Peabody Institute Announces Spring 2025 Peabody Performance Series
Series features world premiere of a newly commissioned work by Peabody Conservatory alumnus, symposium on algorithmic composition tools, and more.
By: A.A. Cristi Jan. 29, 2025
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University has announced the spring 2025 programming for its Peabody Performance Series at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in downtown Washington, D.C., which presents free public programs by the Conservatory's esteemed faculty, alumni, students, and special guests.
With performances and conversations spanning historical and contemporary classical music, jazz, and dance, highlights of the spring 2025 series include guest appearances by New York-based chamber ensemble Loadbang and internationally renowned conductor Mei-Ann Chen, a symposium on algorithmic composition tools bringing together more than 50 leading researchers for presentations of art- and science-based creative work, and a chamber choral performance highlighting the experiences of incarcerated writers in history and the present, featuring the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by Peabody alumnus Elijah Daniel Smith.
Since its opening in the fall of 2023, the Hopkins Bloomberg Center has served as an academic crossroads for multidisciplinary research, education, and public impact, presenting programming that brings together experts, students, artists, faculty, and researchers from across academic disciplines to promote dialogue, fuel discovery, and foster creativity. With daytime and evening events throughout the week, the Center at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW creates a new cultural hub for local professionals, community members, and visitors to experience world-class performing arts in a singular location.
“The Peabody Performance series allows the Peabody Institute to continue to expand our audience by providing the greater D.C. community with an opportunity to enjoy inspiring music and dance performances during their day-to-day lives in the busy heart of the nation's capital,” said Fred Bronstein, Dean of the Peabody Institute. “The spring 2025 season showcases the artistry and creative drive of Peabody's talented faculty, students, alumni, and guests in an intimate setting that is a center of the arts in civic life.”
“The Peabody Performance Series plays an integral part in the Hopkins Bloomberg Center's mission to facilitate community and dialogue through engaging programming at the nexus of performance, scholarship, and discovery,” said Cybele Bjorklund, Executive Director of the Hopkins Bloomberg Center. “We welcome both the Hopkins community and guests to come and enjoy the robust slate of arts and culture programming on offer here on Pennsylvania Avenue.”
PEABODY PERFORMANCE SERIES SPRING 2025 PROGRAMMING
Poulenc Trio
Friday, January 31, 2025
12:30 – 1:30 pm
The Poulenc Trio, comprised of Aleh Remezau (oboe) and faculty artists Irina Kaplan Lande (piano) and Bryan Young (bassoon), performs a program including Ludwig van Beethoven's Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11, “Gassenhauer,” Thomas Benjamin's Three Études, James Lee III's Principal Brothers No. 4, and alumnus Viet Cuong's Explain Yourself!
Ludwig van Beethoven Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11, “Gassenhauer”
Thomas Benjamin Three Études
James Lee III Principal Brothers No. 4
Viet Cuong Explain Yourself!
Project Fusion Saxophone Quartet
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
12:30 – 1:30 pm
Peabody Assistant Professor and saxophonist Doug O'Connor is joined by members of his ensemble, the Project Fusion Saxophone Quartet (Dannel Espinoza, Aiwen Zhang), and guest saxophonist Jeff Siegfried for a program of compositions and arrangements by living composers, including faculty artists Alyssa Weinberg and Sky Macklay, and alumnus Bobby Ge.
