Composition at the Peabody
Peabody provides expert guidance and rigorous professional training to young composers in a congenial and supportive atmosphere. Faculty members are internationally recognized composers whose works are performed in venues throughout the world. Students from Peabody are regularly awarded major composition prizes and fellowships, and alumni have gone on to teaching positions in leading conservatories, colleges, and universities, both domestically and abroad. At Peabody, we feel that the student can benefit best from an environment in which he or she is encouraged to discover a voice which is unique and personal, unencumbered by pressures to tend toward one style or another.
Composition majors pursue their studies in private weekly lessons with their individual teachers, supplemented by departmental seminars which include presentations by distinguished visiting composers, new music ensembles, and soloists. In addition to the regularly scheduled opportunities within the conservatory, recent opportunities provided students include a reading session of student orchestral works with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under Music Director Marin Alsop, performances of student works by leading new music soloists and ensembles, and collaborations between Peabody students and other major institutions, including most recently the Walters Art Gallery.
Each year there are a number of readings of student orchestral works by the conservatory’s top orchestra, the Peabody Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, there are annual readings with the conservatory’s wind ensemble and chorus. Another remarkable opportunity which happens every two years, is the selection of a number of students to write opera scenes. These scenes are then rehearsed and performed under the guidance of Peabody’s internationally recognized opera director, Roger Brunyate. Recitals of student chamber works are scheduled regularly by the Composition Department throughout the year. All recitals and readings are professionally recorded by the Peabody Recording Studios.
Peabody has in place a Distinguished Composer-in-Residence program, in which a leading composer comes to the institute to give regular masterclasses throughout the year. The current holder of this position is Christopher Rouse. The city of Baltimore boasts an ever-growing and diverse new music scene, and the faculty encourages interaction between Peabody students and the music community at large. In addition to the hundreds of concerts at Peabody which composition majors have access to, the Peabody owns an extensive library of music both new and old, and students are encouraged to take advantage of this with regularity. For young composers who wish to learn by hearing their works performed and applying that immediate feedback for future growth, Peabody offers excellent opportunities.