I am writing to you today with my final newsletter update of the 2024-25 academic year.
As we approach the June 30th end of the fiscal year, we remain confident that this year’s fiscal results will yield a surplus for Peabody for the second consecutive year. We are projecting a result expected to improve on last year’s $200,000 surplus, which marked the elimination of long-stranding structural deficits. This assumes that fundraising, which at this time is at 79% of our cash goal, achieves our goal for the current fiscal year.
Planning for next year’s budget continues. We are mindful of the myriad of financial challenges facing the university due to macro conditions. While our revenue streams are not generally vulnerable to the federal grant landscape and our enrollment is strong, we are being appropriately cautious in budgetary assumptions without in any way compromising academic and artistic plans for the Institute.
With the major investment in financial aid two years ago, and this year making the DMA tuition-free through its two-year residency, the Conservatory experienced an 18% increase in applications and has admitted our most selective class of students ever for fall 2025.
These increased resources are making a Peabody education more accessible for more students than ever before, and at the same time dramatically impacting selectivity, an important measure of perceived quality. In just two years, we have gone from accepting one in two students from a highly qualified pool, to accepting one in four, moving from an admit rate of 48% to 37% for the current academic year, and now 27% for the fall 2025 undergraduate class. At the Doctoral level we moved from accepting 27% of applicants last year, to this year 7%, or less than one in ten applicants.
A significantly rising yield rate and overall higher audition scores reflect Peabody’s increased standing in a competitive landscape and our success in attracting and admitting the most talented student artists.
As our community is aware, Peabody is undertaking major capital improvement initiatives to enhance equipment and buildings across our Mount Vernon campus.
These include a major upgrade to our piano inventory with a $2 million investment this year in 35 new pianos specifically for practice/rehearsal rooms, thanks to the generosity of Peabody Institute Advisory Board Immediate Past Chair, Nancy Grasmick, as well as support from the University President’s office. At this time, most of the new instruments have been delivered and are in use.
Renovations of restrooms, elevators, and lounges across campus are ongoing, and once the year concludes, a new phase of technical and acoustical work on Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall will begin, and is expected to be completed in March 2026.
A team is also hard at work planning for our students to move into the recently purchased Waterloo Apartments in fall 2026, effectively doubling the size of the Peabody campus.
The heart of this project remains the renovation of the residence towers to create state-of-the-art rehearsal, practice, and performance space on par with the caliber of our academic programs.
Following a rigorous process, we very recently selected the architectural design firm Ennead, the same firm that worked on the highly successful Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C, to lead this exciting project for Peabody. Ennead has broad and deep experience in performing arts and education-related spaces, as well as mid-century building renovations, an important fit for the Edward Durrell Stone towers on our campus. One of the team’s first orders of business will be to meet with a series of focus groups including faculty, staff and students over the coming months to delve more deeply into the needs of our community as we develop the program for these new spaces.
Graduation is always a wonderful moment in the academic year, and it’s exciting that it is here again. This year marks the Peabody Conservatory’s 143rdGraduation exercises, at which we will confer degrees on 302 graduates, from Bachelor’s degrees through our Doctors of Musical Arts. Our graduation speaker is Hip Hop pioneer Rakim who will also receive the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music and Dance in America, Peabody’s highest honor.
Considered to be a foundational figure in the history of Hip Hop, Rakim remains one of the most influential emcees of all time. Just a teenager when he launched his career, Rakim has amassed decades of success as a performing artist, entertainer, and cultural icon. As our graduating students begin to chart their own paths forward, they will no doubt find inspiration in the words and life story of this truly foundational figure in Hip Hop. It seems especially fitting to welcome Rakim for this milestone, as Peabody prepares to matriculate its first class in its new degree in Hip Hop this fall – the first such degree to be launched anywhere.
On a sad note, Peabody recently lost a member of our Peabody Institute Advisory Board. Marc von May, an attorney and tax consultant born in Sicily and educated in Switzerland and France, who joined the PIAB in 2019, passed away last week. For many years now, Marc has been a remarkably generous supporter of Peabody, including endowing faculty chairs in Voice and Professional Studies. In addition to being so very supportive, Marc was a gentle and thoughtful person. He will be sorely missed by his Peabody family.
With that, I look forward to a busy summer at Peabody as we plan for a new academic year, and advance the goals of the Building on the Breakthrough plan, including forging ahead with Peabody’s major capital project. There will be more to come on all this in the fall.
For now, I wish all of you a peaceful and productive summer.