FROM THE DESK OF THE DEAN | | |
Dear Jacobs Family,
I am writing to you with the final newsletter of the 2024-25 academic year. Overall, our year at the Jacobs School of Music has been incredibly successful. | | |
Financial Update |
We are on track to finish another year with a positive balance at the Jacobs School of Music, although the margin is razor thin. In fiscal year 2025, we realized ~$60M in income to our general fund and spent ~$25M on financial aid for students. In addition, approximately two thirds of our revenue is spent on fixed costs, such as salary for faculty, staff, and student workers, including graduate student teaching assistants.
Philanthropically, this has been a very strong year for Jacobs. Specifically, our goal for the year was $11M, and we anticipate we will complete the year with just less than $18M in gifts. Among the most important gifts, we secured a $4M bequest from two beloved donors, the Patrick and Nussara Decker Music Business Chair, the Mauro Giuliani Scholarship & JSoM Guitar Department Fund, and an important new planned gift to the Piano Excellence Fund.
We are working throughout this summer on a project to maximize our endowment spend. This will include ensuring the spending policies are in place that align with donor intent and the organization’s long-term financial needs. | | |
Admissions |
We are pleased to have concluded another successful recruitment cycle for the fall semester. For fall 2025, we have met our undergraduate and graduate recruitment goals with 242 committed undergraduate students and 362 committed graduate students. The total incoming class of 604 is among the largest in school history. This followed an exciting admission cycle that included a total of 3,420 applications, a 3% increase over last year, which is also among the largest application pools in school history.
A noticeable trend in this year’s cycle was regarding Indiana resident students: We saw an increase of 24% for students from our state who committed to attend in the fall, coming from 23 different counties.
Our incoming class includes students from 26 different countries. While we enjoy a tremendous interest in our school from overseas—with 40% international enrollment at the graduate level and an overall increase in international applications of 2% this year—we are concerned to see a somewhat decreasing level of interest from some countries: The number of committed students from South Korea decreased by 16% while the number from Taiwan decreased by 60%. Furthermore, we have enjoyed a strong interest from China in recent years. For fall 2025, we were initially concerned about a decrease in applications from China but saw a slight increase in committed students in the end. In short, we expect the strong international interest in our school to continue, but we recognize
that international students face a number of challenges in the current geopolitical environment. | | |
Administrative Changes |
There have been a couple of changes to the leadership team this spring.
Judah Cohen, associate dean for faculty affairs, research, and creative activity and professor of music (musicology), has accepted the position of Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Provost at Hebrew Union College. While at IU, he was also the Lou and Sybil Mervis Professor of Jewish Culture in the Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Ayana Smith, professor of music (musicology), has accepted the position vacated by Cohen. She was previously chair of the Musicology Department.
In addition, Melissa Dickson, assistant dean for external affairs, has moved on from the Jacobs School of Music after 20 years of service. She has accepted the position of senior director of international advancement at the IU Kelley School of Business.
A search is ongoing to fill the role vacated by Dickson, which will be titled executive director of development. We hope to fill the position by the end of the summer.
Please join me in congratulating these incredible Jacobs faculty and staff members. | | |
Performance Data |
The Jacobs School of Music has long regarded the large quantity and high quality of performances as a marker of sustained excellence at the institution. In recent years, “more than 1,100 performances” has been the figure used most often to capture that activity. In 2024–25, the figure exceeds 1,500 when the work of our students, faculty, staff, and guests related to our collegiate offerings, Jacobs Academy, summer camps, and special performances, and events from friends and partners of Jacobs is counted. Those are performances that occurred significantly in our four most active spaces: Auer Hall, Ford-Crawford Hall, the Musical Arts Center, and Recital Hall, as well as select programs at IU Auditorium and Prebys Amphitheater and a few events in non-traditional or
secondary venues.
