By Peabody Post
Composer, conductor, performer, producer and educator Darin Atwater will join the Peabody Conservatory as Distinguished Visiting Faculty in the 2023-24 academic year. In this new role, Atwater will serve as a diversity advocate supporting the selection and evaluation of the repertoire that is taught and performed at the Conservatory. He will also teach American Roots music and culture, and lead special projects and performance events.
Founder of the Soulful Symphony, Atwater is a master inventor of musical hybrids, blending American pop, soul, Hip-Hop, jazz, classical and gospel music into dazzling fusions, traversing virtually every medium, including records, live performance, radio and television.
Born in Washington, D.C., Atwater made his orchestral debut as both composer and pianist in 1995 with the National Symphony Orchestra performing his own Piano Concerto. From 2004 to 2007, he served as composer-in-residence with the Baltimore Symphony, a collaboration which produced many evening-length works that have become staples in the repertoire. As a guest conductor he has appeared with the Baltimore Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, Memphis Brass and the Columbus Symphony.
Atwater appears regularly with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis as both guest conductor and composer. As a solo artist, Atwater performed a piano recital for the grand opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the first artist to perform in the Oprah Winfrey Theatre.
At Peabody, Atwater joins a distinguished faculty of world-class performers, teachers, and thought leaders at the forefront of the local, national, and international arts communities. In addition to training musicians and dancers in the core traditions that have long been central to the conservatory experience, Peabody is integrating historically underrepresented and emerging American artistic traditions into the curriculum and advocating for their inclusion in the cultural canon.
This article was originally published by The Peabody Post and includes biographical information on Darin Atwater from The Kennedy Center.
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