See Launch Grant Recipients | See 2023 Launch Grant Panelists

The Launch Grant supports creative, innovative projects developed by Peabody Conservatory third-year undergraduate and first-year master’s students in the course Pitching Your Creative Idea each spring. Grantees are selected each year to receive up to $5000 in funding as well as mentorship and promotional support from the LAUNCHPad office.

Eligibility

To be eligible, applicants should be undergraduate or master’s students currently enrolled in Pitching Your Creative Idea. Students are recommended for the Launch Grant based on their final class project and can then opt-in or opt-out of the final grant application process.

Selection Criteria

• Artistic merit and skill of work represented in the work samples.
• Feasibility of the project, including the likelihood that the project will happen, based on: how it will be shown publicly, the identification and alignment of programming with the target audience, project budget, and timeline.
• A prerecorded video proposal pitch that addresses: the project, the external partner(s), target audience, audience programming, how the grant will help facilitate the realization of this project, and how your project aligns with the values of this funding source.
• Creativity of the project as an innovative step for the artist or a significant deepening of the artist’s current artistic practice.

Selection Process

A panel of artists and arts professionals will review the applications and select semi-finalists. A smaller panel, including Dean Bronstein, will select the finalists. After the finalists have the opportunity to pitch their projects live, grant winners will be announced.

Required Application Materials

The application includes the following elements:

• Project Description (1 page maximum)
• Project Budget (1 page maximum)
• Project Timeline (1 page maximum)
• Resume/CV (3 pages maximum)
• Work Sample Inventory (1 page maximum, including up to 10 work samples)
• Video Pitch (5 minutes maximum)
• Possibility of live juried pitch in final rounds

Allowable Expenses include:

• Artist fee (to support applicant’s time)
• Fee to collaborators including other artists and vendors
• Project-Related travel and materials
• Equipment for the project
• Space Rental
• Promotion and Marketing

Unallowable Expenses include:

• Routine rent or overhead expenses for artist’s housing, office or studio
• Tuition expenses
• Personal debt repayment

Please be aware that Launch Grants are taxable income. If you are on Peabody payroll, 25% or more may be withheld for taxes.

For degree recitals, research, and capstone projects, grant funding is available only for requests that go above and beyond academic/degree requirements. For example, funding is available for specified equipment and collaborative, travel, or other production expenses that clearly exceed departmental requirements. Funding is not available to compensate yourself for any components required or expected as part of your degree requirements such as planning, organizing, rehearsing, or creating the project. 

Expectations

The grant period is 12 months from the announcement of the Launch Grant winners. During this time, grantees will submit 3 report forms and participate in at least 1 meeting with LAUNCHPad staff to receive mentorship and discuss promotional strategies.

For questions about the Launch Grant, email [email protected].

Report Forms

If you received a Launch Grant, please fill out the forms below throughout your project.

Initial Report | Mid-Project Report | Final Report

Launch Grant Recipients:

2023

• Max Eidinoff – VisualScore
  VisualScore is a notation software program designed for creating graphic scores and supporting various other forms of contemporary notation. The initial prototype will be developed over the course of this year and presented to the Peabody community during a 48-hour composition challenge. During this event, composers and performers will use the prototype to collaboratively create and premiere new compositions.

• David Manzanares – For the Future: Putting Students’ Potential Where It Belongs
  For the Future aids classical guitar students from Title 1 schools in Austin, Texas throughout the college application process. The goal of the project is to put these students’ potential where it belongs, in top tier colleges, while aiming to provide information and resources to help students make informed decisions about their options.

• Elizabeth Perez-Hickman – Reclaiming the Sound
  Reclaiming the Sound seeks to illuminate the voices of historically marginalized composers, whose contributions were overshadowed by the dominance of white male figures in classical music’s past. Through this album and performance, the goal is to revive these minority composers’ compositions, honoring their legacy while challenging this traditional narrative. This project will hopefully serve as a reminder of the rich diversity that has shaped classical music, fostering a more inclusive and resonant future for this timeless art form.

