Society of Peabody Alumni
Citation for the Peabody Distinguished Alumni Award
Presented to
Ann Schein
December 5, 2012
Ann Schein, today we recognize and congratulate you for your distinguished professional achievement as an internationally acclaimed performing and recording artist, and as a beloved teacher.
You came to Peabody Conservatory at a very young age to study with Mieczyslaw Munz and then you did what every Conservatory student hopes to do, you left school and jumped into an international solo performing career.
At age 19, you were asked to make a series of recordings on Kapp records and went immediately on to an international career. You started right out with a succession of trans-U.S. and European tours which included recitals in major cities as well as appearances as soloist with top rank orchestras.
In 1962 you gave the first of numerous Carnegie Hall recitals, and in 1963 you played at the White House by invitation of President and Mrs. Kennedy.
Since then you have maintained an enviable career including ten worldwide tours under the U.S. State Department auspices, more than 5 tours of South America and several tours of Russia.
Along the way you added teaching to your list of skills and accomplishments but never stopped performing.
In 1980, you returned to Peabody, joining the piano faculty, and that same year performed a series of six concerts at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall called “Ann Schein’s Chopin.”
Your former students still rave about having you as a teacher and for two decades you shared your knowledge with them. You left Peabody in 2001 but have graciously been back many times to perform as a guest artist.
Since 1984, you also have taught countless students at the Aspen Music Festival and from 2006-2008 you held the Victoria and Ronald Simms Chair there.
Most recently, you are featured in the book, Five Lives in Music: Women Performers, Composers, and Impresarios from the Baroque to the Present by Cecelia Hopkins Porter, longtime classical music critic for The Washington Post. In the book’s summary you are described as “a brilliant and dauntless American piano prodigy.”
With this award we celebrate all that you have accomplished, and we couldn’t be more proud to have you as part of the continuing legacy of this great conservatory.
On behalf of The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University it is our distinct honor to confer upon you the Peabody Distinguished Alumni Award.