On a chilly evening last spring, the auditorium of Stephens Hall Theatre at Towson University was packed with opera patrons who had scored a ticket for Opera Baltimore’s nearly sold-out performance of Verdi’s beautifully tragic La Traviata, composed in 1853. Translated as “the fallen woman,” it tells the story of Violetta—in today’s parlance she might be described as part party girl, part influencer, and part high-class sex worker—who catches the eye of the wealthy Alfredo. This is opera, so theirs is not an easy romance, as class and other entanglements thwart their happily-ever-after, including—spoiler alert—her battle with tuberculosis, which had no cure in Verdi’s day.

The graceful soprano Lindsay Ohse, whose credits include critically acclaimed performances with major companies like the Metropolitan Opera (Met), was a charming lead, and the performance garnered rave reviews. Yet many Baltimoreans had no idea the performance had even taken place. Their exposure to opera may be limited to Bugs Bunny singing “Kill the Wabbit!” to the tune of “Ride of the Valkyries,” from Richard Wagner’s The Ring Cycle opera trilogy.

“It seems that many people imagine opera to be people in horns shouting at one another,” explains James Harp, who currently serves as artistic director for Maryland Opera (the second area opera company in addition to Opera Baltimore) and has been a leader in the city’s opera scene for nearly four decades.

“But the stories of opera are more relevant than people could possibly imagine,” he continues. “They tell the highs and lows of the human experience, set to the greatest music of all time. Opera is the culmination of the arts: It brings together the visual, the musical, the vocal, and the dramatic to create this incredible work of art that really takes us to a level that is so profoundly personal and reaches our very core.”

Baltimoreans may not be aware that opera has thrived in the city for nearly three centuries, starting in the 1700s. Later, it was ground zero for the performance of perhaps the country’s first homegrown opera that rose to European standards, when Arthur Clifton’s The Enterprise premiered here in 1822.

“Arthur Clifton was an English composer who immigrated to Baltimore and was central in the theatrical scene here,” says Dr. Aaron Ziegel, associate professor of music history and culture at Towson University and scholar-in-residence with Opera Baltimore. “This was the first operatic thing to be composed and premiered in Baltimore during the Colonial Era. The local press was really excited and there was a feeling that, ‘We’ve done it for the first time! A real, live, American-produced opera here in our city, composed by somebody here in our city, cast with actors from here in our city.’”

The years following the Civil War became known as the “golden age of opera.” A new theater district popped up around Howard Street with the construction of the Concordia Opera House, Ford’s Grand Opera House—the same Ford who owned the D.C. theater where Lincoln was assassinated—the Academy of Music, and The Music Hall. These venues were constructed to mimic the grand style of European opera houses, with a substantial main floor, tiered balconies, and stages that would fit the scenery and full choruses the large-scale productions demanded.

Unfortunately, none of these venues survive today except one: The Music Hall, now known as the Lyric. This majestic space, modeled after Amsterdam’s famous Concertgebouw, was purchased by Met Opera board chair and influential banker Otto Kahn in 1909. Kahn renamed it the Lyric Theater, securing it as a venue for Met performances. As a Met presenter, the Lyric would host major opera stars throughout the early part of the 20th century.

The quality of operas in Charm City and the popularity of the genre at the time gave rise to a sizable community of opera boosters in Baltimore. Eugene Martinet, a celebrated singer and director, founded the Baltimore Civic Opera Company in 1932, which largely featured local, amateur singers. That all changed when the company reorganized after his death and superstar diva Rosa Ponselle helmed the company as artistic director from roughly 1950 to 1979. Her star power attracted leading singers and professionalized the company, which dropped “civic” from its name entirely in 1970 to become the Baltimore Opera Company.

Baltimore Opera Company enjoyed many decades of high quality opera performances. Luminaries who later became household names came here, including Beverly Sills, Birgit Nilsson, Plácido Domingo, and Anna Moffo. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which shared the Lyric as its home venue until the 1982 opening of the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, served as the pit orchestra from the 1950s until the mid-1980s, when Baltimore Opera Company formed its own orchestra.

But like most arts institutions, Baltimore Opera Company faced its share of financial challenges. By the early 2000s, it was carrying significant debt. Operas are notoriously expensive to produce; revenue from ticket sales covers less than half of the cost of each production. The rest must be funded through public and private donations and an endowment draw. As a result, the annual budget can easily be blown off course. The 2007-2009 recession was the gust of wind that took down Baltimore Opera Company, which filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2008 and canceled its remaining two productions without issuing refunds to ticket holders.

James Harp, who served as Baltimore Opera Company’s artistic administrator beginning in 1989 and its chorus master from 1993 on, keenly felt the demise of the company he loved. “I felt it was like the plot of a terribly tragic opera of which I wanted no part,” Harp wrote to The Baltimore Sun in 2020.

Baltimore Opera Company eventually reorganized as Lyric Opera Baltimore and retained Harp as its artistic director. For five more seasons, it continued to perform at a high level at the Lyric—but Baltimore audiences’ changing tastes and increased competition in the market caused it to voluntarily fold in 2017.

But Harp and a dedicated team of board members felt opera still had a place in Baltimore; they just needed to find it. They tried again, forming Maryland Opera in 2018 with a rigorous eye toward sustainability.

“We came back with the intention of being an opera company with education programs and full stage productions but also acknowledging the new way of producing theater as being very flexible.” Harp explains. “And indeed we did not really have a home, but have found a home around the state.”

Today, Maryland Opera is appealing to new audiences, producing fully staged productions at unconventional venues like their popular First Friday performances at Boordy Vineyards. They’re also fostering a love of opera with a new generation through school programs and a two-week Opera Camp offered completely free for high school and early college-age students.

Baltimore Opera Company’s 2009 loss was another’s gain: The professional company Opera Baltimore was founded that year and today produces major, fully staged operas, such as this month’s production of Verdi’s Rigoletto.

“We began as a group of choristers who got together to produce one concert opera while the Baltimore Opera Company figured out how they were going to get past this hurdle and move forward,” recalls Opera Baltimore’s artistic director and general director Julia Turner Cooke, referring to Baltimore Opera Company’s bankruptcy. And from the start, they had a community-driven mission. “We’ve always been trying to do our best to run a conscientious, thoughtful opera company that honors all of the people involved,” says Cooke.

One of the ways Opera Baltimore lives out this goal is through community engagement initiatives. Last season, it partnered with several West Baltimore community organizations and the Enoch Pratt Free Library to create a series of events called Opera on the Avenue, to uplift the stories of African-American artists from Baltimore.

The first phase of the project celebrated African-American opera singer and Old West Baltimore native Anne Wiggins Brown, who was the first person to play “Bess” in George Gershwin’s famous opera Porgy and Bess. A special exhibit, titled “Baltimore Legends,” featured Anne Wiggins Brown and other Baltimore musicians and appeared online and in print at several city branches of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

“Baltimore City is a predominantly African-American city. We are Opera Baltimore and we want to speak into—or sing into—the experience of our neighbors and our community. We want opera to be relevant and galvanize conversation,” says Catrin Davies, who serves as Opera Baltimore’s director of community engagement and development. In that role she also leads the organization’s other outreach initiatives that include school music programs and Opera Club, which she describes as, “like book club, only louder!”

Davies also wants to spread the word that Baltimore has performance opportunities for young and emerging singers, such as with the Young Victorian Theatre Company—known informally as “Young Vic”—where she also serves as artistic director. Each summer it performs an operetta—which tend to be lighter and often comedic—by Gilbert and Sullivan.

“Young Vic is fully professional in its staff and its principal [performers] and its orchestra. But the chorus is volunteer,” says Davies. “That alchemy is just so exciting because the principals are reminded of the joy of performing when they see these choristers coming to every rehearsal, prepared and bringing a high level of artistry, and, conversely, the chorus members get to be part of a very professional production.”

“WE WANT OPERA TO BE RELEVANT AND GALVANIZE CONVERSATION.”

Perhaps it’s no surprise that opera refuses to let the curtain fall in Baltimore given the city’s wealth of young talent, stemming from the its many exceptional opera-training programs.

At the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, singers have the opportunity to hone their craft in numerous performances, including a full opera production on the mainstage each semester—all of which the public is welcome to attend. And in preparation for graduation, they have access to classes and support to help them bridge the gap between being a student and a working professional through Peabody’s “Breakthrough Curriculum.”

“We want our students to think of what it means to be a citizen artist, and think about your career as being immersed in the community, and giving the community something that it needs or wants,” explains Elizabeth Futral, an internationally celebrated soprano who serves as Peabody’s Marc C. Von May Distinguished Chair of Vocal Studies.

Dr. Phillip Collister-Murray serves as professor of voice and chair of the music department at Towson University, which also performs a number of quality operas each year that are open to the public. He agrees that real-world skills are essential for today’s opera singers, who face a very different stage than their 20th-century counterparts.

“[Singers] need to have an entrepreneurial mindset and create for themselves the opportunities they will need to be successful,” explains Collister-Murray. “At Towson, you are required to take a number of courses outside of your discipline, which gives a broader perspective. We really nurture our students and are honest with them about what they need to do to be successful.”

A bit of a hidden gem is the vocal program at Morgan State University (MSU). At MSU’s Opera Workshop, students are acquainted with a broad knowledge of opera literature and receive practical onstage experience through the performance of solo and ensemble work. Marquita Lister, the workshop’s artistic director, whose stage credits include performing as “Bess” in New York City Opera’s Emmy Award-nominated production of Porgy and Bess, explains that the program is designed to engage participants in the intellectual and physical techniques used in the development of believable characters on stage and everything that goes into creating fully staged productions.

“For me, especially working at an HBCU [Historically Black Colleges and Universities], it is really important for our students to understand that we have excellence at all levels,” she states.

