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The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music embarks on a journey ripe with possibilities
by Ryan Piurek
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Dean Gwyn Richards, David H. Jacobs Jr., and Dean Emeritus Charles H. Webb |
It was a ceremony filled with laughter,
poetry, hugs, and tears.And in the
end, Indiana University’s worldrenowned
and newly named Jacobs
School of Music expressed its heartfelt
appreciation the best way it knows
how—through music.
On November 17, 2005, the
school’s students, faculty, and staff
joined together in the Musical Arts
Center with others from the university
community to give thanks to the
late David H. Jacobs and his wife,
Barbara, who bestowed a $40.6 million
gift on the school. It is the largest
single gift ever given to a school of
music at a public university.
IU President Adam W.Herbert’s
announcement of the gift was greeted
by warm smiles, lengthy applause,
and a standing ovation
from the hundreds of
music lovers in attendance.
Herbert declared
that the school would
be named the Indiana
University Jacobs
School of Music in
recognition of Barbara
and David Jacobs’ long
history of leadership and service to
the university and to the IU Foundation,
as well as their generous gift.
“The results of this gift will shine
like a beacon for generations to
come,”Herbert said.“It will enable us
to answer the question of what’s next
for Indiana University and its school
of music in ways that we never
dreamed were possible. This gift will make all the difference."
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Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan with IU President Adam W. Herbert |
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On a day filled
with promise and
potential, school
officials allowed
themselves to
dream about the
possibilities the gift
from David and
Barbara Jacobs
would afford them.
As the school
approaches its
100th anniversary
and the beginning
of its second century
in 2010, the
Jacobs’ gift presents
the school with a
historic opportunity
to build on its
already eminent
stature as one
of the world’s
leading institutions
for the study
of music.
“Years from
now, this day will
appear as a beginning,”
said Jacobs
School of Music
Dean Gwyn
Richards.“At 95 years of age, we now
have a new story to tell—one of
potential and possibility. The Jacobs
have placed in our hands a more
certain future. One cannot imagine a
more liberating experience, or a more
timely one, as we move toward our
second century. It’s impossible to
overstate the meaning of this gift to
the School of Music.”
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Jacobs reception celebration |
The gift provides the means for the school to
attract the finest music students from around the
world. The Jacobs School of Music will use $20 million
of the gift to endow graduate student fellowships and
$10 million to endow undergraduate scholarships. The
gift also establishes endowed faculty positions, including
the Dean Charles H.Webb Chair in Music, the Henry A.
Upper Chair in Music, and the David H. Jacobs Chair in
Music. Additional funds will be used to support initiatives
within the school.
The gift qualifies for matching funds set aside by IU for the
purpose of supporting endowed scholarships,
fellowships, and faculty positions. This will effectively double
the gift’s annual distribution of earned income.
“One of our greatest concerns has been the ability to
put an Indiana education within reach of the talented
student who has the School of Music as his or her first
choice,”Richards said.“Nothing troubles us more than
knowing there are students who want to come here,
who have the ability to be here and the potential to
excel, and they can’t come. The stories about what this
gift can do to help them will be very powerful.”
“The ripples from this gift will make such a difference,”
said Lynn Lewis, director of development
at the Jacobs School of Music.“Not only will it
help attract the finest music students to
Bloomington, it will affect the cultural life of this
campus, our state, and the nation in so many
important and positive ways.”
As school officials were quick to point out,
they would not be in the position to make such
an impact without the support of Barbara Jacobs,
who was described by IU Foundation President
Curt Simic as “gracious, eloquent, sensitive, generous,
compassionate, and loyal.”
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Both David H. Jacobs, a real
estate developer and one-time owner
of the Cleveland Indians, who passed
away in 1992, and Barbara Barrow
Jacobs graduated from IU, and their
three children,Marie, David Jr., and
John, also attended IU. David Jr. studied
at the School of Music in the early
1970s and developed a lasting friendship
with Dean Emeritus Charles
Webb, his late wife, Kenda, and their
four sons.
David Jr. was instrumental in
inspiring his mother’s gift and was
visibly moved during the ceremony
as Webb described Barbara Jacobs’
penchant for helping others who are
less fortunate.Webb read a poem by
Will Allen Dromgoole titled “The
Bridge Builder” that he said expressed
Barbara Jacobs’ contribution to the
school. Barbara is “building bridges
that young people will travel long
after all of us are gone,”Webb said.
“This gift will be in perpetual activity
helping thousands of talented young
musicians.”
Webb,who served as dean of the
School of Music from 1973 to 1997,
said the Jacobs gift will make it possible
for the school to continue its tradition
of leading the world in music
education, performance, and
research.“This gift will greatly
enhance the quality we’ve always
considered central to our mission,”
Webb said.“When you attract firstclass
students and the best faculty
available, and provide them with
world-class facilities, you have a
school that’s absolutely without peer.”
When it was his turn to speak at
the ceremony,David Jr. wiped tears
from his eyes.Audience members
crying along with him soon found
themselves laughing as Jacobs
recounted how his mother’s gift came
to fruition.When asked by his mother
what he wanted for his birthday,”Jacobs replied that he wanted her
to endow the School of Music in
his father’s name.After mother
and son stopped laughing,
Barbara Jacobs asked her son
if he was serious.He was.
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The halftime festivities at IU's Memorial Stadium |
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It’s a lesson for anyone
who cares
deeply
about
something,
David Jr.
said.“If
you can
take no
for an
answer,
and if
your heart is in the right place, you
can ask for anything. Thank you,
Mom. Thank you,” he said.
Adding to the already overflowing
emotion of the morning’s ceremony,
the school presented a powerful
new video that brought its past, present,
and future into dramatic focus
through performance footage of celebrated
alumni such as Joshua Bell and
interviews with School of Music
luminaries such as Charles Webb,
David Baker, and Sylvia McNair. The
video closed with the words “Indiana
University Jacobs School of Music,” giving the audience their first look at
the name the school will carry into its
second century.
The name gives the school a rare
opportunity to reintroduce itself to
the music public and to prospective
students and clearly define the role it
hopes to serve in the future of music
education, said Gwyn Richards.“A
name says there is someone—in this
case a family—that has tremendous
confidence in us as a school and a
cultural entity in this nation.
“It’s quite an opportunity for us
to state, midway through this decade,
what it is that we intend to celebrate
in 2010,” he added.“We’re not taking
this opportunity lightly.”
After a morning
of singing the
praises of David
and Barbara Jacobs and the importance
of their gift for generations of
future students, it was fitting that the
ceremony conclude with the IU Jazz
Ensembles, under the direction of
David Baker and Pat Harbison, performing “Sing, Sing, Sing” by Louis
Prima. The rousing performance
signaled the end of a monumental
celebration in the history of the
School of Music and the beginning of
what promises to be an exciting time
of grand accomplishments.
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A reception in the lobby of the Musical Arts Center |
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“Years from now, future generations
of musicians will look back
upon this moment and point to
its transformational nature,” said
Richards.“From the distance of
many years, they will see how fortunate
we were to be the focus of the
generosity and foresight of Barbara
and David Jacobs.
“The school’s name is new, but
only new for a time.Our time.”
