The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

Eye-Opening Exchanges

Emily Koh, a Peabody Institute freshman studying composition, has a fondness for the classics. Bach. Early Stravinsky. And crab cakes from Faidley’s Seafood in Baltimore’s Lexington Market.

Students perform at the signing of the five-year collaborative agreement: Hannah Lim (Yong Siew Toh), Mindy Heinsohn, Hans Kristian Goldstein, and Candy Chiu.

Koh arrived in Baltimore last September from her native Singapore and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YST) as part of Peabody’s growing student exchange program with YST. One of six YST undergraduates enrolled in Peabody during the fall semester, she embraced every moment. A composition major, Koh played double bass in the Peabody Conservatory Orchestra and other conservatory ensembles. She was a member of Organization Advocating Student Interests (OASIS), Peabody’s alternative to traditional student government organizations. And she volunteered at St. Ignatius of Loyola Academy with Peabody’s Junior Bach program—when she wasn’t dropping in to the Walters Art Museum between classes or enjoying all the culinary delights that Baltimore has to offer.

“Studying at Peabody is fantastic,” exclaimed Koh, late in the semester. “The musical life here is vibrant with many recitals and concerts. The classes are challenging and very interactive because people speak up a lot more in class than we do in Singapore.” Like the other YST exchange students, Koh received a scholarship covering tuition, housing, and travel to study abroad through the National University of Singapore (NUS).

While Koh and her five classmates have returned to Singapore, there will be a regular stream of YST exchange students arriving in the years ahead, thanks to a five-year collaborative agreement between Peabody and YST, signed this past fall. The agreement calls for three YST undergraduates to attend Peabody each semester.

This academic year also marked the first time Peabody undergraduate students have participated in the exchange. During the fall semester, Peabody undergraduates Lee Philip ’08, bass, and Irwin Shung ’08, double major in piano and biology at Johns Hopkins, studied at YST. Junior Emma Stanley, trumpet, headed to Singapore for the spring semester.

Four YST alumni—members of YST’s first-ever graduating class last May—also came to Peabody last fall. Under the new agreement, each year through 2011-12, four YST graduates will receive NUS scholarships to attend Peabody’s graduate program.

Present at the signing (l to r): Kristina Johnson, Bernard Lanskey, Jeffrey Sharkey, Tan Chorh Chuan, Stephen Baxter, Goh Yew Lin, Chan Heng Chee, William R. Brody, Wendy Brody, Lily Kong, Gayle Ackley, Winston Tabb, and Peter Landgren.

Raymond Ou, Peabody’s associate director of student affairs, and the recently appointed associate director of international student exchange, makes sure the Baltimore experience is as smooth as possible for all students from Singapore, from hosting orientation sessions and coordinating course selection, to making introductions and handling paperwork. “The exchange program has been instrumental in influencing the students’ perception of the world, refining their approach to working with different types of people, and influencing their awareness of different cultures,” notes Ou, who works closely with Peabody’s academic affairs office. He explains that in some Asian cultures, like Singapore, feedback is not encouraged. “Most of the [Singapore] students have found it refreshing that we actively seek their feedback,” he says, “as well as follow through on their suggestions.”

For Koh, the experience was just as eye-opening musically as it was personally (and gastronomically). “Peabody has been a great help because there are so many composers around,” she says. “I am definitely more open to different styles of music than before and am more concerned with how my music communicates to the audience as much as it communicates my ideas.”

—Sarah Achenbach