Students don’t have to look too far to find an exemplar of that excellence. Denyce Graves, one of the most acclaimed mezzo-sopranos of all time, whose Met performances of the title roles in Carmen and Samson et Dalila are the stuff of legends, serves as faculty member at Peabody Institute and is a regular presence in Baltimore. Her voice has been the soundtrack to some of America’s most important moments, including a memorial service for victims of 9/11 in September 2001 and the state funeral for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Several years ago, Graves became aware of the story of the late Mary Cardwell Dawson—a singer of color who founded the National Negro Opera Company (NNOC) in 1941. In spite of Dawson’s talent and notable achievements—among them having her beloved NNOC perform on the Met stage—very few in the classical music world knew her story. Graves is working to change that. In 2021, she founded The Denyce Graves Foundation. Its Hidden Voices program seeks to sleuth out and elevate the stories of individuals like Dawson who deserve a place in our collective history.

“If we don’t tell a complete story of our history, whoever tells the narrative sort of controls what information we all learn,” says Graves. “I believe that this lack of information has hurt us all and created all kinds of stereotypes.”

Another key initiative of her Foundation is Shared Voices, a collaboration between HBCUs and top conservatories and schools of music in the United States that seeks to bring diversity, equity, and inclusion to music programming. Baltimore’s own Peabody Institute will host a Classical Vocal Arts Symposium for Shared Voices participants and others this fall, intended to provide students access to information about how careers in the classical vocal arts develop and focus on important aspects of a singer’s career, including vocal health, mental health, and physical fitness.

“HBCUs have this very rich [vocal] tradition, but oftentimes lack the resources to nurture this incredible talent,” says Graves. “I’m really proud that Peabody has really stepped out in front to develop and host this symposium.”

Inclusive, innovative efforts like these are what Baltimore’s opera scene needs to thrive into a fourth century. Says Graves, “I hope that more programs like this can be a bridge to help us all celebrate what is beautiful and what is great about all of us.”

Laura Farmer is a communications professional and former opera singer.

he phrase “the new normal” has been thrown around since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and as America struggles to define—and design—what that is exactly, colleges are paving the way for what it might look like.

After the chaos and uncertainty of 2020, colleges and universities throughout the Baltimore region began to find their groove as they moved into the 2021-2022 school year. Coronavirus safety committees had been erected, new mandates put in place, safety protocols implemented—everything from vaccine requirements to temperature checks to quarantine procedures and wastewater testing that can pinpoint a COVID infection before anyone is symptomatic.

By some counts, colleges may very well be the safest places to live and work.

“Just following simple rules of wearing face masks and social distancing, using wastewater management and testing when we need to, we have, in many ways, been able to return to normal life,” says Goucher College President Kent Devereaux. “Full athletics, student clubs, dining in the dining hall, use of the library—everything that you’d normally have, we’ve been able to return to.”

Despite the challenges and anxieties faced by students, staff, and faculty alike, some unexpected silver linings have emerged.

“It’s just incredible to watch how it’s grown into the vision that we, as a group of students, had.”

The widespread adoption of technology across college campuses has proven to provide more flexibility, efficiency, and innovation—and even accessibility, in some cases. Counseling sessions, for example, began to be conducted remotely during the pandemic and many students found that they preferred it to in-person sessions. Students who cannot, for whatever reason, make it to an in-person class can now study from anywhere.

Challenging times, combined with advances in technology and the general acceptance of it, have also brought more cooperation and collaboration among schools. It’s becoming more common, for example, for schools that offer complementary programs to partner with one another to offer students an educational pathway to continue studies in their chosen areas. That may mean a discounted tuition rate, a transfer of class credits, or an internship through a partner school.

Maybe most importantly though, schools, at their best, foster an environment where students are supported, expand who they are, and connect with like-minded people. At a time when gathering together is not always safe, being in a community has become even more precious, and students have found new ways to connect.

OCA Mocha, a coffeehouse in Arbutus founded by University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) students, is one example of how effective a gathering place can be at a time when people are craving human connection. What started as a class assignment—to design a community center of some sort—has become a gathering place not just for UMBC students and alumni, but the Arbutus community at large.

“We’ve heard a lot of stories from people who are extremely grateful to have this space,” says Michael Berardi, UMBC class of 2019 and co-founder and general manager of OCA Mocha, which stands for Opportunities for Community Alliances. The coffee shop includes a stage, a community room, and an art gallery, employs UMBC students and alumni, and provides internship opportunities for current UMBC students.

“We have local groups and organizations that meet regularly in our community space and are grateful to not have to meet in someone’s living room or church basement,” says Berardi. “We see a lot of connections being made. It’s just incredible to watch how it’s grown into the vision that we, as a group of students, had.”

We checked in with colleges and universities throughout the region to find out what’s new and what campus life and classes look like, two years into the pandemic.

COPPIN STATE UNIVERSITY
A historically Black institution founded in 1900, Coppin State University is situated in the heart of Baltimore City in the Mondawmin neighborhood. Part of the University System of Maryland in Baltimore, the school offers 32 undergraduate and 11 graduate degrees, along with nine certificate programs and one doctorate degree. It’s been rated No. 4 Best HBCU in the Nation (College Consensus), the Top 5 Best Value Online Program (Online School Center), and No. 17 Best Value in the Nation (College Consensus).

In the summer of 2021, CSU announced its Student Debt Relief Initiative, which clears roughly $1 million in student balances and provided a $1,200 credit to every student enrolled in the fall 2021 semester. CSU also created the Freddie Gray Student Success Scholarship, which is available to graduates of Carver Vocational-Technical High School, where Gray was a student.

Coppin also takes esports (competitive video gaming) seriously. In the fall of 2021, Coppin became the first HBCU to open a building on campus exclusively devoted to esports. The Premier Esports Lab opened in September with a guest appearance from Grammy-nominated artist Cordae.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,383 undergraduates, 341 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 13:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $6,809 in-state, $13,334 out-of-state
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 40%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Business, Biology, Education, and Criminal Justice, Rehabilitation Counseling

DICKINSON COLLEGE
Founded in 1783, Dickinson College is a liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with a suburban campus that spans 144 acres. The school offers 41 undergraduate degrees within 17 fields of study.

It’s been rated as one of the best schools in the country for its sustainability efforts, which include an 80-acre, USDA-certified organic farm. Princeton Review rated it No. 2 in the Top 50 Green Colleges, and it was rated No. 2 in Overall Top Performers among baccalaureate institutions in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s “Sustainable Campus Index” in 2019 and 2020.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,345
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 9:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $58,708
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 52%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: International Business, Economics, Political Science & Government, International Relations & National Security, General Psychology

GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
Gettysburg College, a private, liberal arts school, sits on 225 acres adjacent to the historical Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania. Many of the buildings on campus are historically significant, so it’s no wonder that it draws students interested in studying history.

The school offers 65 academic programs, more than 120 campus clubs and organizations, and 800 events on campus each year, plus more than 100 study-abroad opportunities open to students.

Its Majestic Theater serves as a venue for the greater Gettysburg community, hosting national acts as well as performances by the school’s Sunderman Conservatory of Music students.

It’s ranked No. 12 for “students who study the most” by the Princeton Review, which also ranked Gettysburg College’s dining hall No. 9 in the country for best campus food.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,600
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 10:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $59,960
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 56%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Political Science, Economics, Health Sciences, Organization and Management Studies, History, Psychology

GOUCHER COLLEGE
A private, liberal arts college in Towson, Goucher College prides itself on its close-knit community.

Goucher was extremely proactive when it came to COVID-19 precautions, being the first in the state to implement wastewater testing, which is able to isolate COVID infections by dorm.

Also of note: The college recently opened two new residence halls as part of the school’s First-Year Village. One hundred percent of Goucher students study abroad, and the school is committed to sustainability.

Most recently, Goucher has begun exciting partnerships with other schools, such as Johns Hopkins University, Loyola University, and more to come, to provide a pathway for students to continue their education beyond Goucher. For instance, their 4+1 MBA Program allows students to earn an advanced business degree through Loyola via a “Fast Track” admission process, and at a 15% discount on tuition.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,100
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 9:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $48,000
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 79%
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Psychology, International Relations, Economics, Political Science, Business Administration

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) offers nine academic divisions and hundreds of courses of study, with campuses spread throughout Baltimore, including the Peabody Institute, a music and dance conservatory in Mount Vernon. Its main Homewood campus is located on North Charles Street.

The prestigious, world-renowned university has a strong reputation for its public health and medical studies and has been compared to Ivy League schools.

One of its points of pride is its financial aid program, which covers 100% of calculated need for every admitted student, without loans. This means JHU works with families to calculate what they can afford to contribute toward the total cost of attendance—including meals, books, travel, and other expenses—and JHU covers the rest with grants that don’t need to be repaid.

This school year, JHU added two new minors: Latin American Studies and Writing Seminars.

It also announced new efforts this year to move toward a broader, more flexible undergraduate educational experience that will include a required first-year seminar and the streamlining of major requirements to allow for greater intellectual exploration.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,333 undergraduates, 22,559 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 6:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $56,313 for Peabody Institute, $58,720 for the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 9%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Computer Science, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Neuroscience, Economics, Public Health Studies, International Studies

LOYOLA UNIVERSITY
This private, Jesuit institution offers undergraduate and graduate programs on a beautiful urban campus in northern Baltimore City. Education at Loyola is based in the Jesuit tradition of scholarship cura personalis, or care for the whole person. Loyola is known for its academic rigor while helping students lead purposeful lives. Seventy percent of students study abroad. It currently ranks fourth in best universities in the North region according to U.S. News & World Report.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 3,787 undergraduates, 1,353 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 12:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $53,430
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 80%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business, Management, Marketing, Journalism, Social Sciences, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Psychology, English Language and Literature, Engineering and Education.

McDANIEL COLLEGE
McDaniel College sits in a bucolic setting near Westminster in Carroll County. The private, four-year liberal arts college offers more than 70 undergraduate programs of study and more than 20 graduate programs. McDaniel’s most recent addition to its curriculum is a National Security Fellows Program that provides students with knowledge, skills, and experience in national security as well as the ability to specialize in an area of interest, such as interstate conflict, intrastate political violence, cybersecurity, ethics, and human rights.

Also new this year, McDaniel appointed an inaugural associate provost for equity and belonging who provides vision and leadership to the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and works in collaboration with the provost to co-lead the college’s diversity, equity, and inclusion administrative committee, and guides the Bias Education Response Support Team.

