FROM THE DESK OF THE DEAN | | |
Greetings from the Jacobs School of Music! After a few short weeks of relative quiet, the school has again come to life with concerts, summer camps and festivals, summer school, and more. This week alone there are over 50 aspiring high school jazz musicians on site for the school’s first ever Summer Jazz Workshop led by our renowned faculty.
Like our previous quarterly newsletters, this one will provide business updates on our financial health, philanthropic support, admissions data, and more. In addition, we are spotlighting several of our community engagement programs which connect our school across the state of Indiana and more. | | |
Business Updates |
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The school is finishing another fiscal year and next year we are projected to remain in a positive financial position. A larger class of graduate students has provided some budgetary relief in the form of additional tuition; this was further boosted by some salary savings from vacant faculty and staff lines. In addition, we are relying more on the support of donors to provide aid packages that attract and retain talented students. As a result, we can leverage the funds accumulated in FY24 to help support the IU Opera/Ballet season for FY25. The budget filed for FY25 is lean; conservative enrollment goals that have been exceeded will help cover our operating expenses. In addition, we continue to rely on our philanthropic partners to provide funding for excellent students (with
aggressive financial aid packages) and excellent faculty (with endowed faculty lines). | | |
Fundraising |
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The Jacobs School has raised $11 million in private contributions during the FY24 thanks to the unwavering support of our generous donors. This remarkable achievement not only underscores the deep-rooted commitment of our community but also empowers us to further our mission of excellence in music education and performance. We are particularly grateful for the increase in donors to our annual fund, with notable support for our Student Support Fund thanks to the generosity of Gina Lionetti. A special thanks goes to Frank Graves for his exceptional leadership of the Dean's Advisory Council and his unwavering support of special initiatives, such as the April 2024 eclipse activities and the AI summit, “
AlgoRhythms: The World of Music and AI.” Donors make so much possible for our students and faculty. We share our sincere gratitude with all those who have invested in the Jacobs School. | | |
Admissions |
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The Jacobs School of Music had almost 3,300 applications this year, an increase of 9% over last year, and just over 2,000 auditions scheduled, up 17% year over year. From that, we will welcome a class of 222 undergraduate students and 394 graduate students representing year over year increases of 7% and 14%, respectively. With a total of 616 students, we are eight students away from our largest ever incoming class! Over this last year, we have seen increases in the number of applications from Indiana residents (up 17%), the number of admitted residents (up 33%), and the number of enrolled residents (up 48%). Of note is the increase in international student applications, up 17% in one year and up 40% in two years. This year, enrollments are up 58% from China, 19% from South Korea,
and 50% from the ASEAN countries. Overall, our student body will comprise 28% Indiana residents and 72% non-Indiana residents and international students in FY25. With these new students, we anticipate a total enrollment in the fall of approximately 1,614. All these results are a testament to the appeal of our outstanding faculty, and the work of an equally outstanding admissions and financial aid team. | | |
Music Annex Renovation Update |
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Renovations on our beloved Music Addition are underway! Over the next 14 months, contractors will be replacing the HVAC and windows; there will also be upgrades to lighting, safety features, and restrooms as well as a significant increase in student lounge space. In addition, the exterior limestone and the interior wood paneling will receive a thorough cleaning. These renovations are being supported by a special funding allocation from the state. Jacobs will be responsible for funding student lounge furniture. Finding space for faculty studios, practice rooms, classes, and ensemble rehearsal space has been a team effort. Everyone will sacrifice something in these coming months in anticipation of the return to a newly renovated building for the fall 2025 semester. |
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New Degree Programs |
Jacobs School of Music graduates can be found in every corner of the global music industry. Through our strategic planning process, many students noted that while they came to Jacobs for the strong performance or audio engineering training, they also understood they needed business skills to be successful in today’s music industry. In response to their requests, the school is starting two new programs in the fall 2025 semester which leverage existing strengths of IU. Thanks to the leadership of Lissa May, former Associate Dean of Instruction, and Ryan Kelly, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Student Success, I’m delighted to announce that both programs have cleared all university hurdles and are awaiting accreditation by the state of Indiana. We expect this will
occur later this summer.
