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News of Note
The Stars Came Out in December
Peabody’s own Leon Fleisher found himself in the national spotlight in December, during a two-day celebratory whirl that culminated with him receiving a lifetime achievement award at the 30th annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremony.
Fleisher and his fellow recipients—singers Diana Ross and Brian Wilson, comedian/writer Steve Martin, and movie director Martin Scorsese—were feted for two days in Washington, D.C. at events that brought together many big names of Hollywood and the capital.
“With their extraordinary talent, creativity, and perseverance, the five 2007 honorees have transformed the way we, as Americans, see, hear, and feel the performing arts,” noted Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen A. Schwarzman, adding, “We will forever be thankful for the great gift they have shared with us.”
The celebration, held December 2 and 3, included a State Department dinner on Saturday and a star-studded celebration on Sunday at the Kennedy Center Opera House, during which the five honorees were saluted by great performers from Hollywood and the arts capitals of the world. The celebration was taped and nationally broadcast by CBS on December 26 in a two-hour prime-time special.
Those honoring Fleisher included renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who noted that Fleisher’s mother had wanted her son to become either a pianist or the president of the United States. Fleisher, said Ma, “decided a pianist would be easier.”
Conductor and violinist Jaime Laredo thanked Fleisher for introducing him to his wife, and lauded the maestro’s work as “the standard by which we know what music can be.”
Laredo then went on to lead the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, with piano soloist Jonathan Biss, in a soaring rendition of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy.
Fleisher, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Chair in Piano at Peabody, has served on the Conservatory’s faculty since 1959. A child prodigy, who began studies with Artur Schnabel at age 9 and had his Carnegie Hall debut at 16 with the New York Philharmonic, Fleisher was hailed as the “pianistic find of the century” by Pierre Monteaux. After winning the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition in Belgium in 1952, he became one of the most sought-after soloists and recitalists in the world’s finest concert halls, and began a rich series of recordings.
His meteoric rise was cruelly cut short in the mid-1960s, when a rare neurological disease crippled his right hand. Told by doctors he would never play again, Fleisher set a new course, becoming an inspirational teacher (his students have included André Watts, Lorin Hollander, Yefim Bronfman, and Louis Lortie) and inspired conductor, all the while playing—and revitalizing—the left-handed repertoire. Over the decades, he underwent grueling therapies and experimental treatments to regain use of his right hand. To the delight of audiences around the world, he returned to two-handed playing at age 67.
“His comeback,” wrote Holly Brubach in The New York Times in 2007, “has catapulted him up next to Lance Armstrong as a symbol of the indomitable human spirit and an inspiration to a broader public.”
In conferring upon Fleisher the Kennedy Center honor, Schwarzman noted, “Leon Fleisher is a consummate musician whose career is a moving testament to the life-affirming power of art.”
A Gala Event—With International Flair
The champagne corks will pop on April 26, when Peabody friends, faculty, and students gather to celebrate the Institute’s 150th anniversary with a gala evening of fine food, stellar music, desserts, dancing—and a musical tour to “ports of call” around the world.
The gala event, 150 Years of Music for the World, caps a year-long celebration of Peabody’s sesquicentennial. “George Peabody founded the institution that bears his name in 1857 as the cultural and intellectual center of Baltimore,” notes Terry Morgenthaler, chair of the 150th anniversary gala, adding, “As America’s—and Baltimore’s—first great philanthropist, [he] created a legacy that transformed Baltimore then and inspires us today.”
The evening begins with a centerpiece program in Miriam A. Friedberg Hall, that will showcase the Peabody Children’s Chorus, the Preparatory Violin Choir, and the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, with guest faculty artists Marina Piccinini, flute, and Manuel Barrueco, guitar.
The music doesn’t end there. After the program, revelers will have the opportunity to embark on a “Music for the World Tour”—“traveling” to ports of call in venues around the school (Griswold Hall, Goodwin Hall, the Cohen-Davison Family Theatre, and East Hall) to sample a variety of music, complete with desserts and dancing.
For information on how to secure your passport for the gala call the Peabody External Relations Office at 410-659-8100, ext. 1186 or visit www.peabody.jhu.edu/gala.
Kashkashian Honored with Alumni Award
Kim Kashkashian (BM ’73, Viola), widely regarded as the world’s greatest living violist, received the Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumni Award in ceremonies on October 9 at the New England Conservatory in Boston where she teaches. She performed a recital and then joined her NEC students, colleagues, and Peabody alumni for a reception where the presentation was made.
In awarding the honor, Peabody Director Jeffrey Sharkey noted that Kashkashian has established herself as “one of the most accomplished artists of her generation.”
Born in Detroit and of Armenian descent, Kashkashian studied the viola at Peabody with Walter Trample and Karen Tuttle. She has written extensively about what she calls the “much-maligned” viola, and is a champion of new works for her instrument. The list of composers who have written viola works for her is long, and includes Eitan Steinberg, Betty Olivero, Ken Ueno, and Thomas Larcher.
In recent seasons, she has appeared as soloist with the major orchestras of New York, Berlin, London, and Munich, and Tokyo. Her recital appearances take her to Washington D.C., Philadelphia, San Francisco, Cleveland, and Los Angeles.
Her commitment to chamber music, which began during years of participation at the Marlboro Music Festival where she was strongly influenced by her work with Felix Galimir, continues through appearances at the Salzburg, Marlboro, and Lockenhaus festivals.
Before joining the NEC faculty in 2000, Kashkashian held professorships at Indiana University in Bloomington and at conservatories in Freiburg and Berlin, Germany.
Paris Exchange
Eve Reisser, a Paris Conservatory exchange student who spent last fall studying in the jazz program at Peabody, says the experience opened her up to all kinds of “new ideas.”
“With faculty members like Tim Murphy and Mike Formanek, I was able to play more experimental jazz, more improvised music than I had been playing before,” says Reisser. An added bonus came when faculty member Gary Thomas, knowing her interest in the fine arts, suggested she enroll in a class at the nearby Maryland Institute. Reisser loved the class—and the discussions that ensued with her Peabody musical mentors.
“We talked a lot about the intersection of music and art,” she says. “They really understood what I want to do.”
While Reisser was in Baltimore, Peabody jazz student Noble Jolley spent the fall at the Paris Conservatory. The two are the first to participate in a new exchange program between Peabody and the French conservatory. And they won’t be the last, says Raymond Ou, Peabody’s recently appointed associate director of international student exchange. “Future opportunities exist for all instrument types,” he says.
Under Peabody director Jeffrey Sharkey’s leadership, says Ou, Peabody is looking to launch student exchange programs with other conservatories in Europe and Great Britain. The goal, says Ou: “to broaden the scope of Peabody’s influence beyond our own shores.”
