Robert Sirota, chairman of the music department at New York University, is to become director of the Peabody Institute, Baltimore's nationally renowned music conservatory.
A composer, conductor and educator, Dr. Sirota promised yesterday to honor the 137-year-old school's traditions while embracing the changes in society and technology that will arrive with the 21st century.
"I don't think people need to fear that change will somehow diminish the great things that already exist," Dr. Sirota said. "I'm not saying the great traditions shouldn't be carried forward, but there is more to do than simply preserve the past."
Dr. Sirota, 45, will replace Robert O. Pierce, the French horn player who led the Peabody for 12 years and is retiring this summer. The appointment is effective Sept. 1.
"We were looking for someone who had artistic judgment and taste of high quality and who could, on the basis of those qualities, lead Peabody in the '90s and the next century," said Dr. Joseph Cooper, Johns Hopkins University provost and search committee leader.
"We think we have a place of excellence, but we also think there are many opportunities for extending that excellence."
The Peabody Institute, a college with about 600 students, was founded by 19th-century merchant banker George Peabody. It became a division of the Johns Hopkins University in 1977.
When Mr. Pierce became director in 1983, the college held an endowment of $2 million and depended upon Hopkins to subsidize it. Twelve years and several fund-raisers later, the school boasts an endowment of $25 million.
Before leading NYU's department of music and performing arts, Dr. Sirota directed the Boston University School of Music and BTC oversaw the Tanglewood Institute, the renowned summer program that operates in conjunction with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
"I'm really excited about the possibilities of bringing passion and energy to this institution, and I'm interested in its relationship with Hopkins and where we can go with it from here," Dr. Sirota said.
But he added, "It is not my intention to come in and turn it upside down."
As they conducted their nine-month search for a new director, Hopkins officials looked for someone who could lead Peabody into the future while taking advantage of its association with Hopkins, said Dr. Cooper.
"Peabody has been performance-based and will continue to be performance-based, but it needs to consider what is the most rounded form of curriculum for training professional musicians in this day and age, and what that involves in music and other forms of course offerings," Dr. Cooper said.
The search committee also wanted a person who could reach out to the community.
"I don't think that in the future, [music education] can be self-contained, doing things entirely unto themselves. We think [Dr. Sirota] has a good sense of this but will preserve the excellence of the Peabody," Dr. Cooper said.
Dr. Sirota said that challenge is one he'd like to try to meet.
"As the musical and artistic culture changes, I'm concerned about conservatories making adjustments. I'm interested in educating the public to what great music is and creating an expanded public and making sure that young people feel welcome," he said.
Mr. Pierce, who directed the Peabody for more than a decade, said that Dr. Sirota's "curriculum vitae reads almost letter-perfect for what one might want to see in a person taking over these responsibilities."
Other music professionals echoed Mr. Pierce's remarks, saying that Dr. Sirota's twin background of music and administration would stand Peabody in good stead.
"His background is impeccable for this job," said Robert Fitzpatrick, dean of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
"He is a professional musician and has experience with heavily performing schools such as Boston University and NYU, which is known not so much for performance, but for its musical academics and scholarship."
Other colleagues described Dr. Sirota as a committed composer and administrator.
"Peabody has chosen someone committed to life in the arts," said Alan Fletcher, dean of the faculty at the New England Conservatory. "And he has a deep commitment to excellence in personal and social achievement but not in an elitist way."
Dr. Sirota, who says he can't remember not being interested in music, composes operas, choral music and pieces for organ, cello and other instruments. His works have been performed at Yale University, Boston University, NYU and the National Gallery of Art.
Though his first musical training was in piano, he turned to composing in high school, when he wrote a musical, he said. "As the shortest boy in my high school, I found as a composer I achieved immediate social acceptability."
Dr. Sirota earned his undergraduate degree from Oberlin Conservatory and a doctorate in composition from Harvard University. He has two children, ages 18 and 6 years. Both are musicians.
His wife, Victoria Resameyer Sirota, is an Episcopal priest and is assistant professor of church music at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.
"I have always had a personal passion for music and a social passion. Music involves a lot of people and brings them together," said Dr. Sirota. "I can't imagine not being around musicians. That's why I like running music schools, it enables me to be with the people I like best."
