FROM THE DESK OF THE DEAN | | |
With the arrival of spring, it is again time to connect with all of you about the remarkable things happening at Jacobs. Students have been busy in our practice rooms, classrooms, William and Gayle Cook Music Library, Joshi Studio, recital halls, and Musical Arts Center throughout the winter.
While the traditional work of the school continues all around us, there has been an incredible focus on innovation, collaborations, and entrepreneurship in the last couple of years. Led by the Office of Entrepreneurship and Career Development, student and faculty alike are leveraging the resources of the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Kelley School of Business, the
Shoemaker Innovation Center, and the newly established IU Innovates Center, an IUB innovation incubator.
Our pop-up summit this month on music and AI promises to be thought provoking and places us at the forefront of the conversation on this great disruption in the field. In addition, new partners such as the American Composers Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera are breathing new energy into the work we do with a focus on new works. Finally, philanthropy is supporting many of these new, invigorating initiatives. I think you will agree that it’s a new day at the Jacobs School of Music! | | |
Lifetime Achievement Award | | |
|
Last Saturday, at the fiftieth National Conference of the Society for American Music, Peter Burkholder, distinguished professor emeritus of musicology, received the society’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The citation says it was awarded in recognition of “the depth of your scholarly insights into the music of Ives as well as the breadth of your contributions to the pedagogy of music history.” Congratulations, Peter! | | |
The disruptions to our society and culture and the new possibilities emerging from those disruptions brought on by AI have occupied many conversations both across the music higher education landscape and internally at Jacobs in recent months. Because AI is evolving at an exponential rate and because we are embedded in a major research university, we believe it is imperative for us to examine how AI will impact the arts and artists and how we might prepare our students for that evolution.
To help address the profound impact of generative artificial intelligence on the music landscape, we have scheduled “AlgoRhythms: The World of Music and AI,” a dynamic pop-up summit set to unfold March 29 and 30. The groundbreaking event will offer exploration, celebration, and discussions on the evolving creative landscape. Contemplation and discussion with scholars and industry leaders will cover questions such as “What does it mean to be a music artist or composer in the age of AI?” and “Who will own AI-generated music?”
Event highlights include:
-
Thought-provoking panel discussions led by industry luminaries on crucial topics such as “Copyright Law in the Age of AI,” “AI Tools Empowering Artists,” “Startups in Music and AI,” and “Emerging Creativity in AI.”
-
Networking opportunities to connect with leading national thinkers, startups, and legal minds in the vibrant IU/Bloomington creative ecosystem. Attendees will have a chance to foster collaborations that bridge the gap between music, technology, and law.
-
Hybrid sessions with a blend of in-person and online engagement through Zoom, ensuring accessibility and participation from a diverse audience.
Registration is now open. The summit is free to attend, and we hope as many of you as possible will join us for this important conversation about the future of our sector. More information may be found on the Jacobs website. Special thanks to Alain Barker and the Office of Entrepreneurship and Career Development for organizing this important series of conversations. | | |
The Jacobs School of Music and the American Composers Orchestra (ACO) were excited to host the first-ever academic EarShot readings, March 20-22.
EarShot is the nation’s first ongoing, systematic program for cultivating relationships between orchestras and composers. Jacobs will work closely with the ACO to expand the program to enhance opportunities for a wide range of Jacobs’ students and faculty, creating a comprehensive experience for composers, instrumentalists, audio production engineers, and conductors.
EarShot works consistently to discover and develop composers whose work expands the definition of American orchestral music. Over the past 10 years, the program has initiated dozens of composer/orchestra/conductor relationships across the country, offering opportunities to more than 100 composers.
This new academic EarShot offers the Jacobs School and its community a unique opportunity to help create the music of our time and build relationships that will have lasting impact on the future of new music.
