Click here for PDF article from IUMusic Magazine
by Ryan Piurek

Fifty-one years ago, in the small Midwestern city of Bloomington, IN, a brilliant young pianist from Germany named Menahem Pressler joined the faculty at IU’s burgeoning School of Music. In the decade around his appointment, some of the best and brightest musicians of Pressler’s generation would center their professional lives in Bloomington.

The list—a virtual who’s who of 20th-century music—includes musicologist Willi Apel (joined the faculty in 1950), cellist Janos Starker (’58), violinist Josef Gingold (’60), pianist Gyorgy Sebok (’62), saxophonist Eugene Rousseau (’63), and jazz legend David Baker (’66), to name just a few.

As the renowned soprano Beverly Sills once said about the collection of talent at the music school, “The music faculty at Indiana University in Bloomington is absolutely mind-boggling.”
Today, the competition for top faculty is fierce, the landscape dotted by more than 500 music schools and conservatories that have taken aim at longtime leaders in music education such as IU. There are prominent orchestras in most major U.S. cities, also vying for the services of the world’s best and brightest musicians. And there will always be the allure of the bright lights of the big city.

As it turns out, though, there’s no shortage of bright lights in Bloomington. In the past few years especially, the stars have aligned themselves over the school in what some are calling a new golden era for the Jacobs School of Music.

The stars have aligned themselves over the school in what some are calling a new golden era for the Jacobs School of Music

A quick scan of the Jacobs School skyline reveals a number of world-class musicians, academics, and a dancer/choreographer who have recently chosen to base their careers in Bloomington. They include award-winning pianists Arnaldo Cohen and André Watts, violinists Joshua Bell, Mark Kaplan, Alexander Kerr and Jaime Laredo, cellist Sharon Robinson, bassoonist William Ludwig, hornist Jeff Nelsen, percussionists Kevin Bobo and John Tafoya, singers Sylvia McNair, Marietta Simpson and Carol Vaness, Early Music specialist Michael McCraw, ballet master Michael Vernon, and world-famous National Symphony Orchestra Maestro Leonard Slatkin, who was named the Arthur R. Metz Foundation Conductor
at the Jacobs School.

The Musicology, Music Theory, and Music Education Departments at the Jacobs School have been recently strengthened by the appointments of Kyle Adams (Music Theory), Brenda Brenner (Music Education), and Phil Ford (Musicology). Nationally significant awards bestowed on faculty have been numerous, and the recent publishing of Distinguished Professor J. Peter Burkholder’s re-writing of the ubiquitous A History of Western Music has re-energized an understanding of the field. All of which amounts to what Jacobs School of Music Dean Gwyn Richards calls “the single greatest gathering of music faculty anywhere in the world.”

“I believe that to the core of my being; I really do,” Richards said in a recent interview in his office in Merrill Hall. “We’ve always said that ‘arguably, we’re the greatest school of music in the world.’ Now we’re working to remove the arguably. I think that when people look around at schools and who has chosen to come to your school and center their professional lives there … it reaffirms certain things we believe about this environment and its uniqueness.”

Since being appointed dean in 2001, Richards has dealt with the occasional naysayer who has said the school can’t compete for instrumentalists and singers in today’s world and that Bloomington can’t attract star academic faculty the way bigger cities can. “There’s been this question, certainly since 2000, of ‘Ok, now what are you going to do?’” Richards says. “But I don’t think our friends give enough credit to what we have always been able to offer in a first-class academic environment. With our legacy of outstanding faculty musicians, the foundation of the Jacobs School is secure.”

In November 2005, the school received a $40.6 million gift from the late Barbara B. and David H. Jacobs, the largest single gift ever given to a school of music at a public university.

That foundation was made even more secure in November 2005 when the school received a $40.6 million gift from the late Barbara B. and David H. Jacobs, the largest single gift ever given to a school of music at a public university. The school is using $20 million of the gift to endow graduate student fellowships and $10 million to endow undergraduate scholarships. The gift qualifies for matching funds set aside by IU for the purpose of supporting endowed scholarships, fellowships, and faculty positions.

The university’s Commitment to Excellence program has also strengthened that foundation by allowing the school to add four eminent master teachers to its faculty. So far, Jaime Laredo, Carol Vaness, and André Watts have joined the faculty as Commitment to Excellence appointees.

The Bloomington community, which is known for its appreciation of the arts, also deserves much of the credit for attracting such a star-studded roster of new faculty, Richards says. “One of the great things about this community is its high level of awareness of the arts and humanities. Members attend all of our concerts, often filling our halls to capacity. When students, faculty, and guests arrive, they quickly realize that what they do is unusually meaningful. They’re not part of a school program in an urban setting where the professional organizations dominate. The nearest professional symphony and opera company are 50 miles away. The students, faculty, and guests drive the cultural scene here.”

When the late Josef Gingold joined the IU music faculty in 1960, he left his position as concertmaster of the acclaimed Cleveland Orchestra. When he chose to come to the music school in 1958, Janos Starker, then first cellist of the Chicago Symphony, sought a teaching position that would also allow him to build his solo concert career. “If we were to prosper, we needed in residence the great musicians,” the late Wilfred Bain, who served as dean of the School of Music from 1947 to 1973, told the Indiana Alumni Magazine in 1997. “At Curtis, at Juilliard, at Northwestern, they could get part-timers from the major orchestras nearby. I had to buy the talent outright. My aim was to have first-class instrumentalists for each instrument in the orchestra.”

