“I feel I have a family here – I have hundreds of grandparents now. I get to play music and impact people’s lives.”
Peabody Institute Musician-in-Residence is a program that connects Peabody Conservatory student musicians with residential facilities throughout the Baltimore area willing to host a student in exchange for musical services. Begun by guitarist Julien Xuereb, the Musician-in-Residence program was piloted at Springwell Senior Living in 2015 and expanded in 2016 with the support of a Dean’s Incentive Grant from Peabody. The program has been featured on WBAL, NPR, and in The Baltimore Sun.
The contractual relationship between a given host and musician varies based on circumstances unique to individual institutions. Common to all arrangements, however, is the understanding that musicians will provide a regular sequence of performances and interactions in a variety of appropriate formats at mutually agreeable times. Peabody currently has students placed at Springwell, Edenwald, North Oaks, and Roland Park Place Senior Living Communities.
The Peabody Institute Musician-in-Residence program embeds Peabody musicians in a community, giving them frequent and regular access to an audience with whom they can develop their performance and presentation skills and for whom they learn to program music. Residencies provide a deep and ongoing “laboratory” for audience development and engagement strategies, critical for success as a 21st century musician and foundational to Peabody’s new Breakthrough Curriculum in music leadership training. Providing Peabody students with a place to live and a means of funding their performance studies, the program also invites young professional musicians to develop their identity as citizen artists within a broad social context and to demonstrate the relevance of music in an intimate community setting. As the program grows, participating musicians travel to each other’s residences to perform; gather as a cohort to share experiences and best practices; and help ensure the continuation of the program by recruiting and training additional students.
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“I settled down in a big, comfortable chair in the lounge and listened to her practice for two straight hours. She was still practicing when I left. I luxuriate in listening to her, even if she goes over the same phrase 20 times. I love listening to the harp. It may be the closest to heaven I’ll ever get.”
Hosts participating in the Peabody Institute Musician-in-Residence program benefit in numerous ways: frequent and regular “in-house” live musical performances, activities, and potentially instruction; ongoing access to artistic process and creative practice through open rehearsals and conversations with performers; music delivered room-to-room to those who are unable to leave their beds; special performances that bring in guest artists; tickets for concerts taking place at Peabody; creative collaborations with other resident activities; benefits to residents’ physical and emotional well-being conferred by music; and marketing/branding opportunities arising out of hosting the program.
The selection of a Musician-in-Residence candidate is in your hands so that you can choose the best fit for your community and needs. Contracts are issued directly between the musician and your facility. We collect and vet applicants for you at Peabody by mid-March. After we interview all applicants, we select a list of finalists for your review. We then facilitate scheduling onsite auditions and interviews during the month of April, with a target date of finalizing all placements by May 1.
Please fill out this form and return via email to Khandeya Sheppard ([email protected]) in order for us to send you the candidates that fit you best.
Please consider supporting the development of this innovative community-based program. Contact Janine Sunday, senior development coordinator at 667-208-6551 or [email protected] for more information.
