FROM THE DESK OF THE DEAN | | |
It is hard to believe that we are now at the end of this academic year, one which has been both eventful and incredibly productive. There has been much to celebrate and much from which to learn and grow. I hope you enjoy this snapshot of what is happening at the school.
While there have been great successes this year, the Strategic Planning process for the school got a little bogged down in the course of the spring semester. We are working to curate the data collected over the past year and will share more information when the faculty returns in August. In addition, a phase two is being planned, which will continue the work originally planned during the coming academic year. In all, the work led to important cross-school conversations and communication in new and important ways. Those conversations alone have been invaluable to planning for the work of the school. | | |
Jacobs Graduate Recognition Ceremony Address | | |
I was honored to give my first address at the Jacobs Graduate Recognition event on May 5 in the Musical Arts Center. Jacobs School of Music students are among the most well-prepared musicians, dancers, and scholars to enter the music profession in the world, and we can’t wait to see what they will achieve and how they will impact their crafts.
Dear Graduates, Esteemed Faculty, Dedicated Staff, Parents, Families, and Friends,
First and foremost, I offer my heartfelt congratulations to the class of 2023. You have dedicated countless hours, days, months, and even years to honing your craft and developing your talents, skills, and expertise. You have endured rigorous training, grueling rehearsals, intense performances, and long hours in the library, all in the pursuit of excellence. And now, you gather here as graduates of one of the most prestigious schools of music and ballet in the world, ready to take on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
Before we proceed with the remainder of the ceremony, I want to especially thank your parents, families, and friends, some of whom are gathered here today, some of whom are on the livestream, and the countless others who are not with us today. Thank you for the countless miles you drove, the hours you spent waiting for rehearsals, lessons, and classes to end, the times you supported your graduates through disappointments and heartbreaks and celebrated with them during their greatest successes. I would like to ask this year’s graduates to stand up, turn around and applaud your parents, families, and friends for their support and love of you through your studies.
As you prepare to enter the next phase of your career, I challenge you to consider how you will do so. Earlier this year, I was inspired by Osvaldo Golijov to ponder the question of “HOW” we tackle that which lies ahead. Dean Allen and I had the privilege of accompanying Golijov, a MacArthur Fellowship award-winning composer, to lunch during his residency in February. Over our meal, he asked a lot of questions about Jacobs then stunned us with this one question: “What are the roots of the school, and what are the chains?”
Golijov himself has considered and reconsidered this idea of roots and chains in his own work. The New York Times calls his compositions “a blending of the Old and New worlds, that … offer a way out of the sectarianism and musty habits of the classical industry.” And orchestral administrator, and keynote speaker for the Jacobs School of Music Strategic Planning Town Hall in January 2023, Thomas Morris said Golijov’s works “[don’t] just challenge the listener to absorb new musical voices—they also required institutions to open their doors to different performers. … To me, that’s the essence of expanding curiosity.”
Our production of Golijov’s Ainadamar this past February exemplified the “blending of the old and new worlds.” The opera, which synthesized Spanish, Cuban, and Middle Eastern musical idioms, and featured sets by LA-based artist Gronk, leveraged not only the Voice Department, the opera faculty, Collaborative Piano, and the talented production team, but also the Ballet Department, the Audio Engineering staff and students, Musicology, the Percussion Department, the Center for Latin American Music, the orchestra and instrumental conducting students, and more. Not only did it synthesize styles of music, it brought together people and ideas from across the school and university and was a tour de force for Jacobs.
Golijov’s simple question about roots and chains stuck with me, and it speaks to a larger issue in our world today. We can be so focused on the foundational elements of who we are, our craft, and our tradition, we forget what the arts are truly about: expression, emotion, connection, and innovation. We can be chained to the idea that our work must be executed in a certain way, with certain collaborators, in certain places, and that it must adhere to certain rules and conventions. But this mentality stifles innovation and creativity, and it holds us back from truly connecting with our audiences, pushing the boundaries of our professions, and considering opportunities for our future.
