Graduation 2025

At its pair of Graduation ceremonies on May 22, the Peabody Conservatory awarded 302 degrees to graduates, from Bachelors of Music and Fine Arts up through Doctors of Musical Arts. The celebratory events included performances by graduates Angeline Wang (BM ’25, Violin) and Junhong Kuang (BM ’20, Guitar; MM ’25, Guitar), and the presentation of the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award to violin professor Herbert Greenberg. Speakers touched on the communities that support them in their artistic and academic endeavors. “Peabody gave me more than just technical skills,” noted undergraduate student speaker Noni Zhang (BM ’25, Music for New Media), “it gave me a space to explore, collaborate, and grow.” Graduate student speaker Eduardo Javier Fajardo Rivera (MM ’25, Flute) spoke about his mother’s enduring faith in him, reminding classmates that people believe in them, even when they don’t believe in themselves. And hip-hop legend Rakim, recipient of the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music and Dance in America, shared that in 1987, his parents had to sign him out of high school to tour for his debut album. “Long story short, I promised that if they did it I would go back to school one day and get my diploma,” Rakim said at the podium, “I think this right here is something that they would say, ‘Well done,’ and ‘You did a good job.’” 

I began my recent address to the graduating class of 2025 by quoting business author and guru Peter Drucker, who said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” I urged our graduates to consider how they can make their art relevant and meaningful in a rapidly changing world. At their most basic, the arts are uniquely human and express the human condition, and that requires transparency, authenticity, and an ability to speak truth to power. We don’t need to look any further than the past 100 years for plenty of examples of art censorship, in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and China’s Cultural Revolution, to name a few.

While certainly not on a par with these historical examples, recent upheavals at the Kennedy Center and the National Endowment for the Arts raise concerns about the diversity and freedom of artistic expression in our own time. More than ever, artists today must speak truth to power and maintain their artistic independence and freedom of “artistic speech.” I don’t think this is something that we can take for granted but, rather, it must be jealously guarded. To succeed, artists need to be flexible and adaptable advocates who champion ideas and their own voices. In truth, we need to remember that artists have agency in abundance, especially if they take Drucker’s advice.

Sincerely,

Fred Bronstein, Dean

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Saturday, June 7, 6:30 and 8:00 pm EDT

ChamberQueer cofounders Jules Biber, Danielle Buonaiuto (MM ’12, Musicology and Voice Performance), and Brian Mummert celebrate radical love with a pair of concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of the collective's 2025 Pride festival, Queer Ancestry, taking place around New York City throughout June. Biber, Buonaiuto, and Mummert are joined by early musicians Keats Dieffenbach, Rafa Prendergast, and Peter Lim to perform works by Hildegard von Bingen, Astor Piazzolla, Barbara Strozzi, and more, and the concerts are free with museum admission. For a complete list of Queer Ancestry events, see ChamberQueer’s website.

Wednesday, June 18, 8:30 pm CEST

New York City-based composer/drummer Devin Gray (BM ’06, Jazz Percussion) spends some time in Berlin this summer, performing with a variety of international collaborators. On June 18 Gray joins a quartet with alto saxophonist Michaël Attias, Argentinian pianist Nataniel Edelman, and British drummer Phil Donkin, and on June 28 he performs with Berlin-based American saxophonist Jeremy Viner, Austrian pianist Elias Stemeseder, and American bassist Kevin Eichenberger. Both concerts take place at Berlin’s musician-run hub of free jazz and improvised music, Sowieso.

Thursday, June 19, 7:00 pm EDT

Soprano Symone Harcum (MM ’18, Vocal Performance and Pedagogy) made her Opera Philadelphia debut earlier this year as Léontine in The Anonymous Lover, featuring music by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. This month she performs as part of the Juneteenth celebration organized by the eponymous foundation of Denyce Graves, Harcum’s former studio mentor. Harcum and pianist Liz Hill honor the legacy of African-American composers and performers at the Morningstar Baptist Church in Woodlawn, MD. The concert is free.

Saturday, June 21, 8:00 pm EDT

Percussionist, composer, and faculty artist Warren Wolf brings his band—faculty artist and pianist Alex Brown, bassist Blake Meister (BM ’08, Jazz Double Bass), drummer Charles Wilson, and Wolf on the vibraphone—to Jazzway 6004 for the 15th anniversary concert at this intimate North Baltimore venue. The concert is a collaboration between Wolf and special guest vocalist Alicia Olatuja, whose “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” solo with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir at President Barack Obama’s Second Inauguration led to her appearing on recording projects by the likes of Christian McBride and the late Dr. Lonnie Smith. Tickets are available online.

Saturday, July 5, 8:30 pm CEST

The Lorelei Ensemble, led by Director of Choral Studies Beth Willer and featuring Taylor Boykins (MM ’14, Voice), makes its European debut at the Big Sing, the adventurous festival for vocal ensembles and choirs in Haarlem and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Lorelei performs the European debuts of Christopher Cerrone’s Beaufort Scales, Molly Herron’s “Stellar Atmospheres,” Meredith Monk’s “Other Worlds Revealed” and “Earth, Seen from Above,” and Elijah Daniel Smith’s (MM ’20, Composition) “Suspended in Spin.” Tickets are available online.

