This fall, the Peabody Institute and the Pava Marie LaPere Center for Entrepreneurship piloted Kindling at the Conservatory. This was an early-stage, pre-accelerator experience designed to help student creators turn ideas into actionable ventures. For six Thursday sessions, Peabody students explored how to find opportunities and collaborators, conduct live customer interviews, refine cold outreach, and communicate across disciplines, culminating in a final showcase with cash awards to maintain momentum.
“We designed Kindling to give students a safe space to experiment with ideas and learn practical tools for turning creative sparks into actionable next steps,” said Deja Robinson, student program administrator at the Pava Center, who led this pilot program. “We want to find and support big ideas that will reshape industry.”
Kindling at the Pava Center, launched last year with a curriculum co-developed by Johns Hopkins University students and founders (Selena of Fetal Therapy Technologies, Wesley Hamilton of the Practice Peg). The accelerator organizes participants into industry interest-based teams (i.e., energy and sustainability, software and AI, education and consumer products, life sciences and health tech) and guides them through focused opportunity identification, customer discovery, and profit potential. Each ‘team’ presents at the end of the program, reporting real insights gained via interviews with industry experts, their observation of the market opportunity, and detailed next steps on the path to a reliable venture.
Peabody Kindling grew out of ongoing conversations across LAUNCHPad (the Peabody’s career center) and the Pava Center. “We were seeing more students arrive with strong ideas but without a clear starting point for developing them,” said Zane Forshee, director of LAUNCHPad. “Some of our Launch Grant winners went on to create impressive work that was later supported by Pava Center resources, which showed us what becomes possible when early-stage ideas receive the right guidance. At the same time, students were looking for ways to explore projects outside of the curriculum.”
Peabody students routinely practice collaboration, audience engagement, and storytelling, which are the same muscles entrepreneurs use. Kindling’s Peabody-specific track amplifies those skills with structured interviews, outreach practice, and cross-industry communication, while welcoming venture builders from the curious to the committed. The fall pilot engaged students across music for new media, composition, jazz, woodwinds, historical performance, and piano, with cash prizes supporting continued work after the showcase.
Rather than a trophy case of winners, Peabody Kindling is about the process and spotlights how artists frame opportunities, test assumptions, and build networks.
Jose Luz Santos (freshman, flute performance) is exploring how to expand access to performance arts in rural communities, inspired by his own upbringing. He has begun connecting with Baltimore city organizations to understand what programming formats and partnerships work on the ground.
“Some of the most valuable lessons and skills that I gained from being in this program include how many opportunities sending an email can give you, how to set up an interview, and work with scheduling,” said Santons. “Before trying to create a solution for a problem, try to figure out if there is a market for that problem.”
Josh Polion (graduate student, jazz trumpet) focused on developing a jazz documentation and collective database to track the most popular songs being played at jazz jam sessions and have an accurate dictation of the songs and chords. He conducted 25 interviews, including Grammy winners, to explore audience development and distribution models for independent artists.
“Peabody Kindling allowed me to further my skills in things like product development, presentation, and customer engagement,” said Polion. “In the realm of my musical passion, I was able to explore many new career possibilities.”
Marcus Hart (senior, music for new media) and two other Peabody students created a co-op called PeaShoots to help financially vulnerable students receive access to professional photography and videography equipment and editing software. This access will help Peabody students cultivate their professional portfolio to showcase compositions, pieces in our repertoire, or other creative projects.
“[At Peabody] we’re often told that pursuing a music career is about treating oneself as a business,” said Hart. After this experience, Hart and his teammates feel confident about the next steps. “We hope to take PeaShoots to other Pava Center accelerators like Spark and Fuel to further work on the project and ensure that it’s a resource for Peabody students for years to come.”
Judges selected the best team that displayed deep knowledge of their market opportunity, pitch, and discovery work. Recent Kindling showcases highlighted teams across sectors, underscoring that the program values strong problem framing and evidence-based validation.
At the end of Peabody Kindling, teams invited faculty chairs, mentors, and peers to present their work. The showcase served as a platform for feedback and celebration, with the hope that participants continue their ventures through other Pava Center accelerators or apply their newly developed business skills to pursue other grant opportunities. A January panel of creative entrepreneurs is planned as Peabody and the Pava Center prepare for a spring run of the program.
Looking ahead, Forshee hopes Kindling becomes a trusted early-stage resource for students across all divisions. “Most of all, I want Kindling to encourage students to start. They do not need to wait for permission. With the right guidance and a clear first step, they can begin right now and know that a community is here to help them shape what comes next.”