The Bachelor of Science in Music Business is a joint program developed by Jacobs and IU’s selective and highly ranked Kelley School of Business. The degree will prepare students to enter a wide range of occupations across the music industry. Areas could include talent representation, venue management and promotion, streaming management and marketing, concert management, music public relations, and musical instrument manufacturing and sales. Graduates of the program will leverage credentials from Indiana University’s internationally recognized music and business schools to work with companies and businesses across the globe that are shaping production, distribution, and utilization of recorded, notated, and live music through expanding avenues of technology and
commerce.
The Bachelor of Science in Music Production will offer discrete tracks that allow students to elect a specialization in either audio engineering or creation/production or combine the core of both tracks into a single curriculum through a third combined track. Restructuring this from the existing audio engineering degree helps us respond to significant growth in this sector of the industry, spurred by the development of new technological tools aiding the creation and production of music. We have seen significant interest from current and prospective students seeking professional training for this line of work. More information on both programs will be available by early fall of 2024. | | |
Community Engagement |
This academic year has been filled with meaningful outreach efforts. Jacobs students shared their talents with multiple communities, making significant impact through their performance.
In November, 16 students performed at IU Kokomo in the inaugural regional campus concert. The program featured a piano trio, a saxophone quartet, two vocalists, and a string octet. Audiences received them enthusiastically, highlighting and strengthening the connection between our students and the community.
During the year, Jacobs’ students also performed a series of five concerts at Bloomington’s Meadowood Retirement Community. These performances allowed students to engage personally with residents by introducing themselves and discussing their repertoire, fostering appreciation on both sides. For many years, Meadowood Retirement Community has shuttled residents to performances; it was a pleasure to deliver performance to their home. | | |
Jacobs Virtual Academy Pilot |
Jacobs Virtual Academy (JVA) provides individual and small group online music lessons to increase accessibility of high-quality music education, enable university students to become teaching artists, incorporate best practices for online teaching, and develop cultural competency within music lessons. The program provides language interpreters, hardware, and software as needed for students and community partners, as a means of undoing barriers and inequities surrounding access to high-quality music education. JVA’s team works to create an inclusive environment, bolstering musical skills for all students. The teaching artists connect with their students from four fully equipped teaching labs in the Simon building for virtual lessons, learning how to manage technology in
service of effective real time learning.
Building on the groundbreaking virtual music education collaboration developed with the Cheerful Heart Escuelita in the Dominican Republic and Haiti over the past three years, the JVA Indiana pilot began in spring 2024 with five community partners. Director Kim Carballo recruited community partner schools in less populated areas of Indiana, as well as in schools with high free and reduced lunch populations, offering this opportunity to students who may otherwise not have access to high-quality individual music lessons. By semester’s end, 70 Indiana middle and high school students–in addition to the 70 students in the Dominican Republic and Haiti–had received lessons with 60 teaching artists and language interpreters. The Hoosier students from all partner schools
participated in an on-campus celebration at the end of April.
In the 2024-25 school year, JVA expects to work with at least 10 Indiana community partners, 225 enrolled students, and 60 teaching artists. We will continue the community engaged learning partnership with the IU Department of Spanish and Portuguese for language interpreters, and JVA will begin a new collaboration with IU-Indianapolis Herron School’s music technology program to expand topics offered to community partners. Carballo will also be offering a community engaged learning class (U315/515) for Jacobs students that will include supported training on becoming a teaching artist with JVA while learning about best practices surrounding community engagement, online teaching, and studio management. Any school or community center that is interested in partnering with JVA is
welcome to contact Carballo at java@iu.edu for more information. | | |
Carnival of the Animals |
The Carnival of the Animals Active Listening Project is a Canvas course consisting of five online video episodes that introduce viewers to movements from Camille Saint-Saëns' The Carnival of the Animals. Intended for the elementary music classroom, each episode features a performance by students from Jacobs, along with strategies for actively engaging with the music.
The experiences and accompanying visual materials, designed by Jacobs professor of music education Brent Gault, focus on helping listeners engage with musical elements from the piece (form, rhythmic content, and musical phrases) as they are listening. After modeling the active experiences in conjunction with the music, each episode ends with a final performance of the piece on its own.
This project was piloted with great success in several local classrooms in spring 2024 and will be launched this coming fall to all elementary music teachers in Indiana. It is a collaboration between the Indiana University Jacobs Academy and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Office of Entrepreneurship and Career Development with support from the Indiana University Center for Rural Engagement and IU Expand. | | |
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Abra K. Bush |
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David Henry Jacobs Bicentennial Dean |
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