Support for these performances came from faculty, professional staff, and a small army of hourly employees and student workers. To consider this volume in other ways, the Musical Arts Center’s costume shop fit 559 performers for a total of 5,018 costume pieces for the year’s operas and ballets. The wardrobe crew completed 228 quick changes during performances, with the fastest being a mere 15 seconds during The Turn of the Screw. The technical direction, carpentry, paint, and properties teams built a new Carmen—which is already in demand as a rental for use by other opera companies—brought to the stage the premiere performance of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, made further revisions to our Nutcracker, and took
The Turn of the Screw from being a highly effective pandemic-era project to one that was strikingly designed for a full production and enjoyed by an in-person audience. | | |
Academic Updates |
The Jacobs School of Music is excited to introduce a new undergraduate certificate program in Music and Multimedia starting in fall 2025. This certificate, organized in collaboration with the Media School at IU Bloomington, will give students opportunities to learn more about the fascinating intersection of music and film as well as other forms of media and communication. The certificate is designed to appeal to students both in and outside of the Jacobs School, offering opportunities for students from a wide range of majors and departments to study the intersection of music and cinema, digital arts, advertising, and more.
Additionally, we are excited to announce that our undergraduate certificate in Rock History has been transformed into the undergraduate certificate in Rock and Popular Music History, with a wider range of course offerings covering rock, popular, folk, and indie music genres.
Both certificates are offered by faculty in our Music in General Studies program, creating unique and impactful opportunities for students in and outside of Jacobs to broaden their range of musical knowledge and skills.
The Jacobs School is also excited to introduce a new Music Pedagogy emphasis within the Master of Music Education, offering advanced studies for educators interested in pedagogy beyond the traditional K-12 setting. In addition, newly created undergraduate minors, including the Minor in General Music Teaching, provide undergraduates with a structured pathway that can significantly accelerate their time to degree completion in the Master of Science in Music Education—potentially reducing the total time from up to 3.5 years to as little as 1.5 years of coursework plus student teaching. Together, these innovations expand academic options and create more efficient, customizable routes for aspiring music educators at every stage of their careers. | |
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Capital Improvements |
The Music Addition renovation is entering its final stage and remains on track for on-time completion by June 30. This major project brings critical improvements to our instructional and rehearsal spaces. Details regarding the move-in process and transition into the renovated building will be communicated directly by the Dean’s Office to those affected in the coming weeks.
In addition to this milestone, the Jacobs School of Music continues to make strategic investments in its physical infrastructure to support a safer, more accessible, and sustainable environment for students, staff, faculty, and guests. In 2024–25, that included numerous improvements to the Musical Arts Center, including the installation of a world-class sound system, a new Steinway D for the stage, in-progress new winches and a new supertitle projector, and replacement of daily-use equipment such as stand lights, choral risers, and projector operations hardware.
Three substantial efforts on the horizon are the replacement of the banners and banner system in Auer Hall in July, when it will be closed; a roof replacement for the Musical Arts Center, which may begin as soon as August and extend for over a year as each stage is completed while minimizing building closures; and renovations to Recital Hall in summer 2026, when it will be offline for the work period.
These upgrades are intended to refresh and modernize our spaces while preserving their historic character. In tandem with the Recital Hall work, Merrill Hall will receive two new accessible first-floor restrooms, enhancing usability and compliance with ADA standards.
Numerous security and accessibility improvements are also underway across Jacobs facilities. Projects include the installation of Crimson Card-reader door access ($246,500), security cameras across the school footprint ($250,000), and upcoming exterior lighting enhancements to improve safety and visibility after dark. In the East Studio Building, the removal of privacy frosting on interior glass walls is tentatively scheduled for winter break 2025 to allow for more natural light and transparency within those spaces.
Concurrent with these capital projects, the school is actively shaping a comprehensive equipment replacement strategy to ensure we remain a leader in music education and performance. This forward-looking plan is designed to sustain Jacobs’ excellence by proactively investing in instructional and performance equipment as part of long-term infrastructure stewardship. | | |
2025 Indiana Music & Arts Education Symposium |
The Jacobs School of Music hosted the 2025 Indiana Music & Arts Education Symposium on May 19 and 20. This event was designed to connect leaders across the arts education sector in Indiana to address policy issues at the state level that have removed the fine arts requirements from the high school Honors diploma.
The symposium brought together leaders from K-12 and higher education, non-profit organizations and institutions, and the music industry with the intention of identifying clear and decisive cross-sector actions that can be taken at the local, regional, and state levels to ensure that arts education remains accessible and vibrant in all communities across the state of Indiana. Special thanks to Jacobs School of Music alum David Craig Starkey, Indianapolis Opera general director, for his work to organize this important advocacy work on behalf of the students in Indiana. | | |
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Abra K. Bush |
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David Henry Jacobs Bicentennial Dean |
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