The school also launched a new STEM Center to serve as a physical hub to support students studying the sciences. It hosts workshops and other events while also supplying online and hybrid support.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,757 undergraduates, 1,324 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 13:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $46,336
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 81%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Kinesiology, Business Administration, Psychology, Biology, Political Science, International Studies

MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
The largest of Maryland’s HBCU’s (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), Morgan is a public institution founded in 1867. It is situated in northeast Baltimore. As a Carnegie-classified high research (R2) institution, Morgan provides instruction to a multiethnic, multiracial, multinational student body and offers more than 140 academic programs at undergraduate and graduate levels. As Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan fulfills its mission to address the needs and challenges of the modern urban environment through intense community level study and pioneering solutions.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,270 undergraduates, 1,364 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 15:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $8,008 for in-state and $18,480 for out-of-state
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 73%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Civil Engineering, Communications Engineering, Business Administration and Management, Social Work, Biology/Biological Sciences, Architecture, Finance, Psychology, Sociology

NOTRE DAME OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY
A private, Catholic liberal arts university in northern Baltimore, Notre Dame of Maryland University offers programs from undergraduate through PhD, as well as Maryland’s only women’s college. It recently launched the first master’s of art degree in Art Therapy program in the state.
The beautiful, wooded campus is just steps from the bustling downtown Baltimore culture. With values rooted in Catholicism, the school focuses on service to others and social responsibility.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 783
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 7:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $39,675
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 88%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Education, Biology, Art Therapy, Pharmacy

TOWSON UNIVERSITY
One of the largest public universities in the state, Towson University offers more than 60 undergraduate majors and continues to draw students from other states, though it remains part of the University System of Maryland.

Its campus continues to expand, with a huge new dining hall, a 23,000-foot recreation and fitness facility with an indoor swimming pool, and its 5,200-seat arena for sporting events and concerts. In 2021, it opened its new Science Complex, the largest academic building on campus at 320,000 square feet.

In September, Towson opened its StarTUp at the Armory, a space for startups and new businesses to engage with the broader community and larger businesses. It serves as a home to Towson’s entrepreneurship programs, as well as student competitions and events.

While Towson remains the largest supplier of medical professionals and educators in the state, the university has also built a strong reputation for its College of Fine Arts and Communication, as well as its Asian Arts & Culture Center, both of which bring students into the wider community and the Baltimore community to Towson for enriching performing arts, music, and visual art programs.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 17,907 undergraduates, 2,949 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 16:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $7,100 in-state, $22,152 out-of-state
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business Administration, Education, Nursing, Exercise Science, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, Biology, Computer Science, Information Technology

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE
University of Maryland, Baltimore is Maryland’s only public health, law, and human services university. Located in downtown Baltimore, it offers 86 degree and certificate programs through its six nationally ranked professional schools—dentistry, law, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work—and an interdisciplinary graduate school.

The school’s 14-acre BioPark is Baltimore’s biggest biotechnology cluster, employing 1,000 people, and remains on the cutting edge of new drugs, treatments, and medical devices.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 7,244
• ANNUAL TUITION: Varies by school
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Medicine, Law, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Social Work

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE COUNTY
University of Maryland, Baltimore County educates a campus of more than 10,000 students in programs spanning the arts, engineering, information technology, humanities, sciences, preprofessional studies, and social sciences. Located on the edge of Baltimore County, it allows easy access into the city and all the conveniences of suburban life and housing. It also offers plenty of opportunities for study abroad.

In the fall of 2021, UMBC opened the Center for Well-Being, a new two-story complex that houses Retriever Integrated Health, Student Conduct and Community Standards, and i3b’s Gathering Space for Spiritual Well-Being. UMBC’s already significant NASA partnerships have continued to grow. In October, NASA announced a major award of $72 million over three years for the new Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research II center. UMBC is leading the national consortium and will receive over $38 million. The GESTAR II consortium will support over 120 researchers, creating extensive opportunities for breakthroughs in Earth and atmospheric science research, and providing major opportunities for students to conduct research and be mentored by NASA scientists and engineers.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 13,638
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 17:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $12,280 in-state, $28,470 out-of-state
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 81%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Social Sciences, Psychology, Visual and Performing Arts

Cited tuition costs exclude room and board and books.

Walking through the lobby of the Peabody Institute, the sound of piano practice and chamber music reverberates through the marble building. The esteemed conservatory has been a classical training ground for young musicians and composers since the mid-1800s, but Peabody’s newest major pivots away from the traditional.

Last fall, Thomas Dolby, 1980s synth-pop pioneer of “She Blinded Me With Science” fame, and Chris Kennedy, a Baltimore-based composer, formed the four-year Music for New Media program to prepare students for the modern-day requirements of the music business. “These days, everybody is working remotely using the same piece of software,” says Dolby, commenting on the collaborative nature of film composition. “Dialogue, sound effects, and music are all being changed at the same time.”

During the first year of the program, students learn the ways of “linear” music composition, which is used to write music for film and television. First-year students spend their time in the Music for New Media classroom plugging away at projects such as composing original scores for famous movie scenes on industry-standard programming environments.

The following year, students experiment with “non-linear” media, such as games, virtual reality, and augmented reality scenarios. Sophomore Avery Tyler has grown attached to the composition of video game music, despite not playing video games growing up. “I went from thinking, ‘This is a way to further my music career’ to thinking, ‘Wow, I actually really like this!’” Tyler says.

While the major has only been around for two years, many students have already found opportunities for composition work through the Johns Hopkins network. Several have scored for films and animations made by MICA students, or, in the case of sophomore Jolene Shao, a theme song for a Chinese web series and a jingle for a rice commercial. The program is the first of its kind in a conservatory-style school, and it shifts Peabody toward the likes of technical schools, such as Berklee College of Music. Now, students can learn about programming and the music business while also continuing their violin training.

Outside of teaching the students about media scoring, Dolby hopes to imbue them with a sense of fearlessness toward the uncharted territories that technology opens up. “The best thing I have to teach these guys is, how, as an artist, do you respond to a new challenge?” Dolby says. “Technology is evolving all the time, and pop culture is evolving all the time. How do you respond to that and express yourself with new media?”

The audience seated in folding chairs stares curiously at the dancers in front of them. Perhaps, the performers aren’t what these families and elderly couples think of when they hear the word “ballet.” After all, there are no tutus or pink-ribboned shoes in sight. Instead, seven boys of varying heights, ages, and races stand before them on the carpeting, barefooted and wearing khakis and bold-colored T-shirts. Some are still prepubescently skinny, but all have strong, sinewy muscles and the awkwardness and sweetness of youth—the oldest ones experimenting with trendy hairstyles and the little ones young enough to have cowlicks and sneaky smiles that tease the corners of their lips.

“What are we in for?” the audience seems to be wondering this day in April. When the boys begin to move, it all makes sense. Their motions are controlled, graceful, and musical, and their bodies appear weightless as they fly through the air or lift high up onto their toes. Their artistry combines strength, vivacity, and masculinity, and the audience murmurs in amazement during one section as the boys lift the smallest of their troupe and hold him suspended in the air while they prance through the room. Even one of the youngest audience members, who has been fussing, stops and asks his mother, “How’d they do that?”

This unlikely performance at an unlikely place—a conference room at a library in Prince George’s County—exemplifies the mission of this unique group, which is nothing less than a complete revision of what it means to be a ballet dancer.

The dancers are part of the Estelle Dennis/Peabody Dance Training Program for Boys, which gives young men ages 9 to 18 tuition-free admission to Peabody Dance, the after-school dance training program that is part of the community school affiliated with the lauded Peabody Institute. Now 101 years old, Peabody Dance is one of the oldest continuously operating dance training centers in the country and, since its inception, has developed talents that go on to some of the top dance companies in the world. In 2009, as a way to attract boys to the program, advisers and instructors decided a scholarship program could encourage families who couldn’t afford training, or who otherwise might be hesitant. The small proportion of boys to girls in ballet has been noted nationally, and though statistics on the subject are hard to find, for years teachers have reported that they often only have a single boy in their classes, if any.

“There has always been this underlying thought from fathers—and mothers, too—that they didn’t raise their boys to be ballet dancers. It still exists to some degree, but much less,” says Barbara Weisberger, who is Peabody Dance’s artistic adviser. “This program is helping to remove that stigma, because these boys are wonderful talents. They’re a joy to watch.”

“My teachers wouldn’t let me stop, even when I wanted to. Now, I won’t stop until I’m in one of the top companies in the world. that’s my goal.”

Last school year, 31 boys attended Peabody Dance (which can cost thousands a semester) tuition-free, breathing new energy and life into the mirrored-walled studios and bringing economic, racial, and social diversity to a world that “hasn’t always been that way,” says Melissa Stafford, Peabody Dance director and department chair. “I love that boys from rough neighborhoods are in class with someone whose parents are doctors, and their progress is all based on what they can do in the studio. The boys get exposed to other people and other parts of the city that they would probably never see.”

In its eight years, the program has gotten results, with the students going off to dance company training programs, or getting full rides to college dance programs. The training has opened their minds, and their futures, to opportunities they didn’t know were possible.

“My teachers wouldn’t let me stop, even when I wanted to,” says Antrel McDowell, 20, who grew up in Park Heights, danced at Peabody, and is now in a pre-professional training program. “Now, I’m dancing in Sarasota [at the Sarasota Cuban Ballet School] and I won’t stop until I’m in one of the top companies in the world. That’s my goal.”

Barbara Weisberger still remembers the first auditions she oversaw for the Estelle Dennis program in May 2009. Walking into The Mount Royal School and Roland Park Elementary/Middle School that day, she drew her breath in amazement as she saw dozens of boys, 60 total, who were black and white and of all ages, waiting to show her what they could do.

Though most of them were hip-hop dancers, it didn’t matter to Weisberger— their enthusiasm was contagious—and it didn’t seem to matter to the boys that she was showing them a completely different style of dance. They were just excited to move. “They enjoyed themselves so much. They were so musical, they were such fun, they were so natural,” Weisberger says. “We were in tears it was so wonderful.”

