
Mentorship plays an outsized role in the arts, especially in recognizing and advancing the next generation of greats. Across Peabody, there are many examples of faculty going the extra distance with their students and many memories about special students they have mentored. So often, the stories you hear first are about those moments of discovery when, usually right at the outset, it becomes clear that they are encountering not just a possible new student, but a rising new talent in the offing.
Photo by Andrey Murray
Photo by David Colwell
Cello Professor Amit Peled remembers receiving an email during audition week in 2016 with a short video recorded in Havana on a mobile phone. Peled’s friend had heard a 17-year-old cello student play and had been so impressed he asked the student to record himself, which the friend in turn sent to Peled. It hit like a thunderbolt, Peled says. “I was just blown away. I mean the talent and the ease of playing….” Peled immediately contacted the Admissions Office and informed them that this student—Ismael Guerrero (BM ’20, Cello), a Cuban citizen and resident of Havana—had not yet applied to Peabody, but nonetheless, “I accept him with a 10—the highest mark!”
danah bella, too, remembers seeing a spark in a student that drew her attention, support, and nurture. As the founding chair of the Conservatory’s brand-new Dance Department, bella was touring schools and dance academies trying to put together a very special inaugural class for the program. It was 2018 and the BFA degree in Dance at the Conservatory was as yet unknown. She was recruiting at South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, with each of six seniors dancing a solo, the basis of their senior project. One student, Rush Johnston (BFA ’22, Dance), stood out.
“Everyone else paired up with a faculty member to create their dance,” recalls Johnston. But Johnston’s solo was self-choreographed, because at that point they had decided to give up on dance. “I’m not ‘built like a ballerina’—it was a very classical ballet school program and I heard that a lot from the faculty,” Johnston says. After the performance, bella had pointed questions for Johnston about the origins of the dance. “I knew as soon as I saw it that Rush had real talent as a choreographer,” she recalls. “And I told them that. When Rush arrived at Peabody, I already knew I was going to help guide them in this way.”
Sometimes, the connection begins the other way around. Percussion Professor Robert van Sice, one of the world’s foremost performers of contemporary music for the marimba, was on tour in Korea the first time he met Ji Su Jung (BM ’16, GPD ’17, Percussion). She was among a small group of preteens who played for him.
“It was maybe 20 minutes,” Jung recalls, “but that was a life-changing moment that I experienced. I was 12 years old but I was sure—okay, I’m going to study with him.” Flash forward to February 2012. Her secondary education wrapping up, she flew to Baltimore to audition. This time, the spark was there on both sides. “When I finished playing, he said, ‘We need to talk.’”
Cello Professor Amit Peled remembers receiving an email during audition week in 2016 with a short video recorded in Havana on a mobile phone. Peled’s friend had heard a 17-year-old cello student play and had been so impressed he asked the student to record himself, which the friend in turn sent to Peled. It hit like a thunderbolt, Peled says. “I was just blown away. I mean the talent and the ease of playing….” Peled immediately contacted the Admissions Office and informed them that this student—Ismael Guerrero (BM ’20, Cello), a Cuban citizen and resident of Havana—had not yet applied to Peabody, but nonetheless, “I accept him with a 10—the highest mark!”
danah bella, too, remembers seeing a spark in a student that drew her attention, support, and nurture. As the founding chair of the Conservatory’s brand-new Dance Department, bella was touring schools and dance academies trying to put together a very special inaugural class for the program. It was 2018 and the BFA degree in Dance at the Conservatory was as yet unknown. She was recruiting at South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, with each of six seniors dancing a solo, the basis of their senior project. One student, Rush Johnston (BFA ’22, Dance), stood out.
“Everyone else paired up with a faculty member to create their dance,” recalls Johnston. But Johnston’s solo was self-choreographed, because at that point they had decided to give up on dance. “I’m not ‘built like a ballerina’—it was a very classical ballet school program and I heard that a lot from the faculty,” Johnston says. After the performance, bella had pointed questions for Johnston about the origins of the dance. “I knew as soon as I saw it that Rush had real talent as a choreographer,” she recalls. “And I told them that. When Rush arrived at Peabody, I already knew I was going to help guide them in this way.”
