I am pleased to write to you today with an update on various Institute initiatives.
Following years of structural deficits, Peabody’s financial underpinning is materially stronger today. That said, we continue to remain diligent and committed to financial sustainability.
Having posted a surplus last fiscal year, and a little more than halfway through the current fiscal year, we still have work to do to meet or exceed prior year’s results. With fundraising more than halfway toward our cash goal, and with careful expense management, we remain on track to a balanced budget.
Peabody operates within a fiscally responsible and “fit” (if not lean) structure. When expense mitigation is required, we focus on the operational cost structure and always work to avoid impact on academic programs. In fact, we have made unprecedented investments in financial aid now both at the undergraduate and graduate level thanks to some remarkable philanthropy and institutional funds, significantly improving affordability and access. Similarly we have made major investments in new academic programs including graduate expansion of our Music for New Media offerings and the addition of an undergraduate degree in Hip-Hop, as well as making growing investments in faculty compensation and professional development. As always, our goal is a bold and sustainable vision for the school.
With the spring semester well under way, we are increasingly focused on selecting our incoming class for fall 2025. With February auditions imminent, a big task lays ahead. We have seen an unprecedented number of applications this cycle—an 18% increase overall, ranging from an 11% increase in undergraduate applications to 54% for our Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) program. This is no doubt due in part to Peabody’s dramatic increase in investment in financial aid over the last year that has included meeting full need without loans for qualified undergraduate candidates and, most recently, instituting a tuition-free DMA program for the degree’s required 2-year residency period. These new initiatives, along with Peabody’s world-class faculty and the Institute’s innovative Breakthrough Curriculum, are certainly driving increased interest. We expect this will translate to even more selectivity, higher yield, sustained excellence, and greater-than-ever access for the most qualified candidates regardless of financial means.
Each new class brings renewed energy and inspiration to the Peabody campus. I know it will be both a challenge and exciting for our faculty and admissions team as they begin the process of auditioning and selecting the next cohort of future Peabody alumni.
Work on short-term, immediate projects continues across the campus in the renovation of infrastructure such as restrooms and elevators—all welcome improvements. More artistically inspiring, work on upgrades to Friedberg Hall will begin in June to be completed in early 2026. This is an exciting opportunity to make important infrastructure and acoustical improvements to this prized and historic venue.
In anticipation of students moving in 2026 to our recently purchased Waterloo apartments, the call for proposals to assemble the design team for the renovation of the on-campus housing towers has been issued. We expect to interview design firms in March, with a goal for the team to begin its work in April. It is all very exciting to see actual work moving forward on these long-sought capital improvements across the Peabody campus.
Those who know Peabody know that among its most illustrious programs, of which there are many, Piano is highly praised. Throughout its remarkable history, and up to the present day, Peabody enjoys a Piano faculty held in the highest esteem. As such, it seemed incongruous that until several years ago, Peabody had not been making new investments in pianos to meet the needs of our outstanding students and faculty.
Five years ago we took action to replace the pianos in our Piano faculty teaching studios, and to purchase several new concert grands for our performance spaces. But the job remained incomplete with practice rooms for Piano majors still offering a worn inventory of instruments in need of upgrading.
That is, until now. Peabody recently acquired commitments of $2 million to fully upgrade pianos in our practice rooms. Thanks to the investment of institutional funds by the JHU President’s office, matched by a very generous $1 million contribution from Nancy Grasmick, immediate past chair and current member of the Peabody Institute Advisory Board, we will be able to realize the dream of replacing our piano inventory. In the coming months we will be purchasing more than thirty Steinway and Yamaha grand pianos for use by our Piano students. I could not be more delighted that we are able to move forward with this initiative.
Peabody’s Building on the Breakthrough was launched in December, and teams across the institute are hard at work on refining action plans to implement the 25 strategic goals across five different areas identified in the plan. Since this represents a five-year initiative, our plan is to return regularly and provide ongoing updates on progress towards our goals for these initiatives, most of which have grown organically out of the original Breakthrough Plan implemented in 2015 and renewed in 2019.
The New York Times took notice of Peabody’s impactful Arts-In-Healthcare programs with a feature story on the work of our Sound Rounds musicians at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Sound Rounds is part of a portfolio of programming around the performing arts and health that continues to expand and deepen. It is exciting to now see national recognition for the value and meaning of this work.
We are all watching carefully and assessing as we learn more about the impact on higher education in these early weeks of the new administration in Washington, D.C. As we always do, we are working closely with our university colleagues across the divisions as well as central university leadership to assess various executive orders and other actions taken, so that we can respond in a way that is fully consistent with legal requirements, and always consistent with our mission, values, and priorities as an educational institution dedicated to building outstanding artists of the future. We will continue to do exactly that.
As always, there is much happening at Peabody. I look forward to keeping you updated on these and other initiatives as we move through the remainder of the academic year.