Brought on as an adviser at Peabody in 2001, Weisberger—now 90, who has been involved with ballet since age 3, and has the distinction of being the first child student of the legendary choreographer and ballet master George Balanchine—immediately noticed what she calls the “dearth of boy dancers” at the school. She, along with then artistic director Carol Bartlett requested a change to the Estelle Dennis program—named for a Roland Park resident and leader in the 20th-century contemporary dance scene—which previously gave one scholarship to a male dancer from Maryland each year. The thinking behind the change was that “we should up the training of boys in ballet so we have more boys who are strong enough dancers to join companies,” Weisberger says. “And whatever form of dance you choose to follow, you would do it better because you have ballet. It’s like learning your ABCs.”

She and Bartlett picked about 20 boys, ages 9 to 15, that first year based on their bodies’ flexibility and coordination, as well as their musicality, but many didn’t have any formal dance training—which was intentional. As Weisberger experienced that first day at auditions, once the dancing bug caught them, their bodies—and minds—were flexible enough to try different styles and types of training. Still, the requirements were strict—classes twice a week, which would increase as they got older to up to five days a week. But the boys would be together in class, and wouldn’t have to worry about being the only boy amid a bunch of girls, though they would attend coed classes after the first two years of training.

The teachers saw attrition that first year, which they knew would come as some of the boys realized the focus and commitment necessary to continue. LaTanya Cherry-Lyle, whose 15-year-old son DeVonté Tasker has danced with the program for six years, remembers the adjustment her son faced as he encountered an environment different than any he’d experienced growing up in the Bel Air-Edison neighborhood—one with strict rules, rigorous classes, and high expectations. She recalls how tired he was when she would pick him up from rehearsal, sometimes as late as 9 or 10 o’clock at night. “As soon as he would sit down in the car, he was out,” she says. “But now, he’s more disciplined, focused, and driven. DeVonté wants to succeed and he’ll practice more and more until it’s good enough for him.”

And, the boys were making their own mark on the school. “There’s a different, masculine culture that they’ve brought,” says Stafford, who became director and department chair in 2013 after Bartlett’s death from cancer. “When you step out for a five-minute rehearsal break, you’ll come back to the boys doing three pirouettes and trying to outdo each other in a friendly, competitive way. That camaraderie they have with the other guys has changed the energy of the school.”

As refreshing as those new dancers were, Stafford and the other instructors soon realized that they couldn’t continue to accept boys to the program who were in middle or high school unless they’d had training. “We just don’t have enough time with them,” Stafford says. But she’s also realized that the school will have to occasionally make exceptions, as there have been boys who’ve surprised her.

“When I finish dance class, everything is hurting. but it pays off because when I perform, people say, ‘Ooo, he’s really good.'”

Take the student who, after being kicked out of his house during his senior year of high school, lived with a family friend so he could continue classes and ultimately received a full-tuition scholarship to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Or the 15-year-old who wrote Stafford an e-mail after he’d been rejected from the program, asking her to reconsider, writing, “I know I don’t have any training—that’s why I came to you.” “He wrote that, not his mom,” Stafford notes. She told the boy he’d have to come in the summer and take classes with the 8-year-olds, which he agreed to do. “He was eager, he asked questions, he worked hard,” Stafford says. “He took the bus, and his mom only came once. He’s doing this for himself.” Now, he dances while attending Point Park University in Pittsburgh.

“This is their way to see something different, their way to make their own way in the world, and probably not a lot of kids they grew up with had that opportunity,” Stafford says. “I think about how important it is for these boys to feel like, ‘I’m good at something, I’m really good at something,’ because they may not have gotten that message elsewhere. This really is changing lives.”

Beyond Peabody’s exquisite, museum-like façade in Mount Vernon are twisting, winding hallways that lead to the dance department, which has an atmosphere a bit like an elementary school. On any given day there, the walls echo with the chatter of girls and boys, who dash to and fro.

One afternoon this spring, the boys gather in a studio in their usual black tights and shoes and white shirts. They listen quietly and professionally as their teacher tells them the steps and positions for the class, always in French— échappé, changement, and piqué are words they hear often. When they begin, with live accompaniment on piano, the teacher walks around and gently corrects posture, straightening an arm or a leg. After work at the barre and balance exercises, it’s time for stretches and pushups. Sometimes, the younger and older boys take classes together, but mostly they are separate. Sometimes, like on this particular day, alumni like Antrel McDowell stop by.

After class, McDowell joins current student Keon Wagstaff, now 12, in joking about class, talking about YouTube ballet videos, and discussing what companies they’d like to join. Antrel places an arm on Keon’s shoulder and says confidently, “I’m going to the Royal Ballet [in London] and you’re going to Bolshoi.”

Stafford loves this kinship between the boys. “[The older boys] were once these little guys, and they know what they would have wanted to hear,” Stafford says. “And that’s not something you can teach them to do.”

That spirit of togetherness is crucial in today’s ballet world, known for its cutthroat competition, and where the color wall is just starting to come down. Last year, ballet dancer Misty Copeland (who is also an Under Armour ambassador) became the first African-American principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre in New York City, one of the most elite dance companies in the world. And after years of discussions about increasing opportunities for people of color in classical ballet, American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School and the training program at the New York City Ballet have started programs to recruit young minority dancers (though critics are concerned that professional opportunities do not await these dancers).

There’s also the question of the stigma that has existed among the general public about boys who dance—mainly that they are less masculine than boys who compete in team sports, for example. In an effort to expose boys, and their parents, to dance early—when they are, perhaps, more receptive, and haven’t formed opinions about ballet—boys-only classes and scholarship programs similar to Peabody’s have sprung up at places like the Metropolitan Ballet Academy in Pennsylvania and, most recently, the Nashville Ballet.

Stafford has personal experience with this. Her brother, who went on to become ballet master of the New York City Ballet, didn’t tell all his friends that he danced when they were growing up in central Pennsylvania. So she keeps an eye out to make sure the pressures aren’t getting to her students. She is encouraged when she hears boys like Keon talk about how they overcame their own brushes with teasing.

“At first, my friends weren’t happy that I was doing ballet,” Keon explains. “They don’t see boys dance, just girls, and they thought of me in a tutu and pointy shoes dancing around. But then, they saw me dance and they said, ‘Oh, you’re good.’ Now, they don’t see me as the boy that dances. They see me as Keon.”

The boys finish the performance that April day in Prince George’s County sweaty, breathing hard. After a rousing ovation from the audience, they take their own seats at the front of the room to answer questions.
The first few are fairly basic: “How often do you practice?” “How old are you?” Then, it gets a little more in-depth. “What motivates you?” asks one woman. “And what obstacles do you encounter and overcome?”

Noah Schwartz, a 17-year-old who lives in Guilford, takes the microphone first. “Dancing is a lot like sports,” he says. “It’s demanding, you have to do a lot with your body, and it takes a lot of energy. We have to dance together as one, like a team has to know what each person is doing for it to work well.”

Next, it is DeVonté Tasker’s turn. “Motivation-wise, you have to think, ‘Is this really what I want to do for a career?’ I have to try my hardest at every class, no matter how tired I am. I’m sure there’s times where all of us don’t want to take class, but we still have to because we want to get better. It’s like math or science—practice makes perfect.”

The audience murmurs in awe at the professional, focused answers, and someone else stands to ask a question, but Keon reaches for the mike. “I wanted to say something else on the motivation thing.”

A few years ago, before he started the program, Peabody Dance teachers would watch Keon pirouette through the halls, and they told his mother, who works as the registrar at Peabody, “He has to be in the program.” Since starting dance, his grades in school, and his focus, have improved. And now, he tells the crowd, he has discovered what he wants to do with his life.

“When I finish dance class, my legs are hurting, everything is hurting,” he says. “But it pays off because when I perform, people say, ‘Ooo, he’s really good.’ I try my hardest so I can keep doing dance and make it my career.”

The audience applauds, and Keon looks around at his teachers, who are beaming. Keon himself can’t keep a sneaky smile from playing at the corners of his lips.

Visual Art

Artesanas Mexicanas y Artesanitos
Don’t miss your chance to view and purchase handmade piñatas, corn husk flowers, and traditional embroidery from the talented women of Creative Alliance’s Artesanas Mexicanas program and their child apprentices, who are part of a year-long program to learn these intricate arts. Stop by opening night for a reception that will include a traditional Mexican dinner and performances. Reception from 6-8 p.m. Nov. 16; On view from Nov. 16 to Dec. 1. Amalie Rothschild Gallery at Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave.

Baltimore Beneath the Surface
This exhibit pairing Baltimore-based street photographers Lashelle Bynum and Angelia Carter has been extended through the end of November, meaning there’s no reason to miss this series of portraits of the city and its people. Covering both individuals’ stories and the communities that surround them, these images offer a look at the many pieces that create the whole of Baltimore. On view through Nov. 30. Eubie Blake Cultural Center, 847 N. Howard St.

Lizzie Fitch/Ryan Trecartin
Longtime collaborators Lizzie Fitch and Ryan Trecartin have shown their videos, sculptures, and installations around the world, and their latest stop at the BMA brings all those elements into the museum’s hallowed halls. Venture into either of the sculptural theaters (one made to look like a bar and the other a sort of gymnastics center) to view films exploring the ideas of technology, identity, and communication in the 21st century. On view through Jan. 6, 2019. The Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Dr.

Music

The Art of Prelude and Fugue
This brand-new concert series from the Peabody Institute pairs Russian composer Dmitry Shostakovich’s book of Preludes and Fugues with the Baroque Bach compositions that inspired it. Join pianist Lura Johnson at the intimate Leith Symington Griswold Hall for the first of four explorations of these two composers and how their pieces, created 200 years apart, can work together. Pre-concert lecture at 6:30, Concert at 7:30, Nov. 19. Leith Symington Griswold Hall, 1 E. Mount Vernon Pl.

Joy Postell Album Release Show at the Ottobar
Local indie R&B artist Joy Postell has had a big year, and she’s closing it out with a bang. New music, new videos, and a mention in The New York Times’ piece “The Changing Sound of Baltimore” have all created buzz around the local singer, and now her debut album, Diaspora, is finally here. Get in line early to catch this free performance to celebrate the release. Doors at 8 p.m., Show at 9 p.m., Nov. 23. Ottobar, 2549 N. Howard St.