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Peabody Notes highlights select off-campus performances featuring Peabody performers. For other events, please visit our Peabody events page.

Makai Fisher, Sophia Hurt, George Moravec, and Jabari Woodson

Students from the Low Brass studio of Preparatory faculty artist Jasmine Pigott (DMA ’24, Tuba) were four of only nine American students selected to compete in the International Tuba Euphonium Conference’s Young Artist competitions running June 23-25 in Valencia, Spain.

Chelsey Green

Berklee College of Music associate professor Chelsey Green (MM ’09, Violin) was recently elected Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Recording Academy, the first Black woman and youngest person ever to hold the post. Her leadership includes service on the Boards of the Latin Recording Academy, the GRAMMY Museum, and MusiCares. 

Young-Jun Lee

Composition DMA candidate Young-Jun Lee’s composition “MYBSTMM,” created in collaboration with soprano Sophia Sorrentino (MM ’25, Vocal Studies), was awarded First Prize in the Composition category at the 16th Amigdala International Music Competition in Italy. “MYBSTMM” was based on a letter that Sorrentino wrote to her mother when she was a child.

Samrat Majumder

Scottish-Indian guitarist and incoming doctoral candidate Samrat Majumder is one of four new artists named to the prestigious roster of the Young Classical Artists Trust, the British organization that supports the early careers of musicians. Majumder was singled out for an enhanced package of support as the YCAT 40th Anniversary Artist, and the joint YCAT-Concert Artists Guild (USA) artist for 2025. Majumder will study with faculty artist Manuel Barrueco.

Jacob Yoffee

This month, composer Jacob Yoffee’s (BM ’02, Composition; GPD ’04, Jazz Saxophone) work with his Th3rdstream creative partner Roahn Hylton appears in the scores to Whitney Houston in Focus, appearing on Starz, and the documentary We Are Guardians, about protecting the Amazon rainforest and its indigenous communities, in theaters. His music for this Thule commercial was performed by a studio ensemble that includes Russell Kirk (BM ’05, Jazz Saxophone).

1978: Revenge of the Dragon

Jose James’ twelfth album continues the jazz composer/vocalist’s love of combining elements of 1970s soul and R&B with the ideas of hip-hop and jazz. It is also the second James album to include Jazz undergraduate alto saxophonist Ebban Dorsey, who joined the band for its record release shows at the Blue Note in May. (Dorsey also appears in the album’s accompanying short film, a mash note to 1970s kung-fu flicks.) 1978: Revenge of the Dragon (Rainbow Blonde Records) is available to stream/buy online.

Aspects of Liszt

In a recent interview, faculty artist Steven Spooner recalled being captivated by a 1987 Dmitris Sgouros album of Franz Liszt piano music, only for his piano teacher to inform him that “Liszt is no good.” Decades later, celebrated artist-professor Spooner has released Aspects of Liszt, a years-in-the-making 10-CD box set that celebrates a figure who, in Spooner’s estimation, established the idea of a musician being a professional artist-composer-educator. In part supported by a 2024 Dean's Excellence Accelerator Grant, Aspects features Spooner tackling the entirety of the solo piano works composed by Liszt and is available to stream or purchase online.

Five Prayers

Joy Guidry’s (BM ’18, Bassoon) third album features the bassoonist/composer pushing the bassoon into meditative, almost ambient waves of sonic meditations that touch on navigating her Bipolar II Disorder. Guidry is joined by harpist Elizabeth Steiner and keyboard player Diego Gaeta, who add celestial moods and tones to the five works here. With “I Know You’re Always With Me,” the standout album closer, Guidry delivers an arresting and comforting 16-minute odyssey of self-care and -love. Five Prayers (Jaid Records) is available on Bandcamp, and Guidry performs on June 21 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In Modo Polonico 

For his second solo album, British guitarist Finbarr Malafronte (BM ’08, MM ’09, Guitar) pays tribute to the 25 guitar works Polish-French composer Alexandre Tansman wrote, many for the Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia. In Modo Polonico (Dux Records) features Malafronte’s tender, nimble, and reverent interpretations of six Tansman works: Cavatina, Hommage a Chopin, Pièce brèves, Variations on a Theme of Scriabin, the gorgeous Quattro tempi di Mazurka, and the titular Suite in Modo Polonico. In Modo Polonico is available to buy or stream online.

For the Love of It All 

On For the Love of It All (Blue Note), Preparatory alumnus and composer/trumpeter Brandon Woody and his band Upendo—keyboardist Troy Long (BM ’19, Jazz), drummer Quincy Phillips, and bassist Michael Saunders, with guest vocalist Imani-Grace and synthesizer player Vittorio Stropoli—explore introspective, meditative terrain. Tracks such as “Wisdom; Terrace on St. Paul St.” evoke the casual, ordinary joy of hanging out with friends, family, and neighbors on a Baltimore stoop. For the Love of It All is available to buy or stream online.

“Met Gala”

Trumpeter Dontae Winslow (BM ’97, Trumpet) is a guest on “Met Gala,” the new single from Los Angeles-based composer/producer JimiJame$.“Met Gala” is available to buy or stream online.