Located in the heart of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon Cultural District, the Peabody Institute was founded in 1857 as America’s first academy of music by philanthropist George Peabody. Today, Peabody boasts a preeminent faculty, a nurturing, collaborative learning environment, and the academic resources of one of the nation’s leading universities, Johns Hopkins, with which Peabody affiliated in 1977. Through its degree-granting Conservatory and its community-based Preparatory music and dance school, Peabody trains musicians and dancers of every age and at every level, from small children to seasoned professionals, from dedicated amateurs to winners of international competitions. Among the Conservatory’s most illustrious alumni are pianist Andre Watts, vocalists James Morris and Richard Cassilly of the Metropolitan Opera, jazz bassist Joe Byrd, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Dominick Argento. Each year, Peabody stages nearly 1,000 concerts and performances, ranging from classical to contemporary to jazz, many of them free — a testament to the vision of George Peabody.