IU Distinguished Professor Menahem Pressler will receive an honorary citizenship Nov. 22 from his hometown of Magdeburg, Germany, which he fled to escape the Nazis in 1939.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music is pleased to announce that tonight's performance by the Philharmonic Orchestra, directed by David Effron, will be video-streamed over the internet, starting at 8:00 p.m. ET, November 18, 2009.THE LINK: http://music.indiana.edu/iumusiclive/streaming/

While most college students balance their academia with recreational activities -- watching TV, hanging out with friends or going to concerts -- the members of Bloomington-based band South Jordan are in rehearsal perfecting their pop-rock sound and playing packed-house shows. Drawing influences from Coldplay and U2, South Jordan has created a unique sound that has been compared to the popular pop band The Fray.

Indiana University Auditorium will present its annual, family-friendly holiday tradition Chimes of Christmas, Dec. 9 (Wednesday) at 7:30 p.m.

The Bloomington Area Arts Council (BAAC) and the Jacobs School of Music announce "Opera Tease," a collaborative, two-day educational program for middle school and high school students, with a focus on musical and production aspects of opera. Opera Tease is the brainchild of BAAC employee Bernie Oakley. A former opera singer who debuted at the Detroit Opera Theatre and performed a European tour of Porgy and Bess, her motivation behind the program was to involve young high school students and others in opera.

Opening Dec. 4 at 8 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center is IU Ballet Theater's annual production of The Nutcracker. The production will feature choreography created specifically for the Jacobs School's dancers by Michael Vernon, chair of the Jacobs School of Music Ballet Department.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music student ensemble the Glavan Quintet performed at the VII International Festival of Colombian Chamber Music, held in Medellín, Colombia, Nov. 5-6.

Indiana University Jacobs School of Music faculty member Joshua Bell -- today's most celebrated American violinist -- has been honored as the 2010 Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America.

J.S. Bach's Mass in B Minor, BWV 232 -- widely considered one of the composer's most intriguing and monumental compositions -- is scheduled to be performed in Bloomington Nov. 11 and 14 and in Indianapolis Nov. 13 by the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Pro Arte Singers and Chamber Orchestra.

An expansive new production of W. A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, a co-production of Indiana University Opera Theater and The Atlanta Opera, will be premiered Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. at the Musical Arts Center in Bloomington. Additional performances in Bloomington are Nov. 14, 20 and 21. This completely new production, guest stage directed by Tomer Zvulun and guest conducted by Mark Gibson, with sets and costumes designed by Jacobs School of Music Professor C. David Higgins, is "not your average Magic Flute," said Higgins.

World-renowned pianist and pedagogue Gyorgy Sebok will be remembered in Auer Concert Hall Nov. 14, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his death. The free event, beginning at 3:15 p.m., will feature a newly remastered edition of the 1997 documentary Gyorgy Sebok: A Music Lesson, which was filmed at his world-famous master classes in Ernen, Switzerland.

Carl Lenthe, professor of trombone at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, is the featured soloist on two newly released CDs contained in H. Voxman's Concert and Contest Collection, featuring the Rubank Method--one for trombone and one for baritone horn, both with piano accompaniment. In addition, Kimberly Carballo, interim head opera coach at the Jacobs School, is one of the featured pianists on the trombone CD.

Indiana University Opera Theater will video-stream its second production of the season, Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod, live from the Musical Arts Center on Oct. 23, 24, 30 and 31 at 8 p.m. The stream may be accessed from IU Music Live! at http://www.music.indiana.edu/iumusiclive.

The Jacobs School of Music and the Kelley School of Business' Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Indiana University are working in partnership to develop an entrepreneurial perspective for the next generation of musical leaders.

Indiana University alumnus Dennis James returns to IU Auditorium for his annual Halloween organ performance, this year accompanying Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Blackmail, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m. Audience members who arrive by 7:30 p.m. will be eligible to compete in the B97-sponsored costume contest in the categories of "Scariest Costume," "Most Creative Costume" and "Best Overall."