In a case of history repeating itself, most of the newest performance appointees to the Jacobs School of Music have come straight to IU from the professional world. Two of the most striking examples of late are Leonard Slatkin, the longtime conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC, who started teaching at the school this fall, and violin superstar (and Bloomington native) Joshua Bell, who will begin teaching in the fall of 2008. Others who have recently joined the Jacobs School at the height of their professional careers include soprano Sylvia McNair, who has sung on the world’s grandest stages for the past quarter century; Alexander Kerr, who left his position as concert-master of the famed Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam to begin teaching as Jacobs faculty last fall; and former Canadian Brass member Jeff Nelsen, who has gained a reputation as one of the most sought-after hornists in the world.

For these performers, Bloomington is a place where they can continue to grow—personally and professionally—and enter relationships with other musicians and academic professionals of the highest caliber. A chamber music concert at the Jacobs School last year featured violinist Mark Kaplan and concert pianist Yael Weiss teaming up with clarinetist Eli Eban and cellist Sharon Robinson for a performance of works by Brahms. A benefit concert in support of Gulf Coast musicians affected by Hurricane Katrina showcased a collection of faculty musicians who are headliners in their own right, including Kaplan, Robinson, and Weiss, as well as Kerr, Laredo, violinist Federico Agostini, violist Atar Arad, cellist Emilio Colón, violist Yuval Gotlibovich, and pianist Jean-Louis Haguenauer. Musicologists Massimo Ossi and Daniel Melamed have found themselves involved in research projects that culminated in performances by faculty and students in the famed Early Music Institute. IU Ballet Theater projects sometimes include the premiere of works written by composition faculty members.

“Making music is like speeding up a relationship,” Richards says with a laugh. “A lot of people say about golf, ‘If there’s larceny in the man, golf will reveal it.’ … because you keep your own score and improve your lie. Music, and joining up with somebody to perform something, is exactly the same way. You learn a lot about each other. When you’re done, you’ve learned much more than just playing that piece. You’ve learned a lot about the individual through the process.”

Richards says the freedom to establish new relationships and pursue new creative frontiers is another reason some of the world’s top musicians are flocking to IU. “Our faculty members have pushed in new directions that they may not have been able to go had they been with a musical institution that demanded their attention on a certain repertoire. Now they can go into these other repertoires. They can use our academic resources to explore new musical territory. It brings our faculty together and forms new bonds.

“When, for instance, Alexander Kerr or Jaime Laredo or Sylvia McNair arrived in Bloomington, they quickly discovered the benefit of working with other musicians and academics who are among the best in their respective fields, the freedom to express themselves in newly creative ways, and the support of a community that embraces the work they’re doing,” he continues. “And then there are the students, of course, who really make the school go."

“There are two things our guest artists always say about our students,” the dean shares. “One is how deep the talent is here. The other attribute—which I’m really proud of, and I hear this a lot—is how hungry and open our students are to be doing what these individuals ask them to do in master classes. They are wonderfully responsive to the people who come. And our guests consistently tell me that it’s not always that way other places they’ve gone.”
Slatkin, a five-time Grammy-winning conductor, was so impressed by the Jacobs School students and faculty he worked with at the school’s Summer Music Festivals, he decided to make Bloomington his academic home.

“For the last two summers, I came [to IU] for the Summer Music Festival. I saw an intensity and commitment to music that you don’t see much,” he said. “Indiana University is truly focused on the young people, and I saw a real seriousness of purpose to grow in an intense musical environment. The young people there clearly know they are there for the purpose of learning.”

Sylvia McNair, a Jacobs School alumna, two-time Grammy Award-winner, and internationally renowned soprano, joined the school’s faculty in the summer of 2006 after almost 25 years of performing on the grand stages of Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.

Alexander Kerr came to IU to follow in the footsteps of Josef Gingold and continue a tradition of excellence that the legendary violinist inspired in so many who teach at the school today. “I am inspired by the example of one of my heroes, the late, great Josef Gingold, who joined the School of Music following years of leading a great symphony orchestra,” he says.

History is also repeating itself with regard to the school’s ability to acquire prolific scholars in areas such as music education, music theory, and musicology. In 1950, Willi Apel, the distinguished musicologist who created the Harvard Dictionary of Music, joined the School of Music. He spent the next two decades teaching at IU and was twice named Doctor of Music Honoris Causa. His appointment gave instant credibility to the school’s musicology department, which is now considered to be one of the best in the country, with outstanding research in areas that range from the music of ancient Greece to American jazz, from Monteverdi to Bach, Chopin, Debussy, and Ives.

The appointment of Brenda Brenner to lead the Jacobs School’s String Music Education Initiative excites Dean Richards “as much as everything else that’s happening” at the school. Her appointment promises to “refocus the national dialogue about the future of string education, its values, standards, and expectations,” Richards observes.

With renewed support and an infusion of superstar faculty, the school has been afforded the golden opportunity to refocus on the future and ensure that the school will impact generations of musicians to come. Richards says the school will continue to build on its successes.
“We want to be as strong as we can possibly be financially, pedagogically, and scholastically, and to be what I believe is the best thing we can hand future generations—to be increasingly relevant. I want a school of relevance for those in the future.
“There are a lot of grateful people here,” Richards adds. “We relish the opportunity to look far into the future. There’s the feeling of the moment. We’ve got the expertise now and the resources to do something most extraordinary!”•

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