Theater

A Wonder in My Soul
In a story that feels rooted firmly in the world around us, two Baltimore beauty shop owners must weigh their love of their neighborhood against moving away from the pressures of crime and the rising cost of gentrification. Friendship and community anchor this work from celebrated playwright Marcus Gardley. Nov. 29 through Dec. 23. Baltimore Center Stage, 700 N. Calvert St.

Drunk Classics: Shakespeare
Watch as the cast at Single Carrot and their guests deliver their tipsy interpretations of some of the Bard’s greatest scenes. Enjoy a live Drunk History-style biography of Shakespeare to start, and then who knows what the night will bring? A blitzed Benedick and Beatrice? A plastered Puck? An intoxicated Iago? Only the Carrots know what’s coming. 8-11 p.m., Nov. 17. Single Carrot Theatre, 2600 N. Howard St.

Film

Baltimore’s Strange Fruit Film Screening & Celebration
Celebrate the Black Yield Institute’s third anniversary this screening of the group’s documentary, Baltimore’s Strange Fruit: A Story of Food Apartheid and the Struggle for Sovereignty at the BMA. The event, which will also include entertainment and and a discussion with the filmmakers, will benefit the BYI’s food sovereignty work throughout the city. 3-6 p.m., Nov. 17. The Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Dr.

Literary Arts

Writers LIVE: Antero Pietila
Antero Pietila’s new book, The Ghosts of Johns Hopkins, may not include any spirits. But the ghosts examined in these pages are still haunting the city nearly 150 after the death of the Baltimore titan. Join Pietila to discuss the complicated legacy of Johns Hopkins and how his institutions helped shape the problems of the city we live in today. 7 p.m., Nov. 28. Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St.

Festival of Jewish Literature
Catch the final weekend of this two-week celebration of Jewish literature throughout the Baltimore area. Head to Beth El in Pikesville Thursday night for a community reading with Eternal Life author Dara Horn, take in a Jewish Variety Hour Saturday night at The Ivy Bookshop, or bring the kids to a series of children’s programs at Chizuk Amuno Congregation on Sunday evening. Through Nov. 18, Times and locations vary.

On August 8, Thomas Dolby will bring his tour home to Baltimore armed with a classic Roland TR-808 drum machine (the 8/08 date is no coincidence), a projector screen, 40 years of experience, and no setlist.

For the final show of his tour, Thomas Dolby: An Evening of Music and Storytelling, Dolby will take apart hits and deep cuts as chosen by the audience and put them back together again using a couple of keyboards, a drum pad, and a laptop. The whole process will be shown onscreen behind the artist, giving those in attendance an exclusive look inside the creative process.

“In many cases, my songs sound quite complicated and sophisticated,” Dolby says. “But when people see them built from the ground up, they realize that actually they’re built on quite simple building blocks. They can see on those large video screens the output from my laptop, and then see me actually building the songs as I go and hear the components and then hear them performed in full, so it gives people a very powerful insight into the process behind those songs.”

While most people might recognize Dolby from the video for his 1982 hit “She Blinded Me with Science” or 1984’s “Hyperactive!,” he says he actually gets the strongest response from fans with deeper cuts. Luckily for them, they’re the ones choosing what direction the night at Center Stage might take. And there are many paths to go down. Some lead to anecdotes about playing with Roger Water at the Berlin Wall, others toward memories of performing at Live Aid with David Bowie, who introduced him to the estimated 1.9 billion watching as “very brilliant.”

Whichever direction the audience decides to go, Dolby is prepared with his setup and a lifetime of photo and video archives to help illustrate his long and collaborative career.

The show caps off a summer of touring, but there won’t be any rest for Dolby, who has been at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute since 2014. This fall, he welcomes his first class of students in the Music for New Media program, many of whom he personally recruited. These students will be the next generation of experimental musicians, learning to compose for virtual and augmented reality.

“Linear media like film and TV have a hundred years of history and legacy behind it, but with a VR experience, for example, there is no formulaic way to approach it,” Dolby say. “So it will be fascinating to see how the students take it on. They’ll be the ones that will create the new guidelines, not people of my generation.”

How do you teach a line of work that is only just getting it’s start? Well, that’s the tricky part. Students and teacher will be learning the intricacies of composing for new forms of media together, but Dolby’s lifetime of experimentation and looking at problems new ways will lend themselves to the task.

“These are super smart kids,” he says. “Some of them are brilliant virtuoso violinists or concert pianists that have been trained in a classical sense to far higher degree than I ever was. But what I have to share with them is a career of experience and a sort of willingness to experiment with new technology and techniques. And that’s hopefully what will rub off on my students.”

Siblings Maggie and Matthew Schneider have packed quite a lot into their young lives so far. At ages 8 and 7, respectively, the two have already studied music at the Peabody Institute, been classically trained on the violin with a professor at the Manhattan School of Music, and have been spearheading an annual benefit concert.

Their efforts continue this Saturday, May 26, at the Baltimore Museum of Art where the two will perform on their quarter-size violins along with a group of Juilliard-trained musicians, with 100 percent of the proceeds benefiting the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

“Even when they were just infants, you could see their eyes twinkled when they heard music,” says their mom Dr. Hyon Schneider. “Thanks to ear training at Peabody, it didn’t take long to found out that my kids had perfect pitch.”

Maggie and Matthew began studying the early childhood music program at Peabody Institute at just 18 months old. They then progressed to a local Baltimore violin studio and both picked up the instruments for the first time at 3 years old. A few years later, they were making weekly trips up to New York City to study under Byung K. Kwak at the Manhattan School of Music. 

“When we first moved to Maryland, I told my husband it was important to be an easy driving distance to New York,” says Schneider, a product of Juilliard pre-college herself. “It’s been great to see them also have such a knack for music. A four-hour lesson doesn’t make them tired—it makes them inspired.”

What’s more, the idea of a philanthropic concert came from the young students, who attend Bryn Mawr and Gilman schools. Inspired by projects like Alex’s Lemonade Stand, the siblings knew that they wanted to use their talents for good. A cause found them when their uncle passed away from leukemia and they realized they wanted to give back on a local level to the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

“It struck them hard to see their family going through loss,” Schneider says. “We did some local hospital visits and saw the great work Johns Hopkins is doing for leukemia. My kids loved the facilities but asked what might make the patients more comfortable. They want to donate money for games and books.”

The program for Saturday’s benefit concert, which begins at 5 p.m., reads more like the repertoire of a major symphony orchestra. Maggie and Matthew—alongside the Juilliard-trained Kwak, Andy Lin, and Nan-Chang Chen—will be performing concertos by Mozart, Bach, and Vivaldi. Quite a feat for the young siblings who haven’t reached middle school yet.

“I’m most proud that their focus isn’t on advertising their talents,” Schneider says. “They are looking to provide for their community and encourage others in their generation to follow suit.”

All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire

Jonathan Abrams (Crown Publishing Group)

In the first season of The Wire, methodical veteran detective Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters) tells a young cop he is mentoring that in an investigation “all the pieces matter.” Apply the same to Jonathan Abrams’ collection of oral histories behind the groundbreaking show’s unflinching depiction of inner-city America and the war on drugs. The firsthand accounts from co-creators David Simon and Ed Burns, as well as the actors, directors, writers, and HBO brass, are not to be missed by fans of the show.

Musical Maryland

David K. Hildebrand and Elizabeth M. Schaaf  (Johns Hopkins University Press)

“O we’re full of life, fun, and jollity . . . we’re all crazy here in Baltimore.” Such is a song verse to celebrate the laying of the first stone of the B&O Railroad. You might find yourself singing along as you flip through Musical Maryland, a survey of the musical heritage of the Old Line State, spanning some 300 years in time, up to the late 20th century. If you read music, even better. The book is peppered with images: old-timey photographs (like The Peabody Orchestra rehearsing in Peabody Concert Hall circa 1880), colorful and beautifully drawn covers for musical scores, and, yes, small snippets of sheet music. From slave songs to the legendary stories of Eubie Blake and Billie Holiday, from the Baltimore Opera Society (in existence long before the Baltimore Rock Opera Society) to the Baltimore Orioles festival marches, and, of course, our country’s national anthem—this book is thorough and makes a great addition to any music lover’s bookshelf. And though it’s the story of our music, the music is a story of ourselves, Marylanders—sailors, artists, activists, and dreamers.

Visual Art

Reflections: Intimate Portraits of Iconic African Americans
Photographer Terrence A. Reese’s career has led him to take portraits of such stars as Lauryn Hill and George Clinton. The artist, who goes by TAR, will exhibit a selection of his work at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum this month in the show Reflections: Intimate Portraits of Iconic African Americans. Black-and-white images will depict such luminaries as the Nicholas Brothers and Gordon Parks in their natural environments and living spaces so as to better reflect who they are, through their personal objects, style, and the context of their lives. Wednesdays through Sundays, Feb. 1 through Aug. 12, at Reginald F. Lewis Museum, 830 E. Pratt St.

Artist talk with Shirin Neshat
Iranian artist Shirin Neshat explores gender, identity, and politics in her work, as well as the differences in culture between the West and Muslim countries. Because she tackles such complex themes, there is no shortage of questions and discussion surrounding her work. It also makes her a perfect candidate for MICA’s Mixed Media lecture series, which brings to Baltimore artists from across the globe. For this installment, Neshat will be in conversation with Baltimore Museum of Art Director Christopher Bedford. 7 p.m. Feb. 15 at Falvey Hall, Brown Center, 1301 W. Mount  Mount Royal Ave.

Music

Charm City Django Jazz Fest
Nothing like some live gypsy jazz to add a little heat to a cold winter’s day. Creative Alliance has got us covered with not one but three days of its annual Charm City Django Jazz Fest, which will bring in acts from across the region and world, including headliner Samson Schmiit, a legendary Manouche gypsy guitarist from France. Swing on by to see Sara L’abriola, Ultrafaux, ‘Nuff Said, and others, to experience a range of styles within the genre. Feb. 23 to 25 at the Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave.