Jingxuan Zhang, a 16-year-old piano student in the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, has been awarded a $10,000 Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award by From the Top, the non-profit organization best known for its NPR and PBS programs featuring America's best young classical musicians. James Kim, a 16-year-old cellist who studied in the Jacobs School's String Academy for six years with Susan Bloom, won the same $10,000 award. Both will be featured on the broadcast, which will air nationally the week of Oct. 19 as part of From the Top's 10th Anniversary Season and on Indianapolis' WFYI 90.1 FM on Oct. 25 at 7 p.m.

Indiana University Opera Theater continues its 2009-10 season with the passionate, timeless Roméo et Juliette, opening Oct. 23 at the Musical Arts Center. The company has produced this work only twice before, in 1966 and in 2005.

A celebration befitting the centennial birthday of one of the greatest violinists and violin pedagogues of all time, Josef Gingold, will be presented, Nov. 1 at 8 p.m. at the Indiana University Auditorium. Joshua Bell and Jaime Laredo to be among featured artists. The concert is free and open to the public.

Annunciation + Visitation, a unique musical performance exploring two vastly different expressions of female sexuality, stretches the boundaries of what defines opera.

Indiana University Bloomington holds more than 560,000 audio and video recordings and film reels, many of which are historically significant, all of which are actively deteriorating. And the window of time to save these materials is closing fast.

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra returns to Bloomington Sunday, Oct. 11, at 3 p.m. for the inaugural Indiana University President's Concert in the Musical Arts Center. The concert, offered free by the university to the campus and Bloomington community, will be conducted by renowned maestro Juanjo Mena and will feature Jacobs School of Music Professor Alexander Kerr in a performance of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. Kerr is also the principal guest concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Additional works on the program include Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 5 and IU composer and Jacobs Professor Claude Baker's "Aus Schwanengesang."

Around the world, ballet companies from the Kirov to the Royal Ballet are planning performances that will honor the 100th anniversary of the first performance by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballet Russes. Joining the celebration, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music's Ballet Theater will present its fall ballet program, Diaghilev Tribute. The evening features the work of two choreographers from the Diaghilev era, George Balanchine and Bronislava Nijinska, and new choreography from Michael Vernon, chair of the Jacobs School Department of Ballet.

Indiana University faculty member and two-time Grammy Award winner Sylvia McNair is used to winning recognition for her singing. But her latest honor is something a little different. "Mickey's Corner," a television series hosted by her friend Michael S. "Mickey" Maurer, won a regional 2009 Emmy Award for a program that featured McNair talking about her life and performing music.

The Music Theory Department at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music will host a one-day conference titled "The Musical Ear" on Sept. 26. The unique conference is open to all and will be devoted exclusively to issues of ear training and aural skills.

Composer Clint Needham finds endless inspiration in the world around him. Needham's award-winning classical compositions have come to him as the result of everything from last year's Presidential election to his experiences with nature. A doctoral fellow in composition at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, Needham was recently the recipient of a 2009 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Concert Music Composer Award, his second honor from ASCAP (in addition, he was twice nominated for honorable mentions by the organization).

IU Auditorium and the Bloomington chapter of the American Guild of Organists will present a series of noontime organ recitals performed by the IU Jacobs School of Music organ students beginning Sept. 17 at 12:15 p.m. "We're very excited to provide these talented students the opportunity to perform on the grand IU Auditorium organ, and at the same time restore an IU tradition dating back to the 1950s," said IU Auditorium Director Doug Booher. "We look forward to opening our doors to the campus and the community, inviting folks to enjoy their lunch break while enjoying inspiring performances by members of the AGO. "

Gerald Henderson Doty, a violinist and former assistant professor of music and Marching Hundred band director at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, will turn 100 in his Missoula, Mont., home on Oct. 3. While a group of Suzuki students will perform in Doty's honor on that day, Doty's 100th birthday will be celebrated again during the University of Montana's Homecoming parade Oct. 10.

Even before they were named members of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music's Kuttner Quartet, Yotam Baruch, Danbi Um, Bella Hristova and Rose Armbrust had experience playing beautiful music together. All four were part of a select group of Jacobs students who performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., last February.

Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie has awarded world-renowned operatic soprano and former IU voice professor Camilla Williams and Clement J. McDonald, distinguished professor emeritus and a pioneer in electronic medical record systems, with the President's Medal for Excellence. The awards are among the highest honors an IU president can bestow.

Continuing its tradition of nurturing and presenting the world's greatest musicians, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music offers four new IU Opera and Ballet Theater productions during its 2009-10 season, in addition to a host of performances by orchestral, choral and wind ensembles, jazz combos and bands, chamber music groups, percussion ensembles, soloists and many others.

Eight new Jacobs Scholars and eight new Jacobs Fellows begin their studies this fall at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Selected from a large pool of incoming students, they are the recipients of the most prestigious and substantial scholarship awards in the school.

IU Opera and Ballet Theater launches its full 2009-2010 season of six operas and three ballet productions with Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri, which opens on Sept. 25. The diverse season includes new productions of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) and Puccini's La Rondine (The Swallow), Bernstein's dynamic West Side Story, a tribute to the 100th anniversary of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballet Russes and more.

The Jacobs School of Music is now accepting admissions applications for study in the fall of 2010.

Brendan Kelley Faegre was standing in his kitchen, talking to his roommate, when his cell phone rang. Caller ID showed the number as "unavailable," and he assumed it was probably a telemarketer but picked up anyway. The master's student in music composition at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music soon learned that the unidentified caller was actually Ralph Jackson, president of the BMI Foundation. He was calling to give Faegre good news.

Coinciding with the installation of a new pipe organ in Indiana University's Auer Hall, the Jacobs School of Music announced the appointment of acclaimed organist Jeffrey Smith, who will join the Jacobs faculty roster as a visiting associate professor in the fall of 2009.

The Jacobs School of Music and Indiana University Press announced today (July 20) that pianist Menahem Pressler, a distinguished professor at IU, and author William Brown will be available to sign copies of the recently released book Menahem Pressler: Artistry in Piano Teaching following the upcoming Pressler and Friends concert this Wednesday evening (July 22) in Auer Hall on the IU Bloomington campus.

The Indiana University Opera Theater's collegiate premiere of the Tony Award-winning musical The Light in the Piazza (by Adam Guettel) will be guest conducted by Broadway veteran Dan Riddle, the associate conductor of the original hit Broadway show. Tickets are on sale now at Bloomington's Musical Arts Center for the July 31 and Aug. 1, 7 and 8 performances.

Gov. Mitch Daniels and the Indiana Arts Commission (IAC) announced July 10 that Indiana University Jacobs School of Music alumna Angela Brown is among the recipients of the 2009 Governor's Arts Awards. The five recipients will be honored during a special performance ceremony on Sept. 25, 2009, at the Cornerstone Center for the Arts in Muncie.

Indiana University Jacobs School of Music alumna Nicole Pollard was crowned Miss Indiana on June 27. She captured the contest's runner-up title the previous two years after Jacobs alumna soprano Betsy Uschkrat held the crown in 2006.

With four of the country's top conductors on the podium and a number of nationally renowned instrumentalists in their midst, the IU Summer Music Festival Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra once again bring world-class music to the Midwest in a series of five upcoming concerts in Bloomington. David Robertson, Mario Venzago and Giancarlo Guerrero will conduct the 2009 Festival Orchestra. In her first Bloomington performance since her appointment to the Jacobs School faculty will serve as concertmaster for the opening concert.

This summer marks the 25th anniversary of Indiana University's prestigious Jacobs School of Music Summer String Academy, which brings together students and renowned faculty from around the world. Led by Jacobs Professor Mimi Zweig, the Summer String Academy is geared toward serious students ages 12-18 who wish to study violin, viola or cello in an intensive environment.

Two doctoral students from the Musicology Department in the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music have won prestigious fellowships to pursue dissertation research in Europe. Lisa Cooper Vest was awarded a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to Poland. The topic of her dissertation is "Musical and Political Negotiations in Polish Music Life, 1956-1970." Jonathan Yaeger was awarded a Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) Research Grant from the German Academic Exchange Service. His dissertation is titled "The Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig in East Germany, 1949-1990."

