Pianist and composer Jeffrey Sharkey became director of The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in 2006 after serving as dean of the Cleveland Institute of Music, director of music at the Purcell School in London and head of composition at Wells Cathedral School in England. He attended the Manhattan School of Music, earned a master’s degree in composition from Yale University and a master’s in philosophy from Cambridge University. Sharkey was a founding member of the Pirasti Piano Trio, which recorded in the United Kingdom and toured throughout Europe and the United States.

Q Do you consider yourself more of a teacher or a musician?

A There’s an ideal balance musicians strive for: They are playing, and their professional experience informs their teaching and keeps that teaching alive. The problem-solving of teaching refreshes their play. To this day, I still consider myself a musician who happens to be an administrator.

Q When you started as director last year, what were your goals?

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A The challenge for music schools is to raise enough money to go almost tuition-free. There are moral obligations because musicians don’t go out and immediately earn large salaries. They have hundreds of thousands [of dollars] in loans because this education is expensive. It’s one great teacher working with one student at a time. I am spending time with some of the many cultured and interested citizens of Baltimore and telling them the story of why music is important. I’m seeking to increase the Friends of Peabody and the endowment.

Q When you are telling people about why music is important, what do you say?

A In this day and age, we have forgotten how to communicate on a deep level. America suffers from this deeply. With BlackBerries, even in meetings, people have forgotten to listen. Music teaches us how to listen to something. Philosophically, life has to be more than going to work and earning money. It’s about those moments — falling in love, having a child, going to the mountains. Music captures these peak experiences. If you open yourself to music, it lifts you out of everyday life.

Q How does Peabody fit into Johns Hopkins?

A We are now a full division of Johns Hopkins. Universities that embrace creativity and culture actually get better results. Doctors who go to Yale study portraits so they can study the faces of patients. This is a world-class conservatory that is no longer an odd fit with Johns Hopkins. There’s a new brain-science institute at Hopkins, and there are so many links between music and the study of the brain, both in understanding how the brain works and in helping people with mental illnesses heal. And vice versa, we are learning from neurologists about how musicians can cope with performance anxiety.

Q Speaking of anxiety, tell me about the pressures students go through during auditions for the school orchestra.

A It can be stressful. When taking an audition, you are suddenly being viewed through a window box. The judges don’t know what you are like, how hard you worked and that you played it better yesterday. That you are able to show your best is part real-world experience, part of getting into an ensemble.

Q Aren’t there too many students for the seats available in professional orchestras?

A There are fewer orchestra jobs. But we have a richer tapestry of offerings, from early music to a strong voice program. There is a composing program, jazz, a music-education degree, pedagogy. Peabody graduates are teaching, playing in chamber ensembles, working at music festivals. It’s an entrepreneurial kind of career. Yes, some are getting into the Cleveland orchestra. Some ways, it’s precarious, but it is also incredibly stimulating.

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI

From the conservatory:

» Seth Riggs, vocal coach to many of today’s pop and movie stars, including Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Natalie Cole, class of 1954.

» Tommy Newsom, composer, arranger, performer, winner of two Emmy awards, assistant conductor of the “Tonight Show” band, class of 1952.

» Carter Brey, principal cellist with the New York Philharmonic, soloist with major symphony orchestras, winner of the Avery Fisher Artist Grant, class of 1976.

» Dominic Argento, composer, Pulitzer Prize winner, operas performed all over the world, class of 1950.

» Manuel Barrueco, guitarist, Grammy winner, first guitarist to win the Concert Artist Guild Award, class of 1975.

» Michael Hersch, composer, first prize in the American Composers Awards, recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition, class of 1995.

From the preparatory:

» Singer Tori Amos.

» Composer Philip Glass.

FAST FACTS

» Number of students in conservatory (college-age students): 729.

» Number of students in the preparatory (all ages): between 1,800 and 2,000.

» Conservatory tuition: $31,400 per year for full-time study in a degree program.

» Conservatory student population: 47 percent male, 53 percent female.

» Most popular instruments studied in conservatory: piano, voice and strings.

» Most popular instruments studied in preparatory: piano, violin and children’s chorus.

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com

The Examiner is taking an indepth look at colleges and universities around the state. Click here to read the entire series.