Two Peabody alumnae Elisabeth Halliday-Quan (’07, Voice; KSAS BA ’07, German) and Kerri Lynn Slominski (’09, Voice), with Heather Holmquest, founded ROCopera, a new opera collective in the City of Rochester, New York. Their first inaugural performance will be at the Rochester Fringe Festival for Total Request Live [TRL]: OPERA EDITION, September 15-25.
Voice professor William Sharp and Netanel Draiblate (MM ’07, GPD ’09, Violin) are featured on a new CD of works by Bernard Herrmann by PostClassicalEnsemble to be released in October.
Jamie Reeves (DMA ’20, Conducting) was recently appointed director of orchestral studies at the University of Alabama.
Cierra Byrd (MM ’20, Voice) joins Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. The program has trained a new generation of celebrated American and international opera singers.
Peabody alumni are involved in a new organization called Lift Music Fund, which mission is to make achievement in music more accessible and equitable. The group awards microgrants every month to Black, Latinx, and Native American student musicians to help offset the incidental costs of pursuing a career in music – things like equipment, lessons, travel, application fees, instrument repairs, etc. Lift Music Fund is currently hosting a Micro-Concerts for Microgrants fundraiser series which will feature online performances by professional musicians across the nation. The fundraising series will feature performances from the following Peabody alumni: Claudia Malchow (BM ’17, Viola), Jessica Korotkin (BM ’16, Cello), Shannon Fitzhenry (BM ’18, Violin), Sophie Fortunato (BM ’17, Violin), Bailey Jo Hutton (BM ’17. Voice, Music Education; MM ’17, Voice, Pedagogy), Harry Oehler (BM ’16, Trombone, Music Education; MM ’18, Trombone), and Ian Striedter (BM ’16. Trombone; MM ’17, Audio Sciences).