This year’s featured composers included Ted Babcock, “Pulse, Echo”; Hansol Choi, “- 3°” (“삼도/Sam-do”); Pablo M. Teutli (IU alum), “Astros y cuetes”; and Daniel Cui (IU) “Twelve Seconds.” Mentor composers were Chen Yi, Anthony Cheung, and Melinda Wagner, and Professor of Orchestral Studies Jeffrey Meyer conducted.
In addition, many Jacobs faculty contributed to this collaboration, including Simin Ganatra, professor of violin; Kurt Muroki, professor of double bass; Kathleen McLean, professor of bassoon; Jason Bergman, associate professor of trumpet; Joseph Gramley, professor of percussion; Alain Barker, director of the Office of Entrepreneurship and Career Development; Jeanne Case, librarian; David Dzubay, professor of composition and director of the IU New Music Ensemble; Han Lash, associate professor of music in composition; Aaron Travers, associate professor and chair of the Composition Department; and Jamie Tagg, associate professor of audio engineering and sound production.
November 2024 will bring a collaborative, world-premiere performance with the Metropolitan Opera at the Jacobs School of Music of a new opera by composer Mason Bates and librettist Gene Scheer. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, will be part of our 2024-25 season.
Commissioned by the Met and coproduced with Indiana University, the work is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Michael Chabon. After its world premiere at Jacobs, which opens November 15 and closes November 22, the opera will open in a subsequent season at the Met. The collaboration also includes plans for other events — symposia, master classes, and lectures — to round out the educational effect and include as many students as possible.
IU Jacobs School of Music students will perform all roles and play all instruments in this production. While most of the creative team will travel from New York and London, the overall production will be student driven. | | |
The Music in Games Society | | |
The Jacobs Music in Games Society (MGS) “is designed to create an interdisciplinary platform for students and faculty to express their interests for game sound and game design.”. Founded and run by Michael Klinberg, a master’s student in music education, this on-campus IU group has exploded in popularity, garnering over 40 members since its start. As a result, Klinberg is facilitating the arranging and performance of several pieces rooted in video game music.
Klinberg said scores from 13 participating IU student arrangers have been collected and are being prepped for rehearsal. He is partnering with the Audio Engineering Society, Game Development Group, and Student Legal Services, joined by his fellow officers Alex Price, Brandi Quinn, Gabriel Prime, Ava Andrews, and Aaqil Abudullah.
“I’ve loved video game music since I was a kid (Legend of Zelda
scores were some of the first I remember listening to on a daily basis), and I equally loved traditional classical repertoire—otherwise I wouldn’t have pursued conservatory training as a violinist,” said Klinberg. “However, after so many years in higher education, I realized that there was a part of my musical experience and identity that was simply being overlooked in my education, and I wished to bring that out somehow. MGS was the natural next step that came from my desire to engage in more research, education, and performance centered around video game music. I was inspired by the additional support that came from seeing how many students surfaced to express their equal love for video games.”
The power of the gaming industry is undeniable, and we can only expect it to keep growing. Gen Z, a generation born into an interconnected digital world, sees gaming as a core part of life, beyond just a source of entertainment. A survey by Deloitte found that more than 90% of Gen Zers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Brazil, and Japan play video games for an average of 11.5 hours per week.
More information about MGS may be found on the OECD blog. | | |
Music Education Ph.D. student Charlie Edmonds is someone to watch. After beginning her program in August 2020, she recognized a need to bring music of the African American diaspora to beginner band students and developed a platform she calls Pocket Methods.
“I taught middle school in a predominantly Black middle school, and I noticed that their musical experiences were already very advanced,” said Edmonds. “The music curriculum was a great instructional baseline, but the curriculum didn’t include Gospel music, soul, and hip hop. I started writing out that music for the students because there was a lot to learn and teach that better aligned with the students’ interests.” And with that, an idea was born.