Sometimes, the connection begins the other way around. Percussion Professor Robert van Sice, one of the world’s foremost performers of contemporary music for the marimba, was on tour in Korea the first time he met Ji Su Jung (BM ’16, GPD ’17, Percussion). She was among a small group of preteens who played for him.
“It was maybe 20 minutes,” Jung recalls, “but that was a life-changing moment that I experienced. I was 12 years old but I was sure—okay, I’m going to study with him.” Flash forward to February 2012. Her secondary education wrapping up, she flew to Baltimore to audition. This time, the spark was there on both sides. “When I finished playing, he said, ‘We need to talk.’”
Photo by Andrey Murray
Photo by David Colwell
Jung graduated from Peabody in 2017 with a degree in percussion and has gone on to blaze a notable career as a solo percussionist, performing recitals at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and similarly renowned venues, and as a featured soloist with major orchestras such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony, and others under the batons of Marin Alsop, Peter Oundjian, Giancarlo Guerrero, and other notable conductors. In 2022, she became the first percussionist ever to receive the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, which supports promising young soloists.
“On the one hand, mentoring Ji Su was incredibly easy because she’s an unimaginably gifted player. Like, shockingly so,” says van Sice. “On the other hand, it’s sometimes not as easy to navigate the universe as it is to navigate the marimba.” This, he says, is where mentorship matters most. “For somebody who wants to pursue a career at the upper echelon, there’s a certain height. It’s kind of like a pole vaulter—once you can jump over 15 feet, you’re in the elite group. And once you get a player playing at 95 percent quality, then that last little 5 percent is going to make the difference between who wins and who doesn’t. And if you have been mentored enough to understand how that all works, then I think that you go into the profession with a bit of an advantage.”
He says that it is not so much a set of rules as it is an acquired instinct for navigating the system. “Life is a little more jazz than classical music, isn’t it? It gives you a lead sheet, and then we’re going to improvise our way through. There isn’t a set path.”
Jung graduated from Peabody in 2017 with a degree in percussion and has gone on to blaze a notable career as a solo percussionist, performing recitals at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and similarly renowned venues, and as a featured soloist with major orchestras such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony, and others under the batons of Marin Alsop, Peter Oundjian, Giancarlo Guerrero, and other notable conductors. In 2022, she became the first percussionist ever to receive the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, which supports promising young soloists.
“On the one hand, mentoring Ji Su was incredibly easy because she’s an unimaginably gifted player. Like, shockingly so,” says van Sice. “On the other hand, it’s sometimes not as easy to navigate the universe as it is to navigate the marimba.” This, he says, is where mentorship matters most. “For somebody who wants to pursue a career at the upper echelon, there’s a certain height. It’s kind of like a pole vaulter—once you can jump over 15 feet, you’re in the elite group. And once you get a player playing at 95 percent quality, then that last little 5 percent is going to make the difference between who wins and who doesn’t. And if you have been mentored enough to understand how that all works, then I think that you go into the profession with a bit of an advantage.”
He says that it is not so much a set of rules as it is an acquired instinct for navigating the system. “Life is a little more jazz than classical music, isn’t it? It gives you a lead sheet, and then we’re going to improvise our way through. There isn’t a set path.”
‘TRUST YOURSELF … AND GO!’
Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzurro
On occasion, there isn’t even a set path bringing student and mentor together. After announcing to Peabody Admissions that he was giving his student-to-be a perfect “10” on his audition, Peled found himself having to figure out how to help get the teenaged Guerrero from Havana to Baltimore and make it possible for him to survive.
“We’re talking about a kid from Havana who cannot even pay for a bus to get from the airport to the school, let alone the ticket to get here. And then there’s health insurance, dormitories, food, clothes, you name it. I said, look, these kinds of talents don’t come every day.” At Peled’s urging, Peabody provided Guerrero a scholarship for all four years and additional support was raised, a feat, Peled says, that was at heart an act of paying things forward. “I grew up on a kibbutz in Israel. My father was a truck driver. My entire training was based on the goodwill of people who supported my education.”
Guerrero remembers arriving in Baltimore and meeting Peled for the first time. “It was incredible. I was grateful and excited to be at a place where I could refine my skills as a cellist and my musicianship.”
