Dean Bronstein’s Convocation address:<\/em><\/p>\n Good afternoon.\u00a0 I\u2019m Fred Bronstein, your new Dean.\u00a0 I want to begin by welcoming everyone, students, faculty and staff to the start of our 2014-15 Academic year.\u00a0 And I want to offer a special greeting to students who are new to Peabody.<\/p>\n Since arriving at Peabody at the beginning of June, I have been on a listening tour of sorts, talking with faculty, staff, donors, to members of our community both in and beyond the University, alumni; and now I really look forward to being able to spend time with our students and getting to know you.<\/p>\n At 157 years old, and as the longest standing conservatory in the US, Peabody has a great history.\u00a0 Just come to my office and see the pictures of people who have visited here; the likes of Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Bernstein, and many others.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been telling the story of faculty member Amit Peled\u2019s idea to play on the Casals cello the very same program on February 12, 2015 that Pablo Casals played at Peabody exactly 100 years earlier.\u00a0 That is the kind of history we steward.<\/p>\n At the same time, we can\u2019t be captives of that history.\u00a0 We have to make new history, reinvigorate ourselves and our institution, and build on it.\u00a0 Students today have to be trained for a world that is very different from the one we trained for.\u00a0 We face the task of how to get young artists ready for a hugely challenging, constantly evolving world.\u00a0 We face the challenge of how Peabody plays a role in making sure there will be audiences in the future.\u00a0 You are all part of this.<\/p>\n Peabody is a rich and complex institution that has the conservatory at its core, but must find new ways to reinvigorate that part of us, while building new opportunities that surround and strengthen our core work, and project the Peabody brand far and wide.\u00a0 There are four essential pillars to this effort.\u00a0 Bear with me while I articulate these \u2013 it is important that we all think about the big picture.<\/p>\n First: we must elevate the Conservatory \u2013 we ought to be, and be recognized as, every bit as good and competitive as the most competitive programs at Johns Hopkins, on a par with medicine or international affairs.\u00a0 It\u2019s about excellence.<\/p>\n The second pillar; we should own the interdisciplinary space where music intersects with other subjects.\u00a0 No university and conservatory can really lay claim to that the way Johns Hopkins & Peabody could if we set our minds to it.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got a great start on that through programs like Peabody at Homewood and our select double-degree program, but we need to do much more.\u00a0 And we will.<\/p>\n The third pillar is Innovation \u2013 in our on-line potential and in our curriculum; our on-line space should be a window to the world both into and out of Peabody.\u00a0 Later this fall, Marina Piccinini will do a master class with flutists on-line from our fabulous new space that we\u2019ll dedicate this afternoon; we should be doing this all the time.\u00a0 And we should be a leader in the national conversation about music.<\/p>\n The fourth pillar is our community and our connectivity to it.\u00a0 We have an obligation as a major cultural institution to be part of our community, to build bridges and partnerships; if we want you, our students to have careers, we need to see ourselves as being in the audience development business.\u00a0 Our Preparatory is a great avenue for this, but it shouldn\u2019t be the only one.\u00a0 The Conservatory has an equally important role in this.\u00a0 And this will pay dividends directly back to Peabody and its students.\u00a0 Learning to be educators, communicators, advocates, and integral community artists is essential to future success.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ll forgive my orchestra reference, the most successful orchestras today are those that maintain the classical concert as their core business, but have expanded and broadened their vision beyond that, and in doing so have expanded their audience base and resources with new series, innovation, community connectivity and partnerships.\u00a0 We have to do the same.\u00a0 We have to build around our core business, the conservatory, a rich array of areas that will broaden our base, expand resources, and project the brand of Peabody nationally and internationally.<\/p>\n So what does all this mean for you, the students as you either start here or return?\u00a0 I\u2019d offer this advice.<\/p>\n Throw yourself into your work \u2013 this is your chance to learn as much as possible \u2013 revel in it.\u00a0 You have to want this bad.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t, you\u2019re in the wrong line of work.\u00a0 At the same time, take care of yourself.\u00a0 You have a lifetime.\u00a0 This is a marathon, not a sprint.<\/p>\n Your instrument or individual area of focus is essential.\u00a0 It is primary.\u00a0 But not enough.\u00a0 Experience everything \u2013 go to concerts, hear colleagues, hear faculty, interact, see the city, go to the BSO, go to hear different kinds of music, go to New York to hear things, go to Washington.\u00a0 Walk across the street and see some art. Find a way to do things at other parts of Johns Hopkins University \u2013 take a class; find a way to gain the broadest perspective possible, even as you master your craft.\u00a0 Take your music off campus and be part of the larger community.<\/p>\n Think about being a musician from the broadest perspective possible \u2013 even if you\u2019re lucky enough to get into a major orchestra or achieve your greatest dream as a soloist, you\u2019ll be called upon to be a communicator, an educator, an advocate.\u00a0 If you think you can get away with just being a great player, you will be surprised.\u00a0 Be prepared to do much more.\u00a0 Learn to be flexible.\u00a0 You have no idea of where this career may take you \u2013 be open to anything.<\/p>\n Remember that you will have to develop your own path, you\u2019ll have to find a way to make a successful life, now is the time to learn how to do that.\u00a0 Don\u2019t wait until you\u2019re out in the world to think about this.<\/p>\n And to inspire your thinking about this, later in October we will bring together voices with a national perspective on the arts for a discussion here at Peabody about the future of classical music, and how the world in which we all exist is changing at a breathtaking speed, forcing us to rethink old assumptions, and create new ones.<\/p>\n Finally, this is your time to work, try things, experiment, learn, make mistakes, challenge yourself \u2013 make the most of it.\u00a0 I look forward to meeting every one of you in time, and making sure this is the best experience possible for you.\u00a0 Good luck and have a great year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" September 4, 2014: Convocation Address Dean Bronstein’s Convocation address: Good afternoon.\u00a0 I\u2019m Fred Bronstein, your new Dean.\u00a0 I want to begin by welcoming everyone, students, faculty and staff to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":1389,"menu_order":84,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1419","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1419"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29408,"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1419\/revisions\/29408"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peabody.jhu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}