FROM THE DESK OF THE DEAN

The snow started to fall in Bloomington at the end of this year’s Thanksgiving Break, a signal that the semester is about to come to a close. As I write in this last full week of the semester, the Jacobs campus, however, continues to buzz with visions of Sugar Plum Fairies, the Mouse King, and the beloved Singing Hoosiers’ Chimes of Christmas.

We have had the most remarkable semester, full of a 10-day Charles Ives Festival led by Distinguished Professor Emeritus Peter Burkholder, the world premiere of a new opera by Mason Bates in which we partnered with the Metropolitan Opera (more on that below), a recital of Beethoven sonatas by Professor of Practice James Ehnes with his collaborative partner, pianist Orion Weiss, and now this week, a recording with IU’s own WTIU of our new production of The Nutcracker, conceived and choreographed by Professor of Music Sasha Janes. Through it all, our students and faculty have elevated their performing crafts to new heights, recorded, written, and published new scholarly work, spent hours in practice rooms, recital halls, and the library—and more. In other words, the report from the Jacobs School of Music as we close out the Fall 2024 semester is wonderful news.

In addition to our new business updates for the school, this newsletter will highlight the many initiatives in the Voice Department this year that give our 260+ voice majors more opportunities than ever before to hone their craft, stretch their artistry, and develop their own network within the field.

Financial Updates

Jacobs’ long-serving assistant dean for finance and administration, Jill Gonyo, informed me just before the start of the fall semester that she was ready for new challenges, and as such, she decided to transition into a new role within the office of the vice provost of finance at Indiana University Bloomington as director of finance and administration.

A proud alumna of the IU Kelley School of Business with a background as a CPA, Jill brought more than expertise—she brought heart. She came to Jacobs in January 2014 from IU IT Services, or UITS, as director of finance, then more formally as director of finance and administration, then finally in 2022, as assistant dean for finance and administration. Through all the years, Jill was our “partner in fiscal responsibility” and stewarded the institution through challenging financial times, including declining financial support from the State of Indiana, the COVID pandemic, the construction of the MAC Addition and the Joshi Recording Studio, the construction of Ray E. Cramer Marching Hundred Hall, the current renovations to the Music Annex, and much more—all testaments to her financial vision and administrative partnerships.

“One thing that I think attracted Jill to come to an academic unit following her time at UITS,” said Dean Emeritus Gwyn Richards, “is the connection between finance and the educational mission. In the Jacobs School, she could connect those two entities and directly see the impact of management and mission on the educational and musical opportunities of our students and faculty. She saw well beyond the numbers on the spreadsheet, to the curriculum, the studios, the library, the stages, the spaces we occupy, and to the people behind those digits. She possesses an outlook rarely seen by those granted such responsibility.”

“She fell in love with Jacobs soon after she arrived, and it is seen throughout her work,” said Joyce Leonard, director of human resources at Jacobs. “She has made Jacobs better, no question. Over the years, she tackled things others didn’t want to do with humility and grace. She is a great leader and an even greater colleague. A person you could count on and respect. Her actions always had the students and the goals of the school first.”

Melissa Dickson, assistant dean for external affairs, said, “Jill and I often joked that our working relationship was built on the “we-raise-it-you-spend-it business model”—a valued balance to which we each contributed. Jill embraced her role with humor, grit, and an unmatched commitment to fiscal responsibility. Even though she may not have been a musician by trade, she approached her work like any good musician: by listening, practicing, and addressing the needs of the passionate creatives that surrounded her, all to ensure that the Jacobs School would thrive.”

Finally, Jeremy Allen, professor of music (jazz) and former Jacobs interim dean, executive associate dean, and longtime colleague of Jill’s, mused, “Jill was somehow the clearinghouse for any problem or question no one could find an answer for—when we reached the limit of our understanding of the university and found ourselves just scratching our heads, we knew she was the one we could turn to, and she would find answers and get the job done. I valued that about her enormously.”

Jill will continue at Jacobs through the end of December, at which point, Katie O’Brien will assume the role of assistant dean. Katie comes to us from the IU School of Medicine in Bloomington, where she currently serves as director of finance and operations. We will miss Jill very much but know that in the office of the vice provost, she will still be our “partner in fiscal responsibility.”

Meanwhile, we continue to project positive revenues through the end of this fiscal year, FY25. As I wrote in October, the financial realities of higher education mean that we are very close to a tipping point, after which escalating costs will outstrip revenues. We continue our vigilance in identifying revenue generation initiatives such as the launching of new degree programs, cost-containment measures including close examination of the need to replace open positions, the discount rate, and additional entrepreneurial opportunities, such as the rental of our opera sets and costumes to drive revenue. We are exceedingly grateful to all our donors who provide the much-needed support for us to do all the special things we do in support of student learning and development. Without you, none of the special things we do would be a reality today.

