Society of Peabody Alumni
Citation for the Peabody Distinguished Alumni Award
Presented to
Vivian Adelberg Rudow
April 27, 2019
The Johns Hopkins Distinguished Alumni Award honors alumni who have typified the Johns Hopkins tradition of excellence and brought credit to the University by their professional achievement.
Vivian Adelberg Rudow, you came to Peabody as a child to take piano lessons and sing in the chorus at the Preparatory. You then entered the Conservatory, where you received a Teaching Certificate in 1957, and a Bachelor’s degree in 1960, both in Piano.
Music and Peabody were in your blood, but it wasn’t until you returned for your Master’s Degree in Composition that you truly found your calling and how you would make your mark on the world.
Your pieces were winning awards before you graduated in 1979, and in 1982 you were the first Maryland Composer to have an orchestra performance in Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, when the Baltimore Symphony played your “Force III” with Sergiu Comissiona conducting.
In 1986, you won first prize at the International Electroacoustic Music Competition in Bourges, the first American woman to win first prize in the competition. And in 1987 you were invited to Cuba for a performance of your piece “With Love.”
Since then, your pieces have been played all over the world, including several performances in Hong Kong in 2016.
You have maintained a busy professional life which is reflected in the fact that you have been the winner of American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Plus awards for an amazing 29 years in a row, and since 2012 you have been a voting member of the Recording Academy (the Grammy’s).
Vivian Adelberg Rudow, today we congratulate you for your work as a substantive and committed artist of our time.
You have made Peabody and Johns Hopkins proud, and it is my honor to confer upon you the Distinguished Alumni Award.