Out of Darkness: Two Remain
A new opera looks at what you might consider atypical Holocaust survivors: one, a political prisoner, and the other a homosexual Protestant, both of whom used words to overcome the traumas of captivity during the war. World-renowned composer Jake Heggie developed the two-act opera based on the true stories of these characters who “survive through their poetry,” says Garnett Bruce, stage director of the Peabody Chamber Opera’s production of the piece. Feb. 8 through 11 at Theatre Project, 45 W. Preston St. The composer and librettist will attend opening night, with a talk following the show.

Theater

Constellations & Crossroads
Constellations & Crossroads is a theatrical double-header steeped in American history and exploding with life. Baltimore Rock Opera Society partnered with Arena Players, Baltimore’s historic African-American community theater, to present two short musicals in their entirety, backed by a live band. The Determination of Azimuth tells the story of Katherine Johnson, a black mathematician who worked for NASA and was responsible for comp[uting paths for rocket ships sent into space. Battle of Blue Apple Crossing leans more on fiction to tell the tale of blues legend Robert Johnson, said to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for musical ability. The score follows America’s musical heritage from field spirituals to rock ’n’ roll to garage rock. 8 p.m. Feb. 9 through 18 at Arena Players’ venue at 801 McCulloh St.

All She Must Possess
The Rep Stage premiere of All She Must Possess tells the story of Baltimore’s famed Cone sisters, Claribel and Etta, extravagant world travelers and collectors of art and curios. During the early 20th century, they stored thousands of paintings—including work by Matisse and Picasso, among other greats—in their homes, amassing what would become one of the world’s largest collections of modern art (a large portion would eventually be housed at the Baltimore Museum of Art, where it is today). In the theatrical version of their lives, written by University of Maryland Baltimore County professor Susan McCully and directed by Rep Stage artistic director Joseph W. Ritsch, paintings come to life and Gertrude Stein—Etta’s lover—makes an appearance. Coinciding with the play is an exhibition of historical women’s clothing from the Cone sisters’ time, on display at Howard Community College’s Rouse Company Foundation Gallery through March 11. The play runs Feb. 8 to 25 at Rep Stage at Howard Community College.

Dance

The Community Project
Each year, The Collective pulls together dancers from the community and pairs them with a professional choreographer to develop the Community Project performance. This year, 22 dancers—ranging in age from teens to baby boomers and across all skill levels—met on several cold January weekends to rehearse under dancer Caitlin McAfee for this year’s show, which is but one component to the Baltimore Dance Invitational. Set to Indian Wells’ song “Cascades,” the group will show through movement how the mind races, gets distracted, and follows its own trails of thought. Gordon Center for Performing Arts on Thursday, February 15, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 15 at the Gordon Center for Performing Arts, 3506 Gwynnbrook Ave., Owings Mills. 

Beyonce vs Rihanna Dance Party: Round 2
The Ottobar event flier states it best: “Are you ‘Drunk In Love’ or ‘Drunk On Love’?!” At the Beyonce vs Rihanna Dance Party, that is precisely the question. And also, are you ready to duke it out—through dance, of course, to support your diva de jour. The dance party battle will light up with Beyonce tracks from DJ Mills and Rihanna tracks from Ottobar owner Craig Boarman. 9 p.m. Feb. 16 at the Ottobar, 2549 N. Howard St.

Miscellanea

African-American Arts Festival
The University of Baltimore helps us to celebrate Black History Month specifically through art at its annual African-American Arts Festival. Its offerings span an array of artistic mediums: film, visual art, music, theater. Some highlights: a panel with Black Ladies Brunch Crew of D.C., an African drumming circle, readings of Langston Hughes poetry spliced with live, improvised jazz piano, and a screening of Jonathan Demme’s film of Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. Feb. 15 to 18 at the University of Baltimore, 1420 N. Charles St.

Exhibit of Original Costumes

We may be 2,500 miles from Hollywood, but John Klisavage brings us a touch of its wonder by way of costume. At his bookstore in Havre De Grace, he’s displaying several outfits worn in major motion pictures, including Hunger Games and The Notebook. February and March at Washington Street Books & Music, 131 N. Washington St., Havre De Grace.

A culinary documentary on Basque cuisine
Parkway Theater has teamed up with a local restaurant to bring a food and film pairing, naturally. After a screening of The Txoko Experience: The Secret Culinary Space of The Basques, scriptwriter Marcela Garces and director Yuri Morejon will answer any questions the audience has, and then . . . everyone can partake in the food portion of the evening: passed pintxos from the Basque-inspired La Cuchara restaurant. Renowned Basque chefs serve as narrators of the culinary documentary, which explores Txokos, groups of people who gather to explore innovative and experimental ways of cooking. As Morejon puts it, “Txokos represent a distinctive, albeit enigmatic element of Basque gastronomy. As the private temples of traditional Basque cuisine, they captivate people with their warmth, ambiance, and great respect for fresh products.” 7 p.m. Feb. 22 Parkway Theater, 5 W. North Ave.

Legends of Et cetera members Serena Miller, Graham vonBriesen, and Jakob Coburn might only be in high school or college, but their sound is already beyond their years. The band has quickly become one of the city’s indie rock darlings with attention from WTMD and a new record, Cardboard City, to prove it. We talked to frontwoman Miller about maintaining the band while in school, addressing social issues, and Baltimore’s scene of young musicians. Catch their album release show at the Towson radio station on January 12.

Despite your age, you guys have been a band for a fair amount of time. How did Legends get its start?
Do you want the long or short answer? Graham and I are cousins, so we’ve been playing together since we were able to play. We started this band called the Oxi-Morons when I was 11, with our keyboardist, Mack Watson, who I’ve been best friends with for 16 or so years. I met our drummer, Jakob, at the School of Rock in Baltimore. He saw me do a cover of this song “Cough Syrup” by Young the Giant and asked if he could put some drums to it. We officially formed Legends about four years ago, in 2013.

How did you personally get into making music?
When I was 5, my grandpa gave me this little drum set and I started teaching myself how to play. My dad played guitar all his life—he never took formal lessons but he’s as good as they come; he started teaching my mom how to play about 10 years ago and I thought, ‘If mom can learn, I can, too.’ I was exposed to all of my parents’ music, too, so all of that has sort of come together to influence the music in some way. The Police, U2, Peter Gabriel. Pink Floyd is still my favorite band. There is still some David Gilmour stuff that I sometimes try to do.

What was it about music that made you want to not only play but perform?
To be honest, I hate performing. But when I was 10, my parents signed me up—almost against my will—for School of Rock. After I put on one show, I was on board, but I was and still am very afraid to perform. It’s gotten better, to the point where I’m very nervous up until the show then am more comfortable by the time I get out on stage. But it’s taken 10 or so years to get to that point. I hate to think about how long it’s going to take until I’m finally free of that anxiety. I could be playing for five or 500 people and I’d feel the same either way. You’re in the spotlight, and I don’t like to be the person getting noticed. 

The singer is usually the starring role. How did that become part of your repertoire? 
I really don’t know. I would sing in the car—nothing special—and then one day at School of Rock, they asked me to sing. I remember vehemently shaking my head, like, ‘No, I will not.’ I was 10 or 11 at the time and my mom said, ‘How about this? If you sing, I’ll buy you a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.’ And so I sang, and they made me keep singing.

Did you eventually warm up to School of Rock?
I work for them now; I teach guitar at the school in Columbia. It was a very good environment to be exposed to as a kid. It not only exposes you to classic rock but it also gives you a chance to learn how to perform with other people. So many kids who came out of School of Rock are now very successful musicians. I’m glad that I let my mother make me do it. I met some of my band members there. I met a lot of my best friends.

You were there through high school, which can be a really difficult time of life. What was it like being in a band during that period?
It was a support system. It was stressful to try to get school stuff done while dealing with band stuff and scheduling gigs, but it was always something to look forward to. It was a sort of reward. School was annoying, but then every Sunday, you had this rehearsal with these guys that you loved and you’d be playing music that you wrote yourself. It was tough, juggling all of that, but it was always fun. 

Is that why the band has continued, even as some of you have gone off to college, because it’s fun?
Graham is still in high school. I’m a sophomore at Peabody Institute, where I’m studying composition, and Jakob is at Berklee School of Music in Boston. Our keyboardist, Mack, just recently left the band, partially because of school. But yeah, it’s partially because of band chemistry. It’s partially because we thought we had something good to put out into the world. 

With this new record, we were very excited because we got to record at Mobtown Studios, where one of my favorite local bands—Yo No Say—records. One of the days in the studio, Jakob just looked at me and said, ‘We have to keep doing this.’ Being in the studio boosts a band’s need to continue. The sound quality and the professionalism are just top notch. You get in there and listen to how your songs sound and you think, well, I can’t quit now. 

On this new album, Cardboard City, there’s a newfound richness and urgency to your songs compared to your debut, Coyote. Where does this come from?
I wrote most of these songs when I was a senior in high school, which is notoriously difficult for so many people. It was my last attempt at keeping the band together before college. Our song “Sydney” is named after our friend, and it’s kind of like when you’re not really ready, you’re broke, you don’t know what you want to do with your life. But you’re going to school anyway to figure it out. It’s a lot to think about, and to handle, and it brings up a hodgepodge of emotions.

That is a very specific moment that many people can remember or relate to. While you and your bandmates are young adults, do you try to write music for people your own age?
I’ve never had a target demographic in mind. I just write what I am feeling. But I think anyone can draw what they want from these lyrics and our music. I think, and hope, it can be accessible to everyone. “Queretaro” was about leaving for school, but also just about leaving, period. It’s about new things being difficult, and about getting over fears, and also about a struggle with depression and mental illness, which is something that I’ve had to contend with. It’s something that some of my friends, and a lot of people, have had to contend with.

You’ve addressed social issues through your music in the past, like Coyote’s “Aftermath,” touching on gay marriage, and this album’s title track, originally meant to tackle the country’s homelessness epidemic. Is being topical important for you as a songwriter?
Almost every song on the last album had some sort of political meaning, but I don’t think every song has to be that way. It’s good to have songs that are socially aware and that talk about important issues, but I think it’s okay to also have songs that are poetic and meaningful, even just to the writer. As a musician, you write what you know, and that can be a great way to put out all kinds of messages. 

