The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

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Margaret Bell
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Donna Young
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Peabody’s Towson Campus Marks
50 Years with Recital, Oct. 12

Alumnus Eric Zuber to Play All-Chopin Program

September 26, 2008, Baltimore, MD: The Preparatory Division of the Peabody Institute will celebrate the golden anniversary of its Towson campus with a benefit recital on Sunday, Oct. 12, at 3:00 pm. The event, in the campus’s 100-seat auditorium, will feature award-winning pianist Eric Zuber, an alumnus of both the Peabody Preparatory and the Peabody Conservatory.

Proceeds will go toward improvements to the Preparatory’s Towson campus, located at 949 Dulaney Valley Road. Tickets are $50, which includes a post-concert reception. To purchase tickets, call the Preparatory at 410-659-8100, ext. 1121.

“About 500 students are enrolled at the Towson campus, including almost half of the Peabody Children’s Chorus,” notes Preparatory Dean Carolee Stewart. “We’re thrilled to have one of our most accomplished alumni return to help us celebrate this facility, which has been an incubator of young talent for half a century.”

After studying at the Peabody Preparatory, pianist Eric Zuber earned a Bachelor of Music degree at the Peabody Conservatory and a Performance Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. His principal teachers have included Boris Slutsky, Claude Frank, and Leon Fleisher. He is currently studying with Slutsky to complete an Artist Diploma at the Peabody Conservatory. Zuber was a prize winner in the 2008 Sydney International Piano Competition, the 2008 Seoul International Piano Competition, and the 2007 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, among others. The New York Times praised his recital debut at Carnegie Hall, calling his playing “irresistibly fluid.” At the Oct. 12 recital, he will perform works by Frédéric Chopin, including the Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise brillante in E-flat major, Op. 22, considered one of Chopin’s most difficult pieces for piano.    

The Towson campus of the Peabody Preparatory was built in 1958 by the Peabody Institute on Goucher College property. The architects were Cochran, Stephenson, and Wing and the acoustical engineers were Bolt, Beranek, and Newman. In addition to the auditorium, the building houses teaching studios, classrooms, and a large dance studio. Individual instruction is offered in all orchestral instruments, voice, Suzuki-based piano for young children, and traditional piano for children and adults. Group class offerings include early childhood, dance, strings, voice, and music theory. While students of all ages, from 2 months to 90-plus, study at the Towson campus, more advanced students take ensemble and theory classes and participate in expanded performance opportunities at the Preparatory’s downtown Baltimore campus.

For information about music and dance classes for children and adults at the Peabody Preparatory, call 410-659-8100, ext. 1130, or visit www.peabody.jhu.edu/prep.

About the Peabody Preparatory
Founded by May Garrettson Evans in 1894, the Peabody Preparatory, a division of the Peabody Institute, has a two-fold mission. It offers gifted children and adolescents the opportunity to realize their highest potential as leaders of the next generation of performing artists. In addition, it provides an education in music and dance to all members of the community who desire it, regardless of age, professional intention, or previous training. This dual mission is based upon the notion that every individual has the capacity for artistic expression at some appropriate level of understanding and skill.  Illustrious students of the Preparatory have included composer Philip Glass, singer James Morris, pop singer Tori Amos, choreographer Martha Clarke, jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut, composer Cara Kambon, and violinist Hilary Hahn.

About the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University
Located in the heart of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon Cultural District, the Peabody Institute was founded in 1857 as America’s first academy of music by philanthropist George Peabody. Today, Peabody boasts a preeminent faculty, a nurturing, collaborative learning environment, and the academic resources of one of the nation’s leading universities, Johns Hopkins. Through its degree granting Conservatory and its community-based Preparatory music and dance school, Peabody trains musicians and dancers of every age and at every level, from small children to seasoned professionals, from dedicated amateurs to winners of international competitions. Each year, Peabody stages nearly 100 major concerts and performances, ranging from classical to contemporary to jazz, many of them free — a testament to the vision of George Peabody.