When artists and thinkers break free of those chains, explore new styles, new sounds, new gestures, seek out new collaborators from different backgrounds artistically and otherwise, and explore new ways of thinking about our craft, magic emerges. The music of Golijov himself is proof positive of this. As is composer Juhi Bansal, who interweaves threads of Hindustani and Western classical traditions. Or Chen Yihan, who writes beautiful soundscapes that, according to The Washington Post
, “extend between and beyond notions of Western and Eastern.” Or the multimedia projects of Brittany J. Green, whose work lies at the intersection of sound, video, movement, text, and Black feminist theory. Gabriella Smith, a Seattle-based composer whose compositions are inspired by nature. And Phil Chan, cofounder of Final Bow for Yellow Face, the vision behind the reimagined La Bayadere that will be workshopped next year in our very own Ballet Department.
As you leave the Jacobs School of Music, I hope that you will rely on the strong foundation you have received here, and instead of resting on it, that you innovate from it. I hope that you are not afraid to take risks, make mistakes, try new things, and weave in new ideas that are authentic to your own voice. Spend more time networking and collaborating with those from different genres and backgrounds than your own, get curious about how new technologies may enhance and modify your work, seek out opportunities to perform in non-traditional or site-specific spaces, and keep innovating.
Each of you has the potential to make a significant impact on your field and lead your respective fields in new and exciting directions. Honor your roots, but never ever embrace the status quo. Ignite your creativity. Take risks and break free of the chains that hold you back. Give yourself permission to make mistakes. Reimagine and reinvent. Expand your curiosity and embrace innovation.
Congratulations, 2023 graduates of the Jacobs School of Music. We are so very proud of you. Please stay in touch with us so that we may continue to celebrate all that you will accomplish and the magic you will create. | | |
Retirements and New Faculty | | |
Spring is the time of year when we both say goodbye to faculty who have been deeply impactful to our community and welcome new ones. We are very pleased to welcome a number of outstanding new faculty members to Jacobs, beginning in August. The new tenure-track hires include bassist Natalie Boeyink, mezzo-sopranos Michelle DeYoung (in a new position) and Tichina Vaughn, pianist Sofya Gulyak, associate dean and wind conductor Ryan Kelly, trombonist Brittany Lasch, music theorist Noriko Manabe, orchestral conductor Jeffery Meyer, and hornist Denise Tryon.
And we are equally sad to say farewell to retiring faculty members Pat Harbison, professor of trumpet, and Carl Lenthe, professor of trombone, as well as Tim Stebbins, Ted Jones Executive Director of Production at the MAC. Thank you all for your many years of stellar service! | | |
Menahem Pressler Memorial | | |
It was with sadness we learned of the passing of Menahem Pressler on Saturday, May 6. Pressler, distinguished professor of music in piano and Dean Charles H. Webb Chair in Music, passed away peacefully at the age of 99 years in London. He joined the Jacobs School of Music faculty in 1955 and was the longest-serving member of the faculty of the school and a fixture for generations of students.
We were pleased that Dean Emeritus Gwyn Richards represented the Jacobs School of Music at the memorial service for Professor Pressler on Thursday, June 1. The service was a combination of a standard funeral and a celebration of life. Murray Perahia said the Kaddish; Ilya Friedberg represented Jacobs School students past and present, playing Mozart’s A-minor Rondo; Matthias Goerne sang Bach with violin, cello, and piano; and Daniel Hope and Antonio Meneses, Menahem’s two last colleagues in Beaux Arts, joined Ilya to play the slow movement of Beethoven’s Trio, Op. 11.
