Sponsors and Underwriters

Underwriting and Sponsoring IU School of Music Productions

For a first-rate music education, students the world over choose Indiana University. Consistently ranked among the nation's finest, the Indiana University School of Music exerts a powerful influence. The diversity of its programs, the credentials of its faculty, and the caliber of its students have all helped to create an outstanding training ground for elite performers who go on to join the world's premier orchestras, operas, and dance companies.

The IU School of Music numbers 14 of its graduates on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera, including Sylvia McNair and Timothy Noble. Another three sing with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and eight perform with the San Francisco Opera. More than 35 alumni are currently singing principal roles in Germany's opera houses. School of Music alumni also serve with all major U.S. orchestras, including the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. In addition, our graduates perform with orchestras in Columbus, Evansville, Terre Haute, Fort Wayne, and Richmond. Five of our alumni are in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra alone, and IU alums serve as concertmasters in Cleveland, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Montreal, and Louisville. Countless others become music educators, teaching the next generation of music students.

IU Opera Theater

The Indiana University Opera Theater was founded in 1948 and has developed into the foremost opera training program in the United States today. It boasts the longest performance season of any opera company in the Western Hemisphere, exceeding even that of the Metropolitan Opera. Performances during a given season attract nearly 30,000. People travel from all over Indiana, the Midwest, and the country to attend our performances.

Top Opera/Voice Programs

1. Indiana University—Bloomington
2. Juilliard School (NY)
3. University of Cincinnati
4. University of Rochester Eastman (NY)
5. University of Michigan—Ann Arbor

IU Ballet Theater

The youngest department in IU's venerable School of Music, the ballet program has come into its own and stands poised for national and international acclaim. The department nurtures the talent that will one day grace the stages of the finest dance companies, and applicants come from around the globe to audition for the few slots open annually. The graduate placement rate hovers near 100 percent in an intensely competitive field—further testament to the program's growing reputation. The buzz in the ballet world is that this may be the finest university program in the country!

Thanks to the cooperation of the school's ballet program, beautiful choreography is built into many Opera Theater productions. And each fall, winter, and spring during the academic year the Ballet Theater presents a major production with orchestra.

Producing quality is expensive business

The IU Opera Theater produces eight full-scale operas each year. Like the Chicago Lyric Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, we are a producing entity. However, unlike them, we are first and foremost an educational institution. The IU Opera Theater is a training ground for voice students, stage designers and directors, dancers, and technicians. Our mission is to produce operas and dance of the highest possible quality, both in terms of performance and stagecraft, in order to give our students the best possible experience. We must be uncompromising in our insistence on quality in everything that we do—from the casting to the production elements to our publicity materials and marketing programs.

Opera is expensive to produce, requiring large casts, large-scale sets, and sophisticated technical requirements. We double-cast all of our productions to give more students the opportunity to perform, thereby doubling the number of costumes required. We cannot expect ticket revenues to cover the total cost of production, nor do they. We currently need to raise significant funds each year in order to break even for the season.

This is where you come in...

In order to raise the funds necessary for the continuation of excellence at the IU School of Music, the school has identified a number of opportunities for corporations to sponsor Opera and Ballet Theater productions.

IU School of Music stages eight full-scale opera productions during the year. In addition, there are opportunities for sponsorship of our IU Ballet Theater season: the Fall Ballet, The Nutcracker and the Spring Ballet.

Corporate sponsorship of the Indiana University Opera Theater and/or the IU Ballet Theater will not only provide recognition for your company as a supporter of the arts but will ally your corporation with an institution of national prominence and international reputation. Your sponsorship will touch the lives of young opera singers, set designers, conductors, dancers, and technicians and will help shape the future of opera, dance, and musical theater.

Do not miss this opportunity to make a significant impact on our cultural future and to be recognized for your support, commitment, and dedication to the arts at Indiana University.

For further information, please contact the Office of Development at (812) 855-4737.