Alyssa Weinberg The Water-Clock Bleeds
Peter Van Zandt Lane nodes.branches.loops
Bobby Ge To Speak as One
Frédéric Chopin Kakumei, from Étude in C minor,
(arr. Ishikawa & Espinoza) “Revolutionary”
Sky Macklay Saxophone Hero
Songs from Inside
Friday, February 14, 2025
12:30 – 1:30 pm
The Sheridan Libraries, in collaboration with the American Prison Writing Archive and the Peabody Institute, presents Songs from Inside, featuring choral music that honors the individual minds, hearts, and voices of incarcerated writers from today and centuries past. At the center of the program is the premiere of Neither Persons nor Property, a commissioned work by composer and Peabody alumnus Elijah Daniel Smith, set to texts by Brian D. Fuller, a writer incarcerated in Texas. It will be paired with Luigi Dallapiccola's Canti di Prigionia (Songs of Imprisonment, 1938–41), a musical protest against rising fascism set to texts by imprisoned writers from different ages. Songs from Inside is performed by the icarus Quartet and Peabody NEXT Ensemble and conducted by Peabody artist-in-residence Juliano Aniceto.
Elijah Daniel Smith Neither Persons nor Property
Luigi Dallapiccola Canti di Prigionia (Songs of Imprisonment)
Peabody Graduate Jazz Ensemble
Friday, February 28, 2025
12:30 – 1:30 pm
An 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 Chamber Orchestra
Friday, March 7, 2025
12:30 – 1:30 pm
Internationally acclaimed Taiwanese American conductor Mei-Ann Chen leads the Peabody Chamber Orchestra, Peabody's most advanced orchestral ensemble, in a performance of modestly scored works, including symphonies from the classical period and beyond.
Emilie Mayer Overture No. 2 in D major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 33 in B-flat major, K. 319
Jennifer Higdon Dance Card
Sergei Prokofiev Symphony No. 1, Op. 25, “Classical”
2025 SuperCollider Symposium
Thursday, March 13 – Saturday, March 15, 2025
The 2025 SuperCollider Symposium will bring together more than 50 of the world's leading researchers using the SuperCollider programming language in art- and science-based creative work. These artists and researchers will present their work, ranging from installations to live audio and video performances, during five concerts and five paper sessions spread over three days. Research presented will represent cutting-edge explorations of algorithmic composition tools, AI digital signal processing, multi-nodal network systems, and much more. Led by Dr. Sam Pluta, Associate Professor of Computer Music in Music Engineering and Technology, and Dr. Ted Moore, Lecturer in Music Engineering and Technology, the Symposium will feature keynote speakers including James McCartney, creator of SuperCollider; Lucile Nihlen, developer of Hadron, a new Rust-based SC implementation; and Christof Ressi, developer of both SuperCollider and puredata programming languages.
Chamber Music Recital
Friday, April 11, 2025
12:30 – 1:30 pm
The Peabody Chamber Music Department presents students in concert under the direction of Annie Fullard, Sidney M. Friedberg Chair and director of Chamber Music. An essential component of a complete musical education, the Peabody Chamber Music program provides weekly instruction for intermediate and advanced students, consisting of coachings, guest master classes, special events, and performances.
Conservatory Dance
Friday, April 18, 2025
12:30 – 1:30 pm
The Peabody Conservatory Dance program, led by Chair danah bella, presents student performances, informed by classes on Dance Performance, Pedagogy, Theory and Composition, Technique and Practice, Choreography, and Physiology.
Loadbang
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
7:00 – 8:00 pm
Acclaimed New York City-based new music chamber group Loadbang (Adrian Sandi, bass clarinet; Andy Kozar, trumpet(s); Ty Bouque, baritone voice; William Lang, trombone) performs works by Peabody faculty, including Assistant Professor Sky Macklay, Professor Oscar Bettison, Professor Michael Hersch, and Associate Professor and Chair of the Composition Department Felipe Lara.
Peabody Jazz Ensemble
Friday, May 2, 2025
12:30 – 2:30 pm
Led by renowned trumpeter Sean Jones, Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair of Jazz Studies, the Peabody Jazz Ensemble grounds its students in the remarkable history of jazz, while emphasizing the exploration of all American music. This ensemble studies and performs a broad range of jazz idioms and encourages community-engaged artistry to develop expressive, flexible, creative, and collaborative musicians who are deeply invested in making an impact with their art.
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.
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