We received permission to share the private YouTube link for the memorial to our Jacobs community. Note the music does not begin until 31:09, and the video feed for the service begins at 56:34. | | |
New Associate Dean Announced | | |
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We are pleased to announce the hire of Ryan Kelly as the inaugural associate dean for academic affairs and student success
and associate professor of music in bands, pending approval of the IU Board of Trustees. This position was created for the purpose of evaluating and supporting academic programs, new degrees and curricular initiatives, and matters of accreditation. It is also responsible for providing oversight and strategic direction to enhance both undergraduate and graduate student success, working to close the equity gap for underrepresented students, and overseeing health and wellness initiatives for students. | | |
Office of Wellness and Arts in Health Established | | |
I am delighted to announce that starting this fall, Frank Diaz, currently serving as associate professor of music education at Jacobs, will undertake new responsibilities as the coordinator of our newly established Office of Wellness and Arts in Health Initiatives. In this role, Frank will collaborate closely with faculty, staff, and students to design and implement projects and programming aimed at enhancing students’ physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Additionally, he will serve as a liaison for campus and community organizations interested in establishing partnerships focused on wellness with the Jacobs School.
Frank brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in the field of arts and wellness, making him an excellent fit for coordinating this new initiative. With a strong background as a scholar, teacher, and speaker specializing in musician's mental health, he has played an active role in designing, coordinating, and implementing wellness-focused workshops, coursework, collaborations, and other projects for students, faculty, scholars, and community organizations across the U.S. and internationally for over a decade. He is also the founder and director of the Institute for Mindfulness-Based Wellness and Pedagogy, an organization dedicated to disseminating evidence-based approaches on the use of mindfulness in performing artists and education. Within IU, Frank serves as a member of the
Jacobs Health and Wellness Committee and teaches courses and workshops on mindfulness-based mental health for our students. He has also taught courses on mindfulness and well-being for adult community members through IU Lifelong Learning and has established partnerships focused on mindfulness-based arts therapy with the Eskenazi Museum of Art.
I want to extend a special thanks to the Jacobs School of Music Health and Wellness Committee, which has done wonderful work in this space over the last several years. Without the foundation it has laid, we would not be able to move forward in this more directed way. I have confidence that Frank’s dedication to this initiative will make a positive impact on our students’ well-being and success in the coming years. Please join me in extending a warm welcome to Frank Diaz as he embarks on this new role. | | |
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We were delighted to announce in April a new dynamic initiative we are calling “Jacobs in LA.” The Music Scoring for Visual Media
program is piloting in the spring of 2024 an opportunity for eligible Jacobs School of Music students to reside in Los Angeles, where they will finalize their capstone project course requirements, participate in an internship, and network within the profession. We anticipate that within two years, Audio Engineering students will also be able to take advantage of this opportunity as well as other new degree programs in process, further increasing the number of students the school will host in Los Angeles by 2030. This exciting new initiative will support our students as they immediately launch into careers after the completion of their degrees. An enormous thanks goes to Dean’s Advisory Council member and alum Richard Marvin (‘78) for his ongoing advocacy and support of
our Music Scoring for Visual Media students. Rick will be teaching a course on composition for episodic television to the students attending the program in the spring 2024 semester. | | |
The IU Jacobs School of Music has made significant strides towards its 2022-23 fundraising goal of $10 million. In fact, as the Jacobs School entered the fourth quarter of the fiscal year, we are excited to report that we had secured over $11 million in philanthropic commitments. Some highlights include a $1 million gift from the Georgina Joshi Foundation to provide a new sound system for the Musical Arts Center stage. This new, state-of-the-art sound system will connect to the incomparable Georgina Joshi Recording Studio, creating an incredible resource for not only the students of the Audio Engineering and Sound Production Department, but all students, faculty, and patrons. Additionally, a planned gift by James Mellichamp will benefit organ scholarships, once fully realized at
an estimated amount of $2 million. Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Music (Musicology) Peter Burkholder and his husband, Doug McKinney, have made additional provisions in their estate planning and have also committed a new $200,000 that will benefit Musicology.
