The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

Peabody Honors Quincy Jones

His arrangement of Fly Me to the Moon was played by Buzz Aldrin when the astronaut landed on the moon in 1969. His 1985 production of We Are the World became the best-selling single of all time, and Michael Jackson’s Thriller became the best-selling album in the history of the recording industry. Legendary musician, composer, conductor, producer, and record executive, Quincy Jones has shaped the cultural horizon for multiple generations. For his far-reaching contributions to music in the United States and around the world, Quincy Jones was awarded the George Peabody Medal on May 17 as part of Peabody’s Commencement ceremonies, where he was the keynote speaker.

During his address to Peabody’s 157 graduating students and their families, Jones recounted his teenage years on tour with Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, and Dizzie Gillespie; study sessions with Nadia Boulanger and Aaron Copland; and his experience flying on Air Force One for Nelson Mandela’s presidential inauguration. Among the nuggets of wisdom he shared with the young musicians:

"Do not allow yourselves to become slaves to the machinery of life. When it seems like too much, press the pause button and let the soul catch up with the body."

Jones joins a long list of distinguished George Peabody Medal recipients that includes such legendary figures as Marian Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, Ella Fitzgerald, Philip Glass, Benny Goodman, Marilyn Horne, Gian Carlo Menotti, Leonard Slatkin, Isaac Stern, Bobby McFerrin, and Andre Previn among others.

—Kirsten Lavin

Quincy Jones Career Highlights

• All-time most nominated GRAMMY artist with a total of 79 nominations and 27 winning GRAMMYs.

• As vice president of Mercury Records, became the first high-level black executive of an established major record company.

• Worked with artists such as Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington, and Frank Sinatra.

• 33 film credits, including scores for The Pawnbroker, In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood, and The Wiz.

• Produced NBC-TV series The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, launching Will Smith's career as an actor.

• Publisher of VIBE, SPIN, and BLAZE magazines.

Boris Slutsky wins Teaching Award

Moscow-born pianist Boris Slutsky blazed onto the world music scene at the young age of 19, sweeping the top spot and audience prize in the William Kapell competition. Now, Peabody’s winner of a 2007 Excellence in Teaching Award is teaching his students to be winners as well. They are earning top honors in prestigious competitions—including the Baltimore Music Club Competition, the Hilton Head Piano Competition, and the Iowa Piano Competition. The upcoming William Kapell International and the Queen Elizabeth competitions will have representatives from Slutsky’s studio as well.

Slutsky has one of the largest and most sought-after piano studios at Peabody, with more than 20 students, and his ability to balance the individual needs of his pupils is evident in their comments. “I have progressed to a level of musical maturity that allows me to form my own ideas and communicate them,” said one of his Graduate Performance Diploma (GPD) students. Another GPD student remarked, “He has the ability to communicate with each individual student, which I find extremely valuable in a teacher, as each and every one of us is different.”

For his part, Slutsky finds his students’ dedication and effort inspiring as well. “The most important factor in my enjoyment of teaching is curiosity,” he says. “I like to see students who are curious about different kinds of music, different ways of looking at things. I want someone who has initiative, who does not wait to hear what to do, but presents me with their own visions, their own ways of hearing things. I love teaching as much as anything else.”

Kong Captures Chopin Competition

Despite a late start preparing for her first major competition in New York, junior Kimberly Kong earned top prize in the 58th Chopin National Piano Competition held by the Kosciuszko Foundation in April.

“It was a big challenge to get to a polished level,” says Kong, the student of Peabody’s Yong Hi Moon. The pianist’s repertoire included Brahms’ Sonata No.1, Haydn’s Sonata in E, Chopin’s Scherzo in c-sharp and Ballade, Bach’s Toccata, and Szymanowski’s Mazurka.

The Korean-American Kong is no stranger to the concert stage. She made her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at age 9. Since then she has appeared frequently as a soloist with the orchestra under the baton of Marvin Hamlisch. She has also performed solo recitals at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, PNC Hall at Duquesne University, and Puccini Theatre in Italy.

The annual Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition was established in 1949, on the 100th anniversary of the death of Frederick Chopin, and is open to musicians age 16 to 22. Past winners have included Van Cliburn, Murray Perahia, and Ian Hobson.

