Courses
This introductory course in Peabody's Breakthrough Curriculum is designed to help students develop a better understanding of their artistic identity and begin to create a context for their art. The class comprises four units -- Place, Purpose, People, and Path -- centered around what it means to be a 21st century artist in Baltimore and beyond. Exploring Arts Careers is a required course for all first-year undergraduates and transfer students.
Building a Brand and Portfolio is a two-credit course which focuses on career development training. Students will develop a digital portfolio, and conduct and produce an interview with a potential mentor. Digital portfolio will include website, supporting media, artist bio, and resume. Course also covers key professional skills including networking, negotiating, applying for jobs, and financial management.
Prerequisite(s): PY.123.101[C] OR PY.123.111[C]
Pitching Your Creative Idea, the final course in the Breakthrough Curriculum sequence is a required two-credit course for all third-year undergraduate and first-year master's students. In this project-based course, students develop and practice essential skills for the 21st century performing artist. Through determining and designing an artistic project for a setting external to Peabody, they learn skills in audience research, programming, collaboration, and professionalism, while also building experience advocating publicly for their artistry both verbally and in writing. As the capstone for this class, students create a written grant application and juried proposal, with the option to enter a juried competition for project funding.
Prerequisite(s): Completion of Building a Brand and Portfolio needed, PY.123.311[C].
How does a creative artist make a living — and a life? In this foundational survey course, students will study aspects of law that shape a career in and beyond the arts. Topics include how to get or grant permission to use copyrighted works, how to read a contract, and how to start or join a business. Advanced topics may include negotiation, the analysis of popular music in copyright infringement cases, and current developments in intellectual property law. By learning how copyright law can protect creative works, how contracts can generate income, and how business structures can influence the impact of the artist in society, students will empower themselves to create their future.
Area: P, Y
How do musical compositions make it out into the world? In this practicum, students will get hands-on experience administering the recently discovered archive of a former Peabody composer whose centennial will be in 2021. Participants will help run a not-for-profit corporation, prepare critical and/or performing editions of works, and conclude the term with a recital of these rediscovered compositions. Due to the size of the archive (60+ works), this practicum could repeat each semester and culminate in a centennial concert or festival in 2021.
Learn through discussion, case studies and hands on practice key aspects of leading and managing an arts organization today including strategic planning, programming, marketing, public relations, fundraising, staffing, budgeting, and community engagement.
Area: P, Y
How does a creative artist make a living — and a life? In this foundational survey course, students will study aspects of law that shape a career in and beyond the arts. Topics include how to get or grant permission to use copyrighted works, how to read a contract, and how to start or join a business. Advanced topics may include negotiation, the analysis of popular music in copyright infringement cases, and current developments in intellectual property law. By learning how copyright law can protect creative works, how contracts can generate income, and how business structures can influence the impact of the artist in society, students will empower themselves to create their future.
Required for students minoring in the Business of Music.
Building a Brand and Portfolio is a two-credit course which focuses on career development training. Students will develop a digital portfolio, and conduct and produce an interview with a potential mentor. Digital portfolio will include website, supporting media, artist bio, and resume. Course also covers key professional skills including networking, negotiating, applying for jobs, and financial management.
Pitching Your Creative Idea, the final course in the Breakthrough Curriculum sequence is a required two-credit course for all third-year undergraduate and first-year master's students. In this project-based course, students develop and practice essential skills for the 21st century performing artist. Through determining and designing an artistic project for a setting external to Peabody, they learn skills in audience research, programming, collaboration, and professionalism, while also building experience advocating publicly for their artistry both verbally and in writing. As the capstone for this class, students create a written grant application and juried proposal, with the option to enter a juried competition for project funding.
Prerequisite(s): Completion of Building a Brand and Portfolio needed, PY.123.611[C].
What is classical music’s position in the world today? Its audience has grown older and smaller, and its relevance to current culture has faded. Why did this happen? And — when, for most people, other music provides both art and entertainment — what could be done to bring classical music back?
How can we describe music, so that other people — our musician colleagues, our families and friends, and our audience — know what we’re hearing? We’ll read some good music critics, to see how this can be done, and in class we’ll listen to music, and practice describing it. We’ll practice giving presentations to our audience, and practice writing program notes, along with other writing useful in our careers, like our artist bios.
Writing About Music is a proseminar to coach structured writing projects in several genres.
Area: P, Y