Simon Music Center, C191
Education
- M.M., Master of Music, Indiana University, 1982
- B.A., Bachelor of Arts, Nebraska Wesleyan University, 1978
- B.M., Bachelor of Music, Nebraska Wesleyan University, 1977
Biography
Constance Cook is teaching professor of music and director of the Music in General Studies program at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
She holds undergraduate degrees in piano performance and history from Nebraska Wesleyan University and graduate degrees in musicology, piano, and theory from Indiana University.
Cook teaches courses developed on her research interests: Leonard Bernstein, the American Musical, Music of War and Peace, Musical Creativity in Diverse Cultures, and Music Listening. In addition to teaching IU students, she teaches a self-paced, online IU Expand course for all: Leonard Bernstein: The Man, His Music, and His Mission.
Cook is committed to impacting social change through music, and with Eveleigh Professor of Business Ethics Tim Fort, is the cocreator of two international summits titled Music, Business and Peace. She has written numerous papers in this vein, including Leonard Bernstein’s legacy as an artist-citizen, the politics of Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Gershwin’s role in race and the American musical identity. Additionally, she and Fort have coedited Music, Business and Peacebuilding, available through Routledge Press.
On the national level, Cook served on the College Music Society board from 2014 to 2017 and was a member of the society’s 2012 national program committee and its 2008-11 Music in General Studies Advisory Committee. She also created and directed the JSOM Chamber Music Seminar and the Jacobs Music and Creativity Weekend. And, for 20 years, was on the faculty, and then music director at summer music programs in Colorado (Rocky Ridge Music Center [RRMC] and Lamont School of Music Summer Pre-College Academy at the University of Denver). She founded the latter in 2008 and was its director from 2008 to 2012. From 2006 to 2008, she collaborated with Haitian conductor Jean Montès to fund and bring Haitian students to both RRMC and the Jacobs School of Music Summer Festival.
Cook is the recipient of several awards at IU, including 2017 Outstanding Faculty Member – Kappa Alpha Theta, 2015 Honorary Faculty Member – Tau Beta Sigma, 2011 Commission on Multicultural Understanding Faculty Award, 2009 and 2010 ArtsWeek grants, 2008 Active Learning Grant from Instructional Support Services, and 2004 Blue Ribbon Award for Outstanding Instructors from the Disability Student Services Office. From 2007 to 2010, she designed and implemented the Jacobs-Kelley Cultural Leadership Program.
Previously, Cook worked with issues of integrity, civility, harassment, victimization, and human rights at the IU Office of Student Ethics and Anti-Harassment Programs (now the Office of Student Conduct). She was a member and then-cochair of the Diversity and Equity Committee at the Jacobs School of Music from 2019 to 2022 and in that capacity, codirected revisions to the Diversity Strategic Plan for the Jacobs School of Music and created inclusive forums such as the Jacobs School of Music Community Conversations, where diversity, inclusivity, and equity issues were openly discussed.
Cook continues to volunteer locally in multiple capacities. She has used her skills as a pianist to promote and champion historically excluded composers, served as president of a local chamber music group, convened the IU Children’s Choir board, and was a leader of local junior music clubs, sponsored by the National Federation of Music Clubs. In 2002, she cochaired the Bloomington Multicultural Festival in association with the Lotus World Music and Arts Festival. She served on the Quarryland Men's Chorus board of directors from 2015 to 2019 and continues to actively promote the choir and its mission.