One of the premier music conservatories in the world, the Peabody Institute is nestled in the historic Mt. Vernon section of Baltimore, only a few minutes from the Homewood Campus, the Johns Hopkins Medical Center and the Walters Art Museum. Peabody is a division of the Johns Hopkins University, giving performing and liberal arts students access to all facilities and resources that students at the Homewood campus have. They graduate with a degree from Johns Hopkins.
Uniquely, Peabody offers both a degree-granting conservatory for aspiring music professionals and a preparatory school for lovers of the arts of any age or skill level. Three degrees awarded at Peabody include a bachelor's and master's in music, and a doctorate in musical arts.
The bachelor's course is a four-year performance-based program with majors in keyboard and orchestral instruments, guitar, voice, jazz and composition. In addition to hours of daily practice, the 600+ students in the conservatory are required to take liberal arts courses, which are aimed at broadening their general understandings of music, art and culture. Students at the conservatory also may cross-register for courses at the Homewood campus.
Besides performance and composition majors, the master's program offers music history and education, electronic and computer music and conducting majors. Doctoral degrees are awarded for conducting, composition and performance.
Students also can receive a Performer's Certificate, which is closely related to the bachelor's program but is a three-year program without the liberal arts coursework. Two other graduate level certificates are awarded to students who concentrate heavily on the performance aspect. These certificates require little coursework.
Singers generally practice one to two hours every day, and instrumentalists practice upwards of four. This involveswarming up, learning new music and practicing it repeatedly, making it better every time.
Also, many students earn an extra credit per semester by performing in operas.But that can mean five or six hours of rehearsal a day, six days a week right before the performance. This leaves little time for social life, and because drinking is bad for the voice, that element of college life doesn't exist at Peabody.
Additionally, students can enroll in a double-degree program at the Homewood Campus and at the Peabody conservatory. However, it is a demanding program that averages only five students each year.
Typical students in the double-degree program take 30 credits a semester (compared to the average of 15 at the School of Arts and Science) and manage a solo repertoire. Students have a difficult time balancing coursework at Peabody and Homewood. Most have a semester or year that's heavy at one school and light at the other, however, some requirements at Peabody double as requirements at Homewood. Math at Homewood can be substituted for music theory at Peabody.Likewise, Western Tradition at Peabody counts as a history course at Homewood.
While professors at Homewood receive countless awards and recognition from the academic community, most students don'tread of their groundbreaking achievements unless they want extra credit. This is a sharp contrast to Peabody, where most students own their professors CD's and actually listen to them. Name-dropping of Peabody faculty includes Leon Fleischer, Manuel Barueco, John Shirley Quirk and Phyllis Bryn Julsen.These professors are on the radio, and they eat lunch in the Peabody cafeteria.They're real people.
Even though the experience at Peabody is completely difference from the experience at Homewood, the school still has a lot to offer. Though the hours of practicing can be grueling and the course load overwhelming, the professors are true role models to their students. When asked about Peabody and its famous staff, one student replied, "Youthink to yourself, maybe someday, I'll be one of them," and then hurried off to lock herself in the practice room for just a few more hours.