However, the lessons he received from Peled went beyond skills and musicianship—he discovered a whole new attitude and approach to being an artist and a professional musician. “I remember studying Brahms’ Sonata for Cello and Piano in F major, which is a little terrifying for cellists,” he says. In the opening cello theme of the first movement, there is one spot with a particularly risky shift where the cellist’s hand must move quickly up and down the fingerboard to play the correct notes. “I was a little scared to play it and missed the shift. Peled stopped me and said, ‘You know what, Ismael? If you’re going to miss a shift, you might as well miss it with pride.’ And that resonates with me to this day. The more scared we are, the more we don’t allow for success. Sometimes you just need to trust yourself and … go!”
Guerrero has subsequently performed in music venues worldwide, making his Carnegie Hall debut as a member of the renowned Sphinx Virtuosi during their 2021–22 tour. He is currently a member of the faculty at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music. In August 2022, he was named a Los Angeles Philharmonic Resident Fellow. This fellowship supports superb early-career symphonic musicians from underrepresented populations through its excellence-based training program.
‘TRUST YOURSELF … AND GO!’
On occasion, there isn’t even a set path bringing student and mentor together. After announcing to Peabody Admissions that he was giving his student-to-be a perfect “10” on his audition, Peled found himself having to figure out how to help get the teenaged Guerrero from Havana to Baltimore and make it possible for him to survive.
“We’re talking about a kid from Havana who cannot even pay for a bus to get from the airport to the school, let alone the ticket to get here. And then there’s health insurance, dormitories, food, clothes, you name it. I said, look, these kinds of talents don’t come every day.” At Peled’s urging, Peabody provided Guerrero a scholarship for all four years and additional support was raised, a feat, Peled says, that was at heart an act of paying things forward. “I grew up on a kibbutz in Israel. My father was a truck driver. My entire training was based on the goodwill of people who supported my education.”
Guerrero remembers arriving in Baltimore and meeting Peled for the first time. “It was incredible. I was grateful and excited to be at a place where I could refine my skills as a cellist and my musicianship.”
However, the lessons he received from Peled went beyond skills and musicianship—he discovered a whole new attitude and approach to being an artist and a professional musician. “I remember studying Brahms’ Sonata for Cello and Piano in F major, which is a little terrifying for cellists,” he says. In the opening cello theme of the first movement, there is one spot with a particularly risky shift where the cellist’s hand must move quickly up and down the fingerboard to play the correct notes. “I was a little scared to play it and missed the shift. Peled stopped me and said, ‘You know what, Ismael? If you’re going to miss a shift, you might as well miss it with pride.’ And that resonates with me to this day. The more scared we are, the more we don’t allow for success. Sometimes you just need to trust yourself and … go!”
Guerrero has subsequently performed in music venues worldwide, making his Carnegie Hall debut as a member of the renowned Sphinx Virtuosi during their 2021–22 tour. He is currently a member of the faculty at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music. In August 2022, he was named a Los Angeles Philharmonic Resident Fellow. This fellowship supports superb early-career symphonic musicians from underrepresented populations through its excellence-based training program.
Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzurro
MENTORS FOR LIFE
If mentorship goes beyond the conveyance of mere technical skills, it also surpasses constraints of time, place, and chronology. The best mentors are mentors for life.
“When I was deciding to come to Peabody to start the Dance program, I was already a full professor, tenured at another institution,” remembers bella of the importance her own mentor continues to play in her life. “I would have to give that up to come here. So I needed to hear that I was on the right path. I called my mentor from when I was an undergraduate, ever since I was a freshman in college. Just to talk. And he said, ‘Is this a real question? Are you really asking me this question?’ Because, you know, he knew. And he also understood I just needed to hear it from someone outside. A mentor is somebody who you can go to over and over again. You trust what they have to say and you know they’re going to be honest with you and always have your best interest in mind.”
A year before graduating in 2022, Johnston founded the Kaleid Dance Collective, currently based in Brooklyn, where they reside. The work Johnston is now doing in New York, they say, would not have happened without the support and mentorship of bella. “I came to Peabody thinking I knew a thing or two about dance, but danah’s teaching deconstructed that for me. What she did was fostered the kind of communication and collaboration that gave you a platform to disagree. That’s where I find the difference between a teacher and a mentor. A mentor views you as someone with your own opinion, experience, and the right to think what you think. And then they challenge you to pull things out that you didn’t even know were there. A mentor is someone who has walked a similar path and can see you succeeding and believes in you in a way that you might not even believe in yourself yet.”