The IU Jacobs School of Music will once again present an impressive array of chamber, orchestral, jazz, and outdoor band concerts, as well as an IU Opera Theater production. This year, the festival welcomes international violin sensation and IU alumnus Joshua Bell, who will lead the first Festival Orchestra concert on June 29. A new festival ensemble will debut as well. Called the IU Summer Festival Jazz Orchestra, the group will include talented IU students and distinguished jazz faculty.

Visiting ensembles to look forward to this year include the American Chamber Players, the Beaux Arts Trio, the Penderecki Quartet, the Sequenza Trio, and the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra under the direction of IU Distinguished Professor and world-renowned pedagogue and composer David N. Baker.

In addition to Bell, conductors directing the Festival Orchestra will include Leonard Slatkin and Michael Stern. Considered one of the finest orchestras in the region, the Festival Orchestra features guests, outstanding students, and distinguished faculty members of the IU School of Music.

Following last year’s acclaimed performances of H.M.S. Pinafore, IU Opera Theater will mount a production of The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. Performances for the show will be on July 28 and 29, as well as August 4 and 5, at 8:00 p.m.

Be sure to set aside three July evenings for the popular sunset Band Concerts on the MAC lawn!