We also want to extend our gratitude to members of the Jacobs School of Music Dean’s Advisory Council (DAC). Frank Graves, chair, and David Jacobs, philanthropy chair, created a matching grant challenge for the council membership. The combined philanthropy of the DAC exceeded $400,000 and provided funding for existing and new initiatives that will benefit Jacobs students, faculty, and staff. Additionally, new DAC members Scott and Kim Storbeck have endowed a new $100,000 scholarship for those pursuing Music Business and/or Music Production as a part of their studies.
Unique, individual donor support from Jane Martin made it possible for the Onia Quartet to travel to Palo Alto, California, Bloomington’s Sibling City, where this wonderful student ensemble represented the school and engaged constituents, including IU alumni, in the area. The quartet offered concerts, participated in master classes, and dazzled with its incredible poise and talent. Donors MJ and Drew Crousore supported travel and accommodations to the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Chicago for all principal cast members of IU Jacobs Opera Theater’s Anne Frank, based on her famous diary.
Our donor participation was extremely strong this past fiscal year. In fact, in June, David H. Jacobs received IU’s highest philanthropic honor, the Herman B Wells Visionary Award, at the Partners in Philanthropy event. Please join me in thanking and congratulating David, who has served as a passionate leader, supporter, and friend to so many here at IU. And, of course, we extend our heartfelt gratitude and applause to all our donors. Their outright and planned gifts make an immeasurable difference in our annual activity, and our success is only fortified through their dedication and philanthropy. | | |
Ongoing Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion | | |
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The Jacobs School was well represented in March 2023 at the Equity Arc
(formerly NIMAN) convening in Cincinnati, Ohio. This organization brings together the Pathways programs and students from across the country for a weekend of musicmaking and a side-by-side concert with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. While each Pathways organization differs slightly in its mission, the organizations were originally sponsored by the Mellon Foundation and have similar characteristics. Specifically, they are merit-based programs for financially challenged students and/or students who are of African American or Hispanic descent which provide individualized, focused support, resources, mentoring, and access to high-level music training for instrumentalists. It was a wonderful opportunity to interact with diverse students who are deeply committed to a rigorous study of
music. Abra Bush, Mimi Zweig, Atar Arad, Kurt Muroki, Kathleen McLean, and Dan Perantoni attended the event and worked with the children present. | | |
The Music Teachers National Association collegiate chapter at IU, won Student Organization of the Year at the university-wide Student Organization Awards on April 21, an impressive feat considering that there are over 800 student organizations at IU. The award description reads “Student Organization of the Year is presented to a student organization that has demonstrated excellence in the areas of community engagement, collaboration, diversity and inclusion, and/or leadership development. This organization is one that makes a substantial impact on its members and the IU community.”
Sam Butler (M.M. Jazz Studies) won first place in the jazz division at the International Trumpet Guild’s Ryan Anthony Memorial Trumpet Competition. He is a student of John Raymond.
Rachel Fitzgerald was named the recipient of this year’s Georgina Joshi Fellowship, which will cover her expenses for a full year of study and is renewable for one year. She is a student of Heidi Grant Murphy.
Two students made their New York City debuts: Andrew Lunsford (M.M. Voice), student of Carol Vaness, and Andrew Voelker (D.M. Collaborative Piano), student of Kevin Murphy, appeared as guest artists with Choirs of America at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium then gave a recital the following day at Alice Tully Hall in the “Masterworks in Lincoln Center” series.
Garret Fasig, a second-year master’s student in jazz composition, was awarded the Hoagy Carmichael Award for Jazz Excellence. He is a student of Tom Walsh and Greg Ward.
Master’s student Yuntong Han was one of the finalists in the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition at Lincoln Center. Han is a tenor and a student of Heidi Grant Murphy.
Dina Kasman (M.M. Piano) won second place in the senior piano division of the Young Artists Competition at Bluffton University, sponsored by the Lima Symphony Orchestra. | | |
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Abra K. Bush |
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David Henry Jacobs Bicentennial Dean |
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