It has been a very busy semester, and I am pleased to write to you with my newsletter to share important developments at Peabody.
As you know, after much work over a number of years to improve Peabody’s financial underpinning, Peabody was able to eliminate long-standing structural deficits and finish FY24 with a small surplus. As we moved into FY25 we have experienced some revenue and expense adjustments resulting in projection of a deficit as of the first quarter. While there will be some work necessary to return to a balanced position for the current fiscal year, we are fully committed to that outcome and are confident we will be successful.
As you’ll recall, we began a new planning process this past June as the Breakthrough Plan 2024 was winding down. This process began with planning retreats with Peabody’s leadership, followed by conversations with various constituencies, all leading to the drafting of 25 goals focused around 5 key areas: academic programming, financial aid and access, expanding our reach, Peabody’s people and culture, and the future of the Mount Vernon campus. During September and into October, I met with faculty, staff, students, and members of our advisory board to review and receive input on goals across the five areas, leading to continued refinement of the plan. We also received valuable feedback from university leadership. As a final step, and in order to ensure all voices were heard, we posted a draft of the full document for additional feedback from the Peabody community. As I write this, we are on track to finalize our “Building on the Breakthrough” strategic framework in the coming weeks and be ready to launch in December.
I am grateful to many who provided input on this important work. The result is a strong and compelling roadmap for Peabody that I believe will serve us well as we move through what will be a truly transformational time for the school in the years ahead.
I was pleased to be able to return to Korea and Taiwan last spring to visit with many alumni and families. I recently followed this up with a visit to China, my first since before the pandemic, where I had the opportunity to visit several of our international peer institutions, meeting with the presidents of the Shanghai Conservatory, and the Central and China conservatories in Beijing. We value our relationship with these and other Chinese educational institutions, and I was pleased to rekindle in-person conversations. This trip also was an opportunity to visit with alumni from Peabody and Johns Hopkins’ other divisions, as well as parents of current Peabody students, many of whom are graduates of Chinese conservatories. We had wonderful events in Shanghai and Beijing, where about 80 alumni and parents joined us at the American Center, part of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
Chinese educational institutions continue to be a vibrant and important pipeline for students to Peabody – today 23 percent, nearly one-quarter, of our students come to us from China. I am pleased to report that Peabody’s brand remains very strong, which is important to Peabody as well as to our alumni and current students in China and elsewhere.
I was delighted to announce just last week the good news about the graduate financial aid program, whereby beginning in fall 2025, the Peabody Conservatory will offer all admitted Doctor of Musical Arts students full tuition scholarships during the two years of full-time residency, including current DMA students continuing in their second year. This new commitment to graduate financial aid at Peabody strengthens our ability to support students in pursuit of their highest artistic and scholarly ambitions and, in turn, further raise the stature of Peabody.
With this new financial aid in place, we expect that the Doctor of Musical Arts program will grow increasingly competitive, attracting the very best students and preparing them to lead the next generation of artists and educators. Taken together with our commitment made last year to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need for all domestic undergraduate students without loans, this investment marks a bold leap forward in Peabody’s commitment to enrolling and supporting the finest talent without regard to financial means.
These significant additions to our financial aid program position Peabody as a leader in reducing barriers to higher education for all student artists and empowering them to make an impact in the world and their communities. I hope you will join me in celebrating the progress we are making towards a brighter future for the performing arts.
Financial aid is not the only impetus for transformation at Peabody at this time. As you know, this fall we announced Peabody’s purchase of the Waterloo apartments adjacent to the Peabody campus, with a plan to convert it to student housing for use beginning fall 2026. The acquisition of the Waterloo for housing will significantly expand the footprint of Peabody’s campus, and pave the way to increase much-needed academic and program space driven by Peabody’s dramatic growth in enrollment – over 40 percent since 2017. The next step in this process will be the development of a program for the new spaces, a process facilitated by the work done over the last three years which included two preliminary facility studies and a trustee approved feasibility study. At the same time, work is ongoing to assemble a design team. On a parallel track Peabody will work closely with the City and our Mount Vernon neighbors to ensure the vibrancy of our neighborhood. In the meantime, other renovations on campus are continuing, with improvements on Friedberg Hall slated to begin this summer and to be completed in January 2026, with all planned capital improvements completed by 2029.
Recently I shared the good news that the Conservatory’s new degree in Hip-Hop has been approved by the State of Maryland. I am enormously excited about this initiative. Under the leadership of Wendel Patrick, this degree will join the burgeoning place that Peabody has made for our Music Engineering and Technology programs (MET) that have collectively grown from 50 students five years ago to more than 150 today, and represents the latest addition to programs in Music for New Media, Computer Music, Recording Arts and more. Having emerged over 50 years as a serious and socially connected art form, hip-hop now enters the academy. Fifty years ago few jazz programs could be found in our major music schools. Today, they are essential to our schools, including here at Peabody. In keeping with Peabody’s commitment to innovate and build future traditions on the great history of our school, we are proud to be at the forefront of introducing this kind of program to higher education. Hip-Hop has been a galvanizing grassroots arts movement that emerged from our cities, including a vibrant history and presence in Baltimore. We are thrilled to be able to be part of celebrating the culture of this artform in connection with our community and the world, and to have a role in the training of hip-hop artists of the future.
Continuing on the theme of performing arts and technology, on November 15, 2024, Peabody hosted a Dean’s Symposium on AI and this game-changing technology’s intersection with music, featuring an outstanding panel of experts from the performing arts, academia, and industry. AI raises fascinating questions about creativity and the performing artist, as we explore how a powerful technology can be harnessed to advance art in a way that is additive and ethical. The day also included the installation of Professor Thomas Dolby as the inaugural Taylor A. Hanex Professor of Music for New Media, a chair made possible through the generosity of Taylor Hanex, Chair Emeritus of the Peabody Institute Advisory Board. This all adds to a rich presence by Peabody in Washington that has included more than 25 concerts by Peabody over the last year, including most recently a performance as part of Johns Hopkins Arts and Democracy Day. Look for an ever- increasing presence by Peabody in D.C.
That is all for now. As you can see, there is much going on at Peabody this year, and in the years to come. I look forward to working with our dedicated faculty and staff to continue to provide the best opportunities and education possible for our students. Thanks for all you do!