—Margaret Bell

Peabody Musicians Top the Charts

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s first downloadable live concert, which featured members of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, ranked among the top three classical downloads on iTunes in March. Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, conducted by the BSO’s music director Marin Alsop, was performed from January 11 to 14 and was hailed by The Washington Post as “a thunderous, rip-roaring, full-throttle performance.”

But that wasn’t the only Peabody chart topper. The Peabody Wind Ensemble’s latest release on the Naxos label, Collage—A Celebration of the Peabody Institute’s 150th Anniversary, soared to the top of the classical downloads chart during the month of March on emusic.com. Harlan Parker leads the ensemble on the disc, which features music by Glinka, Woolfenden, Schoenberg, Sousa, Bird, and Holsinger. The CD hit the No. 1 spot for the week of March 18–24, resulting in a No. 4 showing for the month-end chart. The CD was also a Top 20 download on Amazon.com in the new releases classical compilation category.

—MB + KL

From Russia, With Love 

After more than a 10-year hiatus from solo recording, Peabody’s Gary Louie recently stepped back into the studio—well, make that a converted 150-year-old Russian church.

The renowned classical saxophonist says he took a break from his extensive international touring schedule to start a family and focus on his teaching and frequent solo performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He’s also been a guest artist on many CD recordings.

In recent years, fans and colleagues inquired about a new Louie disc, following his 1996 release with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Jacques Ibert’s Oeuvres Variées.

One such colleague, Peabody Presents program director William Nerenberg, set the wheels in motion for Louie to record with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Vladimir Lande. A principal guest conductor with the Russian company, Lande previously worked with Louie to premier former Peabody Director Robert Sirota’s Concerto for Saxophone & Orchestra.

Louie says he was eager to work with Lande again and record a CD’s worth of concertos.

“The album has been on my mind for a long time,” he says.

They recorded the music over 10 days in May and early June. The artists chose the Church of St. Katherine on Vasilievsky Island due to its unique acoustic properties, produced by the structure’s thick masonry and double-story balcony.

The album, intended for a fall release, will include Bizet’s Carmen Fantasy (arranged by Louie), Glazounov’s Concerto in Eb Major, Frank Martin’s Ballade, Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise, and Schumann’s Träumerei (arranged by Frank Hudson).

Louie was particularly excited to hear how the orchestra wrapped itself around Rachmaninoff. “They played it quite differently than I’ve done it before,” he says. “We had no rehearsal. None was really needed as they grew up with this music. It was their culture. I just followed them and it turned out exactly like I had hoped: beautiful.”

Nerenberg says that the musicians mostly let the music do the talking.

“We were not able to communicate verbally except through a translator,” he says. “So most of the communication and inspiration came about because of the playing and the feeling that the orchestra got from listening to Gary’s performance. That was key to the quality of the recording.”

Inside the recording space, 30 microphones were set up around Louie and the orchestra, and they played the pieces straight through. The saxophonist says he wanted to capture the energy of a live performance, which meant it was all right to be a hair less than perfect.

“Vladimir is great with tempo and feel. I think we got just what we were after,” he says. “I just heard the rough mix yesterday. I’m very happy with the results.”

Nerenberg says that Louie, who is known for pushing the boundaries of his instrument, made sure to bring something unexpected to the mix of songs.

“The Martin piece, which is written for flute and piano, is extremely difficult and demanding, especially for saxophone,” Nerenberg says. Couple that with the long layoff, Nerenberg says, and this promises to be a much-anticipated release.

—Greg Rienzi

Two Awarded Fulbrights

Two Peabody students are among 18 students at Johns Hopkins who earned coveted Fulbright Scholarships last spring. The award will allow them to study abroad during the 2007–2008 academic year.

Jason Peterson, who anticipates completing his doctorate in piano performance at Peabody in December, will travel to Freiburg, Germany, to study the performance of Austro-Germanic piano repertoire at the Hochschule für Musik.

Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick, who earned a graduate performance diploma in voice from Peabody in 2006, will travel to Hungary to study the music and life of Ferenc Erkel, Hungary’s greatest composer of opera, at the Liszt Academy. Upon completing her studies, she plans to return to the United States and offer a concert series.

Created in 1946, the Fulbright Program aims to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of people, knowledge, and skills. The program awards approximately 1,000 grants annually and currently operates in more than 140 countries.

— Amy Lunday