• Sebastian Suarez-Solis – Dex Digital Sample Library
  Dex Digital Sample Library is an always free, open access digital collection with hours of high-quality, “new music”-ready sounds and project files from commissioned artists, mangled to absolute extremity. The Launch Grant supports commissions over a year-long period for collection on the public library, as well as the maintenance of the library’s hosting, expansion, and labor costs.

• Taylor Wang – Peabody at the Shelter
  Peabody at the Shelter will aim to program monthly concerts of Peabody student performers at a local homeless shelter. There will also be training sessions at the start of the year as well as a mid-year check-in to help prepare the students for performing in a nontraditional performance setting and aid in their professional development.

2022

• Andrew Faulkenberry – Crooked Cross: An Oratorio for Hans and Sophie Scholl  
  Crooked Cross will be presented as a multimedia lecture to the Johns Hopkins community on the moral and spiritual development of anti-Nazi resistance activists Hans and Sophie Scholl. This lecture will integrate excerpts of an oratorio composed by Faulkenberry about the Scholls, recorded by Peabody performers. 

• Ui-Seng François – Be Free  
  Be Free is an interdisciplinary, one-woman show that integrates live music, dance, and spoken word to portray the personal experience of being coerced into a spiritual cult and the journey onward towards healing and reclaiming life. 

• Wesley Hamilton – The Practice Peg  
  The Practice Peg is a device that models the scroll of the violin, viola, or cello with pegs that simulate the resistance needed for adjustment, allowing string students to practice using tuning pegs in a risk-free and tactile environment.  

• Nikko Musuraca – Locale  
  Locale is a virtual platform designed to connect local artists to local venues. Made accessible to students in the Peabody community, Locale will give opportunities to students to find performance spaces beyond the educational sphere.  
  
  

2021

• Mira Huang – Story to Song
  Story to Song: Slices of Culture in the Arts is a web series that hijacks the popularity of fairytales and introduces high school students to classical art song.

• Kaijeh Johnson – Second Movement
  The goal of Second Movement is to create a free educational resource for Black students who want to be successful in the music world.

• Rush Johnston – Making a Mess
  Making a Mess is a gallery show that subverts common expectations around concert dance in order to question the systems “fine art” exists within.

• Maddalena Ohrbach – Prison Pipes
  Prison Pipes explores the relationship between mindfulness, meditation, breathing, and singing (alone and in a group) amongst at-risk communities. 

• Jolene Shao – Digitalizing “Along The River During The Qingming Festival”
  Digitalizing Along The River During The Qingming Festival will be an immersive experience in which the player could infinitely walk in this painting, watch the ancient view of Suzhou City, and learn about people’s typical lifestyles, cultural activities, business affairs, and other noteworthy events that shaped Ming dynasty China.

2020

• Mafalda Santos: Storytelling, Storyplaying
• Jeremy Harvey: Mindful Music
• Steven Chen: Arco Bow Grip

2019

• Henry Dorn: My Baltimore
• Bobby Ge: Yappie – A Musical Comedy
• Ashley Higginbotham: Getting in the Groove
• Benjamin Stevenson: Autonomy Corps – a Live Video Game Experience

2023 Launch Grant Panelists:

• Suhnne Ahn
• danah bella
• Amanda Cook
• Paul Davidson
• Kathleen DeLaurenti
• Farouk Dey
• Zane Forshee
• Daniel Foster
• Elizabeth Futral
• Deb Gould
• Sarah Hoover
• Jeannie Howe
• Meagan Hughes
• Megan Ihnen
• Kris Johnson
• Andrew Kipe
• Felipe Lara
• Tiffany Lundquist
• Christina Manceor
• Paul Mathews
• Robin McGinness
• Scott Metcalfe
• Stacy Cooper Patterson
• Sephora Saint-Armand
• Christopher Shannon
• Khandeya Sheppard
• Alexander Shtarkman
• Steven Spooner
• Felipa Solis
• Steve Stone
• Sarah Thomas
• Claire Galloway Weber
• Aubree Weiley