Edmonds participated in the Jacobs School’s Innovation Competition that year, winning first place, and next semester, she placed third in the CLAPP Idea Competition in the Kelley School of Business. The following year, she became involved with the
Shoebox incubation program in the Shoemaker Innovation Center, housed in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, which is a university-wide, student-focused source of creative and effective approaches to supporting innovation and entrepreneurship at Indiana University. Recently, she was nominated for a Student Entrepreneur of the Year
2024 Mira Award, honoring the best of tech in the Hoosier state.
Edmonds said she is “planning to release an initial version of this online resource very soon and send it to some schools to run through the lesson plans with their band students.” | | |
Associate Professor of Music Jamie Tagg had his patent for Celadore approved in February 2024. He describes his invention as “the world’s first acoustically optimized and modular cello podium.” It harnesses the vibration of the cello’s endpin to make the instrument louder and clearer.
Tagg conducted the initial research for Celadore with campus research support, including a 2016 Junior Faculty Summer Research fellowship and a 2018 New Frontiers Experimentation Fellowship. He then worked closely with IU’s Innovation and Commercialization Office to develop his work into a startup. Along the way, he was selected as a winner of a $20,000 Fall Regional Pre-Seed award at the 2022
Elevate Nexus Southern Region Pitch Competition and won the 2023 Crossroads Idea Competition at The Mill.
Tagg's efforts have resulted in the first patent developed fully through the Jacobs School of Music. | | |
Jacobs Innovation Competition | | |
The Office of Entrepreneurship and Career Development (OECD) hosts an annual Jacobs School of Music Innovation Competition in partnership with the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Kelley School of Business in February each year.
This year’s winner, receiving $6,000, was doctoral clarinet student Anoushka Divekar, who presented her project Clarinet Chronicles, which enriches learning experiences within early clarinet study. In second place, with a $1,000 prize, was Kathiana Dargenson, who presented Harmonizing Haiti, celebrating the similarities and contrasts between Haitian culture and opera/classical music.
Congratulations to the winners, as well as the seven finalists who all presented their ideas!
This year’s judges included Dr. K (Donald Kuratko), professor of entrepreneurship at the Kelley School of Business and executive academic director of the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation; Krishna Thiagarajan, Jacobs alumnus and chief executive and president of Seattle Symphony and Benaroya Hall;
Travis Brown, senior executive assistant dean of innovation, entrepreneurship, and commercialization at the Luddy School; Suzanne Allen, director of IU Corps; and Daixuan Ai, Jacobs composition student.
Financial support is gratefully received from donor and Jacobs Dean’s Advisory Council President Frank Graves, the Johnson Center, IU Ventures, and the OECD. | | |
The Jacobs 2023 Innovation Grant Competition is an initiative that supports and showcases creative work by faculty and students in the Jacobs School of Music. Each project is collaborative in nature and builds a sense of community within the creative world it engages.
Faculty member Austin Hartman, along with the Pacifica Quartet and the Balourdet Quartet, has been selected to receive $6,000 in project support. Students Louise Kern-Kensler, Wesley Taylor, and Robert Hurley have been selected to receive $2,000 each.
FACULTY AWARD: $6,000
A Collaborative Broadcast Platform for the Promotion of Cultural Enrichment and Sustainability
Led by Austin Hartman, Pacifica Quartet, and the graduate Balourdet Quartet
The interactive live-streaming broadcast platform is designed to showcase research and performance while promoting and supporting cultural enrichment of public and private schools, academic institutions of higher education, and presenting organizations. The project is planned to include national and international partners as they educate and inspire audiences that vary in age, culture, and socio-economic means.
STUDENT AWARDS: $2,000
Organic Soundscapes
Led by Robert Hurley, cello, with Anne Liao, composition
"Organic Soundscapes" is an art installation that invites audiences to consider how they perceive nature in their daily lives through video, baroque cello, improvisation, novel instruments, and audience interaction. By fabricating new electronic instruments using living plants and soil as interfaces, audience members will be invited to play during the performance, fostering a deeper engagement with the installation. A video component allows the project to be iterative, layering performances in different locations highlighting natural and built environments around Indiana. The project will partner with local institutions focused on environmental issues and creative placemaking.
