Mount Vernon’s marble heart has a soundtrack, and it plays at the Peabody Institute. Founded in 1857 by philanthropist George Peabody, the Peabody Institute is the oldest conservatory of music in the United States — and as part of Johns Hopkins University, it trains some of the world’s finest young musicians in a landmark 1866 building on Mount Vernon Place.
For Baltimore audiences, the treasure is access: the conservatory presents hundreds of concerts a year — student recitals, faculty performances, orchestral and opera productions — and many are free. Step from the Washington Monument into a hall where Chopin might be floating out of a practice room, and the city’s musical past and future share a corridor.
Check the calendar before any Mount Vernon day; there is almost always music.
The Peabody Institute is at 1 East Mount Vernon Place. Concerts at peabody.jhu.edu.