JSOM Admitted into the International Benchmarking Group

The Jacobs School of Music has been admitted into the International Benchmarking Group. We are the only music school in the United States with this distinction.

Established in 2010, the International Benchmarking Group (IBG) is a network of 11 of the world’s leading conservatories. Its primary aim is to enhance the professional and personal development of young musicians through the sharing of best practices, ensuring that its member institutions remain at the forefront of conservatory education and training globally.

The IBG collects data from member institutions and draws on that database to inform its work and steer the agendas for its meetings. Students across the network benefit directly from unique opportunities to participate in shared online master classes and lectures, and collaborative performance projects and exchange activities, while faculty and staff have access to periodic professional development opportunities alongside their international peers.

Led by the Royal Northern College of Music, the IBG’s current membership includes:

Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (Spain)
Haute école de musique de Genève (Switzerland)
College of Music, Mahidol University (Thailand)
McGill University, Schulich School of Music (Canada)
Indiana University, Jacobs School of Music (USA)
Norwegian Academy of Music (Norway)
Royal Conservatoire, The Hague (The Netherlands)
Sydney Conservatorium (Australia)
University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz (Austria)
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore

It’s an honor for us to be included in this elite group of schools from around the globe, as these are the institutions that influence the teaching of music, scholarship, and the future of the profession internationally.

A Word about the Jacobs Nutcracker

Did you know? George M. Logan’s The Indiana University School of Music: A History dates IU’s Nutcracker performances back to 1959, when then-ballet chair Gilbert Reed directed the first performances utilizing university students, local children, and guest artists in the old East Hall, where the MAC now sits. The archive corroborates this with the earliest press clipping mentioning The Nutcracker dating to 1959 and showing Reed and his wife, Nancy, dancing the leads. The department was still performing his production, designed by Max Röthlisberger, in 1970. There are a couple Nutcracker program covers after that that don’t list the choreographer, but the earliest program we can find with David Higgins’ credit for sets and costumes is from a 1975 production choreographed by Nicolas Beriozoff.

The original choreography for the Higgins set was by Jacques Cesbron in 1997, with costumes also by Higgins. Michael Vernon restaged it with the same designs in 2007. That production ran until 2023, when it was sold to The Rock School in Pennsylvania.

Completely reimagined and produced for the first time in 2023, our latest production of The Nutcracker is not only visually stunning, it is also a tour de force for the dancers. We are delighted to partner with WTIU to film this year’s production for distribution on PBS in the fall of 2025 through the generosity of a team of donors. Stay tuned for more information about the final video when it becomes available.

New Opportunity for Jacobs Alumni

Joanie Spain, who has provided over eight years of outstanding career services coaching to the students and faculty at the Jacobs School, is transitioning into a new role specific to alumni. After the first of the year, alumni may continue to reach out to Joanie for support and advice long after leaving IU. We are thrilled to provide this benefit to our alums as they pursue the next phases of their careers. Stay tuned for more information in the months ahead.

The Amazing Adventures of the Voice and Opera Department

As we think about the future of recruiting students at the Jacobs School of Music, we have been challenging each of the departments within the school to think about the value proposition for students. While there is no question Jacobs provides world-class music and ballet instruction on the Indiana University Bloomington campus, all our competitors would argue the same for their institutions. To stand out in a crowded field of domestic and internationally based conservatories and schools of music, many of the departments have been considering what value-added opportunities are available to enrich student learner outcomes, develop new networks for students and faculty alike, partner with professional arts organizations or other units across campus to enrich our work, and more. The Voice Department is a wonderful case study for how our value proposition is being enhanced for current and prospective students.

Known for our robust opera season of six works, the opera program is essentially one of the largest regional producers of opera in the United States today. This year’s season brought to life a new work by composer Mason Bates and librettist Gene Scheer based on the 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. This coproduction with New York’s Metropolitan Opera was an incredible opportunity for us to partner with the opera company whose stage in New York our beloved Musical Arts Center (MAC) stage is modeled after. For the Met, it meant the chance to get an “out-of-town tryout” for a new work they were shepherding to fruition away from the glare of the East Coast press. For Jacobs, it was a chance for our students to work with a composer, librettist, and dramaturg to perform roles that had never been seen on the stage. For five weeks this fall, Bates, Scheer, conductor Michael Christie, Tony Award-winning director Bart Sher, a team of set designers and projectionists from 59 Productions based in London, and members of the Met’s artistic and production staff descended on Bloomington to coach and direct our singers and orchestra and work alongside the MAC’s production staff.

