The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins Universityhas a new dean. Fred Bronstein began his tenure as the Peabody’s head honcho in June. He comes to the revered music school from the world of professional orchestras. He was the President and CEO of the St. Louis Symphony for six years, having held similar posts with orchestras in Omaha and Dallas. He takes the helm of the country’s oldest music conservatory at a crucial time for American orchestras and the schools that train their players.
This weekend, an organization called Future Symphony is holding a conferenceto discuss how orchestras can reclaim their place in American culture, and how they can shape a vision for classical musicians that allows them to thrive in today’s cultural climate. This is something Fred Bronstein has thought a lot about, and he joins Tom to talk about it.
The conference about what lies ahead for symphony orchestras begins tomorrow at the University of Baltimore. It’s been organized by the Future Symphony Institute, the brainchild of Andrew Balio, the principal trumpet player in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Peabody has a lot of events that take place at various venues at the school throughout the year. Their season kicks off tomorrow night, when the Yale Gordon Concerto Competition winner Marianna Prjevalskaya plays with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra. On Tuesday night, the composer Judah Adashi will present a concert organized around bass lines that undergird songs of love and lament through five centuries of Western Music.
