The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

George Peabody believed in the power of the artist to open the minds and enrich the lives of others. The Peabody Institute, which he founded in 1857, is the practical embodiment of this belief. From its beginnings, it has brought together a community of artists, teachers, and scholars to train other artists and to spread, by their precept and example, an understanding of what the arts can do to uplift the quality of human life.

Today, the Peabody Institute concentrates primarily upon music. Through its constituent divisions, the Preparatory and the Conservatory, it trains musicians of every age and at every level, from small children to seasoned professionals, from dedicated amateurs to winners of international competitions. It challenges all its students to aspire to their highest potential as artists and human beings. It seeks to promote a respect for music as a discipline of the mind and spirit, a joyful affirmation of life, and a passionate commitment to an ideal. By connecting its students with the great traditions of the past, Peabody gives them the key with which to unlock the future.

The Peabody Conservatory strives to provide aspiring artists with the skills to pursue professional careers in music as well as with the education to become leaders in the cultural life of their communities.

Peabody Conservatory has become an acknowledged leader in the cultural life of Maryland and has built a reputation that is truly international. As a division of The Johns Hopkins University, Peabody takes its place beside the university’s other world-famous centers of research and learning in the sciences, humanities, and medicine, poised to define the contribution of music in our lives in the 21st century.

Among the leading musicians who have served on the Peabody faculty are composers Henry Cowell, Elliott Carter, Peter Mennin, Ernst Krenek, Benjamin Lees, Earle Brown, and Hugo Weisgall; violinists William Kroll, Louis Persinger, Oscar Shumsky, and Roman Totenberg; cellists Aldo Parisot and Zara Nelsova; pianists Harold Bauer, Ernest Hutcheson, Mieczyslaw Munz, Reginald Stewart, and Erno Balogh; scholars Nadia Boulanger, Otto Ortmann, and Nicolas Slonimsky.

The Conservatory’s present faculty is in the same distinguished tradition, and includes prizewinners in the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition, Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition, the ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards, as well as Guggenheim fellows and Fulbright grantees.

Peabody’s teachers and alumni appear as soloists and recitalists across the country and around the world, conduct workshops, lecture in colleges and universities, make recordings, and serve as jurists for international competitions from Texas to Tokyo, from Brussels to Moscow. Near and far, its graduates are active in orchestras, in arts organizations, and as teachers at all levels from pre-college through postgraduate education. Among its most illustrious alumni are pianist Andre Watts, vocalists James Morris and Richard Cassilly of the Metropolitan Opera, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Dominick Argento. The Peabody Conservatory of Music is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music and, as a division of The Johns Hopkins University, by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, 3624 Market St., Philadelphia, PA 19104-2680; 215-662-5606.