You’ll be celebrating your album release at WTMD on January 12. How does it feel to be a part of that community now?
Baltimore is a really weird music scene, with a juxtaposition of so many different styles. Originally we started out performing blues songs, because I wanted to be Jimi Hendrix, and then we changed when more music became available and we started seeing more local shows. I’ve never really thought about being a part of the scene, but it is really exciting.

Performing Arts

Sally McCoy

Sept. 14-Oct. 1, The Fallout Shelter at United Evangelical Church, 923 S. East Ave. Cohesion Theatre Company presents the world premiere of its co-founder, Alice Stanley’s new play. Set in August of 1882, in the midst of the first gruesomely violent event of the legendary Hatfield and McCoy feud, and with her three eldest sons captured by the Hatfield clan, Sally McCoy defies her womanly place in the home and crosses miles of Appalachian wilderness in the dark of night in order to save her children from certain death at the vengeful hands of the Hatfields. After traveling miles alone in the dark of night to the home of the Hatfield patriarch, “Devil” Anse Hatfield, Sally refuses to let anything stand in her way until she’s seen the “Devil” face to face.

The Terrible Secret of Lunastus

Sept. 15-Oct. 8, Zion Lutheran Church, 400 E. Lexington St. The Baltimore Rock Opera Society (BROS) opens its first (and only) full-scale production for 2017, “The Terrible Secret of Lunastus”. It’s a sci-fi comedy set in the near future about the impending destruction of Earth, and the efforts of four astronauts and their stupid robot to find a new home for the human race, all performed to an original soundtrack inspired by classic 1970s rock.

Outcalls Album Release Show with Super City, J Pope and the HearNow
Sept. 15, WTMD Studios, 1 Olympic Place, Towson  Like many of its Baltimore music peers, Outcalls is fearless. It loves to experiment and collaborate, and lift each other up through innovative songwriting and captivating live shows. Led by Melissa Wimbish and Britt Olsen-Ecker—both classically trained singers—Outcalls draws inspiration from political and social events and fills their music with melodic and harmonic surprises. Their songs unfold in chapters, and have a cinematic quality. Joining them are glam pop rockers Super City and the soul, fun, hip hop fusers J Pope and the HearNow.

Amy Reid album release
Sept. 15, The Crown, 1910 N. Charles St. The song and synthress that is one half of the group Chiffon is releasing her first solo album, and is celebrating with this show at The Crown. Best of Baltimore winners :3lon and DJ Trillnatured will be on hand as well.

Abdu Ali: I’m Still Here
Sept. 22, EMP Collective, 307 W. Baltimore St.  Baltimore Club Artist Abdu Ali is launching his national tour with this new style performance with drummer Josh Stokes. TT the Artist will get the party started.

Visual Art

Out/Side & In/Between/The Holy Ghost Goes to Bed at Midnight/ A Parable at School 33
Through Oct. 28, School 33 Art Center, 1427 Light St. Three new exhibits open this month at School 33. Out/Side & In/Between is the first of two annual juried group exhibitions, curated by Jarvis DuBois. “The Holy Ghost Goes to Bed at Midnight is a solo exhibition of new works by James Bouche’, and A Parable is an installation and ongoing performance by NI Xin. on Friday, September 8, 6-9 p.m. All three shows will be on view from September 1-October 28. 

A Woven Thread at Terrault
Sept. 9-Oct. 28, 218 W. Saratoga St. This exhibition features the works of Alex Dukes and Liora Ostroff. Dukes’ paintings are an autobiographical exploration of memory, identity, race, and how they all are intertwined. Liora Ostroff’s current body of work uses paired art-historical themes with imagery drawn from contemporary life.

Altered Realities at Maryland Art Place
Sept. 14-Nov. 4, Maryland Art Place, 218 W. Saratoga St. The exhibition aims to subvert the viewer’s perspectives by focusing on uncanny interpretations of the everyday experience, highlight exceptional works ranging from painting, sculpture, video, fiber arts, virtual reality, and photography. Featured artists include Scott Cawood, Se Jong Cho, Phaan Howng, and Balti Virtual. 

Cardinal Grand Opening
Sept. 16, 1758 Park Ave. During the grand opening of this new Bolton Hill art space you can get a tour of the building, which includes exhibition space as well as artist studios. Also, on display will be its first exhibition, Natural Order, which invites each contributor to create a typewritten list on a legal-sized piece of paper, which will go on view immediately following its creation.

Events

Bollymore
Sept. 8, Metro Gallery, 1700 N. Charles St. This bi-monthly night of art and dance is inspired by the sounds + stories of the subcontinent. Bollymore is Baltimore’s space of fellowship and exchange amongst the South Asian diaspora. It aims to celebrate the arts and collaborating across cultures, featuring the music of Jacob Marley, Nikilad, and DJ Beti.

The Joy and Pain of Collecting Art
Sept. 16, Reginald F. Lewis Museum, 830 E. Pratt St. Need help picking the perfect artwork? Want to know how to start collecting art? Hear from experts in the field to get the inside scoop about how to build your very own collection. Presenters include Myrtis Bedolla from Galerie Myrtis, and renowned Collector Walter O. Evans who has amassed one of the greatest fine art collections in the country.

Philip Glass Film & Opera Series
Sept. 22, Centre Street Performance Space, 5 E. Centre Street Baltimore native and Peabody Preparatory alumnus Philip Glass turned 80 on Jan. 31. To celebrate this great composer’s birthday, Peabody Conservatory is hosting screenings of Glass’s “portrait” operas—Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, and Akhnaten. His meditation on the great physicist Einstein opens up the series. 

Fall For Art
Sept. 24, Hooper Mill Studios, 3500 Parkdale Ave. Celebrate fall in Woodberry and discover new works by local artists. Tour the studios of six local artists, featuring sculpture, painting, drawing and photography. Proceeds benefit The Walters Art Museum and its educational programs and exhibitions. 

News

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has announced the 2017-2018 BSO Pulse lineup. This season, at the concert series that pairs classical music with prominent indie and alternative artists, see Grammy-winner Esperanza Spalding (October 19), Tiny Desk concert winners Tank and the Bangas (January 4), and the acclaimed singer-songwriter Valerie June (March 22).

For the second year, all concerts at Peabody Institute are free. It also happens to be the debut season of Peabody’s recently appointed artistic director of ensembles Joseph Young, whose first performance of the season will be with the Peabody Chamber Orchestra in a performance of Dvořák’s Othello Overture and works by Handel and Schubert on Sept. 19. 

Other season highlights include the Peabody Chamber Orchestra, performing Baroque and early-Classical-era works and smaller orchestral works of the present day, and the Peabody Studio Orchestra, making its debut on Halloween with popular music from movies. And the Peabody Symphony Orchestra concerts will be led by Maestra Marin Alsop (September 28), and feature the legendary Leon Fleisher (October 11).

One afternoon in early December, Manuel Barrueco points out a framed photograph on the wall in an office at his Lutherville home. In the photo, Barrueco is holding a guitar and sitting next to Fred Rogers, who’s sporting his trademark sweater and sanguine smile. The acclaimed classical guitarist appeared in an August 2000 episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood—playing Bach and a version of one of Rogers’ signature songs, “You Are Special”—and Barrueco considers it a highlight of his career. 

“[Rogers] was really delightful,” he recalls. “He was no different before we began shooting than after we began shooting. I really enjoyed myself.”

It’s a telling comment from a man who exudes a sense of modesty that would make Fred Rogers proud. Barrueco has, after all, performed at festivals and venues around the world, recorded at premier studios such as Abbey Road in London, collaborated with the likes of opera superstar Plácido Domingo and Police guitarist Andy Summers, been nominated for Grammy Awards, and even appeared in a Lexus commercial. 

The Los Angeles Times has dubbed Barrueco “a major artist with remarkable musicianship and a world of technique, [who’s] simply and consistently awesome.” And in a 2017 article in the venerable classical music publication American Record Guide, music scholar Ken Keaton called him “one of the leading guitarists of his generation . . . a mature artist at the height of his power.”

Settling into a sofa in his living room, Barrueco, dressed in a black polo shirt and black jeans, explains that his modesty comes from his upbringing in Cuba. “From my background, it’s difficult to talk about yourself,” he says. “In fact, it’s considered a negative thing to talk about yourself a lot, and I was always told not to talk about me.”

Still, he is remarkably candid and animated, emitting a big-bellied guffaw when something strikes him as funny or smoothing and shaping the air with hand gestures as the conversation turns serious. Looking at those hands, you might notice that his fingernails hint at his profession: The nails on the right hand are unusually long (for picking and strumming strings), while the nails on the left are clipped short (for pressing those strings onto the fretboard). 

At 64, Barrueco, who’s taught at the Peabody Conservatory for 25 years, finds himself at a crossroads. Like many artists who are eventually confronted with the aspects of aging, he realizes that physical limitations, sooner or later, will affect his playing, and he could face difficult choices. “I’m not 20 anymore,” he says, “so I need to be realistic about how much longer I’ll be able to play and perform like this.”  

But just this morning, the maestro drew inspiration from an unlikely source. Watching PBS NewsHour, he became increasingly intrigued listening to “The Boss, the guy from New Jersey,” he says, referring to Bruce Springsteen, a guest on the show. Springsteen had recently written his autobiography, Born to Run, and was discussing the broad scope of his life. A few years older than Barrueco, he, too, talked about battling limitations—in his case, recurring bouts of depression—and noted how he found solace in his relationship to music, which he was constantly reinventing.     

“At this point in my career, it might be natural to think I’m coming to the end,” explains Barrueco, “but listening to [Springsteen], I started to consider it to be a moment of opportunity.”

Barrueco leans forward and says, almost conspiratorially: “I thought, ‘Wait a minute, this could actually be the beginning of something special, something new.’” 

“Music is a very important part of Cuban life. There is a lot of music.”  