Legendary cellist Janos Starker, a distinguished professor in the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, received the title of honorary professor of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, at a spring ceremony in Bloomington. Starker, who was born in Budapest in 1924, received the certificate and academy plaque from Hungarian Consul General in New York Viktor Polgar in recognition of his contribution to universal music culture, international music life and lifetime artistic achievements.

Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Professor Stanley Ritchie was awarded Early Music America's (EMA) Howard Mayer Brown lifetime achievement award June 12 at the 2009 Boston Early Music Festival. Ritchie is the first Indiana University faculty member to receive a lifetime achievement award from EMA, although one of its annual honors is named for former IU Early Music Institute Director Thomas Binkley.

Indiana University's 2009 Summer Music Festival will include a diverse series of piano recitals highlighted by a July 3 performance by international soloist and chamber musician Jonathan Biss, who was raised in Bloomington and studied with IU Jacobs School of Music professors Karen Taylor and Evelyne Brancart.

Indiana University's 2009 Summer Music Festival enters its16th year firmly established as Bloomington's signature summer event, attracting audiences from throughout the Midwest and beyond. The festival is increasingly gaining notice as one of Indiana's premier music festivals. A festival highlight this year is a world-class Chamber Music Series featuring an array of free and ticketed events that includes members of the prestigious Jacobs School faculty, as well as high-profile visiting artists.

The Virtuosi, a collection of nine violinists, violists and cellists in the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music's Pre-College String Academy, will leave May 25 to perform a series of concerts across France, returning June 8. Members of this year's group, who perform both as soloists and as an ensemble, include violinists Brian Allen, 15; Alex Ayers, 18; Zoe Martin-Doike, 19; and Stephanie Zyzak, 15; violinists/violists Sangwoo Kim, 18; Ren Martin-Doike, 17; and Daniel Wunderle, 18; cellists Nathan Vickery, 17, and Jacobsen Woollen, 16; and pianist Jayoung Kim, a doctoral student of Distinguished Professor Menahem Pressler.

Indiana University Jacobs School of Music flutist Daniel Stein and viola performance major Dash Nesbitt were recently part of history in the making: both took the Carnegie Hall stage April 15 as part of the first-ever "YouTube Symphony Orchestra." The concert, which included a mix of popular pieces from both the classical repertoire and recently composed and improvised works, can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/symphony. The final ensemble was composed of 96 musicians from 30 countries, all of whom auditioned for their spots through the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube. The contest was open to anyone, of any age, from anywhere in the world.

Indiana University's Menahem Pressler will accept a 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from The Edison Foundation on behalf of the Beaux Art Trio at the annual "Edison Klassiek Gala" June 11 in The Hague. A Distinguished Professor in IU's Jacobs School of Music, Pressler is a renowned pianist and a founding member of the trio.

Featuring more than 50 free and ticketed events and running from June 21 to Aug. 11, the 2009 Indiana University Summer Music Festival on the IU Bloomington campus offers the collegiate premiere of the Tony Award-winning musical The Light in the Piazza and a world-class array of orchestral concerts, chamber music, piano recitals, band concerts, percussion and other special events.

Indiana University Professor of Composition Jeffrey Hass was recently awarded a Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship to live and work at the Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities on the Mediterranean coast south of Genoa, Italy. Hass, who also serves as director of the Center for Electronic and Computer Music at the Jacobs School of Music, will begin the fellowship in September 2009. The fellowship announcement follows three other honors for Hass, including a $17,000 IU New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities grant; first prize and an orchestral commission for a work for the 2009 Utah Arts Festival in Salt Lake City; and having a piece accepted for performance at the 2009 conference of the International Computer Music Association in Montreal this August.

Soprano Olivia Hairston, a graduate student at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, took home the Grand Prize of $5,000 from the 2009 Indiana Campus Super Star competition April 19 at the historic Madame Walker Theatre in downtown Indianapolis.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music today (April 23) announced the appointment of Kathleen McLean, one of the most acclaimed orchestral bassoonists in North America. She will join the Jacobs faculty roster as associate professor in the fall of 2009.