Breaking the Brass Ceiling
Led by Louise Kern-Kensler, brass
"Breaking the Brass Ceiling" is a documentary that delves into the lives, stories, struggles, and triumphs of remarkable female brass musicians from diverse backgrounds. Through their personal narratives and artistic journeys, the film aims to explore the systemic challenges and barriers they face, as well as the artistic heights they aspire to achieve. The project strives to inspire, empower, and promote diversity and inclusion within the classical music community. Kern-Kensler is pursuing a dual-degree in film at the Media School and trombone performance at the Jacobs School of Music.
Reimagining Classical Saxophone through Film and Saxophone Ensemble
Led by Wes Taylor, saxophone
The performance project fosters a connection between classical saxophone and the Bloomington community through the medium of a new saxophone ensemble. In collaboration with the Ryder Film Series, the project will present performances of a 12-member saxophone ensemble alongside three short silent films. The scores will be prepared by current members of the IU Saxophone Ensemble in collaboration with students from the Music Scoring for Visual Media program, and the screening will take place at the FAR Center for Contemporary Arts in downtown Bloomington. | | |
The Jacobs School of Music has made significant strides toward its 2023-24 fundraising goal of $10 million. In fact, as we enter the fourth quarter of the fiscal year, we have just surpassed $8.5 million in philanthropic commitments.
Highlights include some remarkable, documented planned gifts from donors such as Robert Sullivan, a lifelong church organist and musician. Since 2011, he has given continuously to open and establish his scholarship endowment during his lifetime and has also committed a planned gift of $2 million, which, when realized, will create scholarships for Jacobs students in the areas of voice, piano, strings, or organ.
Additionally, long-time friend, donor, and Jacobs alumnus James Mellichamp (D.M. ’82), who has established several transformative endowments for the Organ Department, recently documented a $1.5 million planned gift which, when realized, will establish the Mellichamp Family Organ Chair.
Unique individual gifts from Kim Pressman and MJ Crousore have benefitted the Office of Wellness and Arts Health Initiatives, which is dedicated to promoting a culture of care within the Jacobs School of Music. This year, hundreds of Jacobs students have benefited from its programming, which promotes initiatives focused on physical, mental, and emotional thriving and wellbeing within our community.
During IU’s One Big Week, the generosity of Gina Leonetti provided a matching gift to all donors to the Jacobs School of Music Student Support Fund, in the amount of $50,000. This is the largest gift ever to this fund, which was created to provide quick financial assistance to Jacobs students who find themselves in unforeseen situations or can’t make ends meet. The effect this fund has had on so many of our students cannot be overstated, and we are deeply grateful to the many donors who support the needs of our students that sometimes exist outside of traditional financial aid.
This year, the Jacobs School welcomed the Balourdet Quartet as our resident graduate string quartet. Its residency is made possible by a gift from Dean’s Advisory Council Chair Frank Graves. Balourdet’s journey began in 2018 at the Taos School of Music in New Mexico before forming at Rice University. Since its 2018 formation, the quartet has debuted at Carnegie Hall, taken first prize at New York’s Concert Artists Guild Competition, and recently won an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Graves’ enthusiastic leadership and generosity seemingly know no bounds, and he is also actively supporting the upcoming “AlgoRhythms: The World of Music and AI.” This interdisciplinary pop-up summit will delve into the future of music and AI in our changing landscape. Additionally, he is supporting, in part, some of the IU Bloomington Campus Solar Eclipse Activities
, including the production of “The Planets – An HD Odyssey.”
We are deeply grateful to all members of our Jacobs community. Their philanthropy strengthens and fortifies our mission and aspirations. Thanks to them, we can set our sights on new horizons, as together we Bring On Tomorrow. | | |
|
|
|
Abra K. Bush |
|
David Henry Jacobs Bicentennial Dean |
|
|
|
| | | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