Barrueco was born in Santiago de Cuba into a family that, though not wealthy, enjoyed a measure of privilege and security. His father worked for a food distribution company owned by his brother-in-law. Barrueco fondly recalls trips to the beach, horseback riding at his uncle’s farm, and being surrounded by extended family and, always, music. “Music is a very important part of Cuban life,” he says. “There is a lot of music, but not so much classical.”

A smile crosses his face, and he recounts a Saturday Night Live spoof of a Latino talk show in which the host and guests repeatedly stand and dance to bursts of energetic music. The smile gives way to a shoulder-shaking laugh. “It’s so funny,” says Barrueco, “because there’s a lot of truth to it. It’s a culture full of music.” 

But Barrueco’s idyllic childhood ended in 1959, with the Cuban revolution and Fidel Castro’s ascent to power. Those events, Barrueco says, “represent a clear division. Though it happened gradually, everything changed, and things changed drastically.”

After the government seized the family’s food business, Barrueco’s father lost his job. The Catholic school Barrueco attended was closed and nationalized to reflect the burgeoning Communist ideology. “Everything at my school turned political,” he recalls. “If we were learning arithmetic, for example, the problem would be, ‘If you have three comrades and two are killed by American imperialists, how many do you have left?’ It got very intense.”

Many Cubans left, or attempted to leave, and his father petitioned the government for permission to emigrate. He also withdrew his son from the Communist school, fearing that he would be brainwashed, or worse—there was a rumor going around that children would be taken from their parents and shipped to Russia. For a few years, the Barrueco children were taught clandestinely at home by the former director of a Catholic school, as a creeping sense of tension and fear settled over the country. 

In the meantime, something magical happened. Barrueco, then 8 years old, was at his grandparents’ house for a family gathering. At some point, a cousin picked up a guitar and serenaded their grandfather with a song. Barrueco says her performance was “the most beautiful thing I had ever heard in my life.”

Barrueco’s sisters, Miriam and Lucia, began taking guitar lessons. An instructor came to the house and taught the girls to play an assortment of boleros and popular Latin American tunes, as the notoriously shy Manuel looked on, mesmerized. Though Miriam eventually stopped playing, her brother took it up and found he had a talent for the instrument. 

Playing guitar boosted Barrueco’s self-confidence and even helped deflect playground taunts about his light skin and freckles. After he quickly mastered the pop material, the instructor suggested he switch to a classical teacher, which he did. He started out learning three pop songs for each classical piece; then, it was two to one. “Before I knew it, I wanted to just play classical,” says Barrueco, who then enrolled at the state music school, the Esteban Salas Conservatory of Music, which had a guitar department.  

He developed and deepened his classical repertoire at the conservatory, where one of his teachers, the director of the school, sometimes wore military garb and a holstered gun in the classroom. “That was not uncommon at that time,” Barrueco recalls. “It was like a state of emergency, because they expected the United States to invade at any time.”

In 1967, Cuba approved the Barruecos’ departure. The authorities confiscated all of their possessions, including his parents’ wedding rings, and the family came to the U.S. as political refugees. After a stay in Miami, they moved to Newark, New Jersey, where Barrueco’s father believed he’d find more job opportunities. They arrived just weeks after racial unrest tore Newark apart, leaving 26 people dead and hundreds injured.   

Barrueco was 15 years old.  

“[I was] talented, but not a good student.
I was wild and
wanted to party.” 

Although his family was grateful the U.S. took them in, Barrueco, at first, questioned the move—he wasn’t sure it was any better than Cuba. Besides racial tension in the streets, fights often broke out at the public high school he attended. “I never saw violence like what I saw in Newark,” he recalls.

Once again, music provided a measure of solace. A family friend arranged an introduction to Rey de la Torre, a legendary Cuban guitarist then living in New York. He gave Barrueco lessons and loaned him a guitar, which he played until attending college.

He also became a huge Beatles fan and says, “I used to know all their songs. It was just good music, and I appreciated that every record was different. John Lennon was a bit of an idol for me. He was socially involved, a rebel, and I had a little taste for that, too.” (In 1994, Barrueco released an entire CD of Lennon and McCartney songs, some of them recorded at Abbey Road, where many of The Beatles’ classic albums were made.)  

After a year of high school, Barrueco transferred to Newark’s Arts High School, which didn’t offer guitar instruction, so he ended up playing French horn. He struggled with his studies, grew depressed, and actually stopped playing guitar for a year-and-a-half. Despite not practicing for such an extended period, he auditioned for the Boston Conservatory, Mannes School of Music, and Peabody. Peabody eventually rewarded him with a full scholarship, the first ever for a guitar student at the conservatory, and Barrueco arrived in Baltimore in the fall of 1970.

He continued to struggle. He was, he recalls, “a talented student, but not a good student, and it was a crazy time with free love and LSD and all that stuff flying around. I was pretty wild and wanted to party.” He rarely practiced and often butted heads with his instructor, Aaron Shearer, then the director of the guitar program. At one point, Barrueco announced he was quitting, and his friends razzed him for days. One of them suggested, “You have to remember the school was made for the students not for the teachers.”           

Barrueco reconsidered and returned with renewed purpose, established a practice regimen, and set some goals. It paid off. He entered Peabody’s concerto competition and won. He was also the first classical guitarist to win the Concert Artists Guild competition in New York, which netted him a prized Carnegie Hall recital at just 22. 

From there, post-graduation life was something of a whirlwind that came to include a robust concert schedule, with no fewer than a dozen tours of Japan; recordings with major label EMI; performances with prominent orchestras; multiple Grammy nods, including a 2008 nomination for Best Instrumental Soloist; radio and television appearances; and the teaching position at Peabody. 

Of all the accomplishments and milestones, Barrueco may be most satisfied with his teaching and mentoring. The Peabody job allowed him to be close to his daughters, who live nearby, and helped him establish a home base—living out of a suitcase never appealed to him. These days, he even records at home, in a basement studio, and releases those recordings on his own label, Tonar. Barrueco’s second wife, Asgerdur Sigurdardottir, manages the label and his other business affairs. “She basically does everything for me,” he says, smiling. “I have a feeling she is my biggest fan.”    

Besides issuing Barrueco’s recordings, which often highlight the work of Spanish and Latin American composers, Tonar has also released projects by Peabody protégés such as Meng Su. “Because Maestro has gone through every step to have an extremely successful career, he knows how to guide young people,” says Su, who calls Barrueco “my music and life mentor.” 

Former student and rising classical star Lukasz Kuropaczewski echoes those sentiments. “Maestro Barrueco is the most important person in my musical life,” says Kuropaczewski, who graduated in 2008 and now performs around the world. “His teaching gives you such a power, such a strength, that you leave Peabody thinking that there is no other place in the world where you could learn these things.”

Barrueco hopes to continue at Peabody as long as they’ll have him, and as long as his teaching remains relevant. “I have a responsibility to pass on sound judgments to the students,” he says, “and it gives me pleasure to do that. I don’t see it as a job.”

He’ll also continue searching for new opportunities as his work continues to evolve. He’d like to “take the guitar to other places, new places, and maybe become more of an ambassador for the instrument,” although he isn’t certain what form that would take.

But any uncertainty is tempered by the wisdom and vision that comes from reaching 64. “It’s really important to be honest with your work and your art,” says Barrueco. “As you age, it should express what you feel without relying on tricks or gimmicks. 

“This is a nice age. I can see beauty where I didn’t see it before. Now, I’m able to truly see it.”

Convergence

Warren Wolf (Mack Avenue Records)

When it comes to jazz, Baltimore has a deep-rooted history, with Chick Webb, Cab Calloway, and Billie Holiday all calling it home. Today, the tradition is still going strong with the help of talented artists like the young Warren Wolf. The rising vibraphonist grew up here, honing his craft at Peabody Preparatory and the Baltimore School for the Arts before moving on to the big leagues at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Having since returned home, he now releases his accomplished third album, full of sizzling soul, dazzling ballads, and full-on funky grooves. Across 11 songs, Wolf not only keeps Baltimore jazz alive, he moves into the future with gusto and skill.

Mirror Image/Mirage

Big Hoax (self-released)

If you’re looking for a summer band, this four-year-old four-piece has a brand new record that will serve as the perfect warm weather music. Luke Alexander’s earthy vocals lead his bandmates’ instruments—upright bass, cello, trumpet, pedal steel guitar, piano, to name a few—through a range of songs: outright folk, upbeat stomps, sunny bossa nova, a lovers’ waltz. At times, they bring to mind the rich anthemic harmonies of a young Mumford & Sons; at others, they evoke the worldly darkness of an early-album Dave Matthews. But all the while, Big Hoax remains uniquely themselves, experimenting with form and genre, creating a robust medley of Americana sound.

It’s another Saturday night at Joe Squared: The beer is flowing, the pizzas are square, and Yoshi Horiguchi is in the middle of the crowd, tearing up a version of Bach’s “Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor” on his double bass. Not exactly what you’d expect, but there’s an insurgency of sorts going on here. Credit Classical Revolution Baltimore.

The organization started in San Francisco nearly a decade ago, as a way for classical musicians to get their acts out of stuffy concert halls and into more populist venues—bars, coffee shops, art galleries. Peabody grad Rafaela Dreisin introduced the revolution, which is now active in over 30 cities worldwide, to Baltimore in 2010. Since then, she and cohort Stephanie Ray have organized more than 75 free concerts in locations from Mt. Vernon Park to Liam Flynn’s Ale House. The group holds a monthly residency at Joe Squared cheekily dubbed “Drunk Bach.”

For Dreisin, a trumpet player who works for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids program, it’s all about exposing open minds to her beloved craft. “I grew up being taken to classical music concerts by my parents, but none of my friends were ever interested,” she says. “I always thought they would really like it if it was presented to them in a different way.”

The musicians themselves—a rotating mix of recent grads from area music programs—appreciate the nontraditional venues as much as the audience does. “It’s definitely different than playing in a quiet concert hall,” says Horiguchi, who serves as principal bassist with the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra. “Performing in front of a reactive audience is like eating a different cuisine, but I like the variety. Sometimes you want Chinese, sometimes you want pizza.”

And sometimes you want a little Bach with your pizza.