Peabody Institute Announces Spring 2024 Peabody Performance Series at Hopkins Bloomberg Center

The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University has announced the spring 2024 programming for its Peabody Performance Series at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in downtown Washington, D.C., presenting free public performances by the Conservatory's esteemed faculty, alumni, students, and special guests.

Spanning performances and conversations on historical and contemporary classical music, jazz, and dance, highlights of the spring series include the world premiere of a new work for electric guitar and string quartet, a lecture celebrating the centennial of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, and a presentation of original choreography by the faculty leaders of Peabody's innovative BFA Dance program.

Located at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, the Hopkins Bloomberg Center opened in the fall of 2023 as a new academic crossroads for multidisciplinary research, education, and public impact. Anchored by the School of Advanced International Studies, the Carey Business School, the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the Peabody Institute, and soon the recently announced School of Government and Policy, the Center hosts programming from all corners of Johns Hopkins, bringing experts, students, artists, and researchers from each of the university's Baltimore- and D.C.-based divisions together on one of America's most iconic avenues. Taking place during the day and throughout the week, the Center's Peabody Performance Series creates opportunities for Penn Quarter employees, community members, and visitors in the neighborhood to experience world-class performing arts in a new D.C. cultural hub.

“Since inaugurating the Peabody Performance Series in D.C. this past fall, we've built on our mission to advance the arts and their imprint on society by inviting the community into this state-of-the art, interdisciplinary venue and its purpose-built theater to make a growing impact in the heart of the nation's capital,” said Fred Bronstein, Dean of the Peabody Institute. “This spring's programs continue to showcase Peabody's accomplished artists and leaders of tomorrow as they perform at the highest level, premiere and promote innovative new works, and convene vital conversations about the arts and civic society.”

“The Hopkins Bloomberg Center in D.C. represents a significant new footprint for America's first research university, creating an extension of our campus that reaches across schools and disciplines with expanded programming for new audiences,” said Cybele Bjorklund, Executive Director of the Hopkins Bloomberg Center. “The Peabody Institute plays a critical role in the Center's mission, bringing together performance, scholarship, and community connection to tell and shape the story of the country's cultural history and future.”

PEABODY PERFORMANCE SERIES

SPRING 2024 PROGRAMMING

Bergamot String Quartet with Zane Forshee

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

12:30 – 1:30 p.m.

Peabody professor and guitarist Zane Forshee joins the all-alumnae Bergamot String Quartet (Ledah Finck, violin; Sarah Thomas, violin; Amy Huimei Tan, viola; Irène Han, cello) for a program of contemporary works, including the world premiere of a new work by Ronald Pearl for electric guitar and string quartet and a new arrangement of Elliot Cole's Bloom Suite for classical guitar and string quartet.

Michael Laurello    Tell Hope Everything You Hear

Caroline Shaw       Plan & Elevation

Ronald Pearl         Music from a Distant Room (world premiere)

Ledah Finck          The Division of Knowledge

Elliot ColeBloom Suite (world premiere arrangement by Elliot Cole)

George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue: The Search for an American Sound

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

12:30 – 1:30 p.m.

George Gershwin (1898-1937) was one of the most emblematically American composers of the twentieth century.  An intuitive and inquisitive artist, he tapped into the pulse of the 1920s jazz age and created a range of works that straddled the boundary between "high" and "low" cultures. February 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of his most famous composition, Rhapsody in Blue, which captured the mechanistic pulse of modern life, with its soaring skyscrapers, roaring automobiles, and pulsating rhythms. In this multimedia presentation, Peabody Musicology Professor Anna Celenza tells the origin story of this iconic work, its ties to contemporary politics, and the profound effect it had on other American composers, most notably Duke Ellington, Aaron Copland, James P. Johnson, William Grant Still, and Leonard Bernstein.

Yong Hi Moon and Dai Uk Lee

Sunday, March 24, 2024

3 – 4 p.m.

Professor of Piano Yong Hi Moon is joined by her husband and collaborator, pianist Dai Uk Lee, for a recital of duo piano works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, Maurice Ravel, and Antonín Dvořák.

J.S. Bach           Sheep May Safely Graze

Franz Schubert Fantasia in F minor, D.940

Maurice Ravel   Ma mère l'Oye, M.62

Antonín Dvořák Slavonic Dances

Peabody Percussion Collective

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

12:30 – 1:30 p.m.

Peabody Professor of Percussion Robert van Sice serves as artistic director for the Percussion Collective, whose mission includes commissioning new works for percussion.

Garth Neustadter            Seaborne

Alejandro ViñaoStress & Flow

Astor Piazzolla  Le Grand Tango

(arr. Garth Neustadter)

Peabody Symphony Orchestra

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

12:30 – 1:30 p.m.

Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Ensembles Joseph Young leads the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in Astor Piazzolla's Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (“The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires”) and one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's best-known works, the "Paris" Symphony.

Astor Piazzolla            Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas

(arr. Leonid Desyatnikov)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart       Symphony No. 31, K. 300a [297], D major,

"Paris" 

Randall Scarlata: Die schöne Müllerin

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

12:30 – 1:30 p.m.

Associate Professor of Voice and acclaimed baritone Randall Scarlata is accompanied by pianist Gilbert Kalish in Franz Schubert's seminal 1823 song cycle Die schöne Müllerin.

Peabody Graduate Jazz Ensemble

Friday, April 26, 2024

12:30 – 1:30 p.m.

A new ensemble created to spotlight Peabody's graduate students in Jazz Studies takes the stage, directed by renowned trumpeter Sean Jones, Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair in Jazz Studies at Peabody. The Graduate Jazz Ensemble comprises recipients of Peabody's selective Graduate Jazz Fellowship, which emphasizes community-engaged artistry to develop expressive, flexible, creative, and collaborative musicians who are deeply invested in making an impact with their art. The ensemble provides developing artists with a platform to compose and perform original works, while gaining experience in roles of leadership and giving back to the community as educational artists.

Peabody BFA Dance Faculty Concert

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

12:30 – 1:30 p.m.

Peabody Conservatory Dance faculty artists danah bella, Diedre Dawkins, Kelly Hirina, and Christopher Pennix perform original dance works and choreography by Ronald K. Brown and Sophia Perone.

Programming is subject to change.

All programs in the Peabody Performance Series are free and open to the public with advance registration. The series will also be available via livestream at video.ibm.com/channel/Peabody-Live. To view the full schedule of Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center events and reserve tickets, please visit washingtondc.jhu.edu/upcoming-events.

About the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University advances a dynamic, 21st-century model of the performing arts, building on its rich history of innovation and leadership as the first conservatory in the United States. Comprising both a Conservatory for undergraduate and graduate studies and the Preparatory, Baltimore's largest community performing arts school, Peabody empowers musicians and dancers from diverse backgrounds to create and perform at the highest level. Courses of study range from classical and jazz performance, ballet, and modern dance to cutting-edge programs in acoustics, recording arts and sciences, and music for new media, taught alongside the Conservatory's signature Breakthrough Curriculum, a career development framework that prepares citizen-artists to help shape the future of the field and serve their communities. A division of Johns Hopkins, one of the world's preeminent research universities and medical institutions, Peabody is the largest conservatory in the U.S. committed to meeting full financial need for domestic undergraduate students, and provides opportunities for interdisciplinary study through its dual degree program and important initiatives in both arts-in-healthcare and clinical care for performing artists. A leading voice at the intersection of art and education, Peabody is also a convener of critical discourse, providing platforms for a broad range of artistic perspectives to engage with current issues and critical ideas in the cultural sector. To learn more about the Peabody Institute, visit peabody.jhu.edu.

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