Free Holiday Concerts by Peabody Preparatory Ensembles, Dec. 8-9
Eric Zuber to Play Mendelssohn Piano Concerto with Youth Orchestra
PRESS CONTACT ONLY:
Margaret Bell
410-234-4525
m.bell@jhu.edu
Donna M. Young
410-234-4638
donnamyoung@jhu.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 3, 2012, Baltimore, MD: The musical talent of young instrumentalists and vocalists from the Peabody Preparatory will be showcased at four holiday-season performances this weekend in Baltimore and Columbia.
On Saturday, Dec. 8, at 3:00 pm, the Preparatory String Ensemble, conducted by faculty member Matthew Horwitz-Lee, will present works by Tchaikovsky, Gershwin, and contemporary songwriter Richard Meyer. In addition, the Young Artists Orchestra, conducted by chamber music and cello coordinator Daniel Levitov, will perform Handel’s Concerto Grosso in B-flat major, Op. 6, No. 7, the Andante movement from Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 10, Op. 118, and Rutter’s Suite for Strings. The free concert will take place in Peabody’s Leith Symington Griswold Hall.
On Sunday, Dec. 9, at 3:00 pm, Music Director Harlan D. Parker will conduct a free concert by the Peabody Youth Orchestra, the Preparatory’s premier large ensemble, in Peabody’s Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall. Preparatory and Conservatory alumnus Eric Zuber will perform Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25, with the orchestra. Considered one of the leading American pianists of his generation, Zuber has won prizes in eight of the world’s most prestigious international piano competitions. After making his orchestral debut at age 12 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, he has gone on to perform with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Minnesota Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic, the Korean Symphony, and Ireland’s RTE National Symphony Orchestra, among many others.
Also on the program are Paul Dukas’ symphonic poem The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, best known for its use in the Walt Disney animated film Fantasia, and Johan de Meij’s Symphony No. 1, “The Lord of the Rings,” inspired by themes from the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien.
On Saturday, Dec. 8, and Sunday, Dec. 9, at 3:30 pm, the Peabody Children’s Chorus, Howard County campus, will present Dancing Day! at the Jim Rouse Theatre for the Performing Arts on the campus of Wilde Lake High School, 5460 Trumpeter Road, Columbia. Nearly 200 students ranging in age from 6 to 17 will perform. The program includes the “Gloria Tibi” from Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, the “Kyrie” from William Byrd’s Mass for Three Voices, and a variety of traditional carols, spirituals, and folk songs. An extremely limited number of tickets is still available at $5 each (ages 6 and above). To purchase tickets, email sspicher@jhu.edu or call 301-490-5251.
Directed by Doreen Falby, the Peabody Children’s Chorus toured Italy in the summer of 2011, giving concerts in Florence and Lucca and performing mass at the Vatican and in Venice’s St. Mark’s Cathedral. This past season, the chorus joined the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Arthur Honegger’s Joan of Arc in Carnegie Hall and, in June 2013, will sing with the Morgan State University Choir for the BSO’s production of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. In the summer of 2013, 80 students from the chorus will tour France, performing at the American Cemetery in Normandy on July 4, in Notre Dame Cathedral, and as part of the Dimanches Musicaux de La Madeleine Concert Series.
The Peabody Institute is located at 17 East Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore. For the complete concert calendar, visit www.peabody.jhu.edu/events. For information about music and dance classes for adults and children at the Peabody Preparatory, visit www.peabody.jhu.edu/prep or contact the Preparatory Office at 410-234-4630 or peabodyprep@jhu.edu.
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About the Peabody Preparatory
Since its founding in 1894 by May Garrettson Evans, the Peabody Preparatory, a division of the Peabody Institute, has devoted itself to 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.
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.