The results were incredible, and the production was a triumph for the Jacobs School of Music. The musical and technical challenges of the opera stretched all those involved, but by opening night, the hundreds of students involved in the production, including those on stage, in the pit, and working in the crew backstage, were ready. Guests in the house during the run of dress rehearsals and performances included Peter Gelb, Maria Manetti Shrem General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera; Debora Borda, executive advisor of the NY Phil; Simon Woods, president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras; Patrick Summers, B.M.’87, Honorary D.M.’17, and artistic and music director, conductor of Houston Grand Opera; Nina Yoshida Nelson, artistic advisor at Boston Lyric Opera; Krishna Thiagarajan, B.M.’92, M.M.’94, and CEO of the Seattle Symphony; Daniel Mallampalli, B.S.O.F.’17, assistant vice president of artistic planning at the Boston Symphony; Michael Yeargan, Tony Award-winning theatrical designer; David Craig Starkey, M.M.’95, general director and CEO of Indianapolis Opera; IU President Pamela Whitten; IU Bloomington Provost Rahul Shrivastav; numerous university vice presidents, vice provosts, deans, faculty, and staff; and some of the proudest parents I’ve ever seen.

According to our agreement with the Met, we were unable to live stream the new opera, but we were able to produce video assets of conversations with several of those who worked to get the opera onstage. I encourage you to check out some of these videos on the IU Jacobs School of Music YouTube Channel.

More information, including the public events hosted at Jacobs regarding this incredible production, may be found online at the Jacobs Opera and Ballet Theater website. In addition, we received considerable earned press from this event, including in the Associated Press, Indiana Public Media, Bloomington’s Herald-Times, and more.

Over the next few months, the opera will undergo revisions and is scheduled to make its New York premiere in September 2025. We are working with the Metropolitan Opera to ensure that the Jacobs students who originated the roles can be at Lincoln Center for the premiere.

The best news of all? We will have more opportunity to partner with the Metropolitan Opera in the months ahead. The artistic team from the Met will be back in Bloomington in January 2025 for the vocal workshop of a new opera by composer Carlos Simon called In the Rush. More details to follow on this exciting collaboration.

In the months ahead, there are several other exciting initiatives in the voice and opera area. In late January, thanks to the generosity of a donor, five voice students will make their way to perform in the Dallas Opera’s Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors. During an intensive nine-day residency in Dallas (January 17–25), participants will work with esteemed faculty and mentors in group and one-on-one sessions as well as in rehearsals for the annual Showcase Concert on Sunday, January 25, at 7:30 p.m. The performance features Jacobs students and institute conductors leading the Dallas Opera Orchestra in selections of opera excerpts featuring overtures, solo arias, and ensemble pieces from across the centuries of the canon.

In February, guests from the Bayerische Staatsoper’s Opera Studio in Munich will come to Bloomington to hear our students, provide insights on launching European careers, and consider Jacobs singers for its forthcoming seasons. Then, over spring break in March, we will send out two groups of singers. First, Associate Professor of Music Michael Shell will lead a group of 10 singers and four instrumentalists to The Studios of Key West for a workshop of a new opera, Swimming in the Dark. The work is adapted from the novel by Tomasz Jedrowski, with music by Martin Hennessy and a libretto by Stephen Kitsakos. And Associate Professor of Music Tichina Vaughn, will lead a group of five singers to Berlin and Dresden, Germany, where they will work with directors and conductors, learn more about the Fest system, meet with Jacobs alumni, and sing a concert in Berlin for invited opera leaders.

One of our more interesting projects this year that featured the Voice Department was the production of Jacobs Legacy: Voice. This hour-long program—written, recorded, edited, and produced by Travis Whaley and Tony Tadey of Music Information Technology Services—is an installment of the series IUMusicArchive, a collaboration between the Jacobs School of Music and WFIU made possible through the support of the Wennerstrom-Phillips Fund for Classical Music. The program, hosted by alumna Sylvia McNair, former faculty member and a Grammy Award-winning artist, includes recordings from McNair’s time as a student as well as historical recordings by Jamie Barton, Angela Brown, Lawrence Brownlee, Elizabeth Futral, Kyle Ketelsen, and Ailyn Pérez from the Jacobs School’s Audio Archive held in the William and Gayle Cook Music Library.

Finally, throughout the year, guest artists to the department will include Paul Groves, Kenneth Overton, William Sharp, and collaborative pianist Warren Jones. Through the generosity of a donor, Sharp and Jones are visiting with funding from the Five Friends Master Class Series.

Many of the opportunities mentioned would not be possible if it weren’t for the generosity of donors. If you are interested in helping us with exciting initiatives like these, your help is needed sponsoring our work with partner organizations such as the Metropolitan Opera, student scholarships, student professional development opportunities like the audition program in Berlin, or any other student-focused initiatives. Please reach out to the Jacobs School of Music Development Office; every gift is important for the future of our beloved institution.

Erratum

In the October 2024 edition of From the Desk of the Dean, new Jacobs faculty members Lina Tabak and Amy Tai were both listed as new Musicology faculty; however, they are both new faculty members in the Department of Music Theory.

Abra K. Bush

David Henry Jacobs Bicentennial Dean

musdean@iu.edu

812-855-4460