Comedy, tragedy, magic, madness, jealousy, deceit and fantasy all will take center stage at IU Bloomington's Musical Arts Center during Indiana University Opera and Ballet Theater's 2009-2010 season. Among the highlights will be Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, in celebration of the recent unprecedented gift from the family of Leonard Bernstein that contains the contents of his Fairfield, Conn., composing studio, and the history of Bernstein's long association with the Jacobs School.

Indiana University's public radio station, WFIU, will celebrate the end of Jazz Appreciation Month with a series of performances, on-air specials, a listener survey . . . and a jazz-loving guest DJ, IU President Michael McRobbie. McRobbie will be in the WFIU studio on Friday, April 24, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. playing his favorite jazz tunes -- by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Eberhard Weber, Carla Bley and IU's own legendary David Baker -- on Joe Bourne's "Just You & Me" program.

The Indiana University Bloomington Contemporary Dance Program and Jacobs School of Music Student Composer Association have teamed up for the fourth year in a row to create the "Hammer and Nail" concert. This year's event will feature 14 new works created by a group of 30 student artists.

Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music will host its annual Big Band Extravaganza Saturday, April 25, at 8 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center. This year's concert, titled "When Swing Was King," will present music from many of the most famous bands of the Swing Era, including those of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, and Benny Goodman, performed by two outstanding student big bands led by IU jazz faculty members David Baker and Brent Wallarab. Returning by popular demand are two exceptional jazz vocalists, Delores King Williams and Everett Greene, who performed in the concert last year.

Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music will present its annual "Ballet at the BCT: The Choreography Project" at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in downtown Bloomington on April 15-16 at 8 p.m., with a matinee performance April 16 at 2 p.m. The event is free, open to the public and appropriate for all ages.

The Orion String Quartet, the resident quartet at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, will be premiering a new work by Jacobs Professor and Composition Department Chair David Dzubay in a free concert on Monday, April 13, at 8 p.m. in Auer Hall.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music has appointed Joyce Ritchie as director of development, starting in April (2009). Over a 30-year career, Ritchie, an Indiana native, has led extensive development and public relations programs in music and the arts, as well as in social services and public media. She joins the Jacobs School after a decade at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music has received a gift of $1 million from The Georgina Joshi Foundation, Inc. The gift establishes two major fellowships as a tribute to the memory of Georgina Joshi, a graduate student at the Jacobs School and an alumna of the Royal College of Music, London. Both fellowships will serve to celebrate Georgina's life as a singer and her affiliation with both institutions.

The Most Happy Fella has been called musical theater, an operetta and a good old-fashioned opera. When it debuted in 1956, The New York Daily Mirror called it "a masterpiece of our era."

America's premier show choir, the Indiana University Singing Hoosiers, will perform its 59th annual spring concert, "A Celebration of American Popular Music," at IU Auditorium April 4 at 8 p.m. The vocal ensemble performs American popular music, jazz and Broadway favorites with dazzling choreography, energy and style.

Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music today (March 9) announced the receipt of an unprecedented gift from the family of Leonard Bernstein that contains the contents of Leonard Bernstein's Fairfield, Conn., composing studio, including a conducting stool from the Vienna Philharmonic that is said to have been used by Johannes Brahms.

The Indianapolis Symphonic Choir has honored Dean Emeritus Charles H. Webb as the inaugural recipient of the Elmer Steffen Founder's Award. The recognition is named in honor of Elmer Steffen who served as the first conductor of the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir in 1937.

The Baroque trombone ensemble ¡Sacabuche!, made up of students and alumni of the IU Jacobs School of Music, has been invited to perform in the fringe festival of the internationally recognized 2009 Boston Early Music Festival.

In its 2008-2009 season finale, Indiana University Ballet Theater presents "Variations on a Russian Theme," with a new, contemporary classical version of Swan Lake and a world premiere choreography by Matthew Neenan, March 27 and 28 at the Musical Arts Center.

Continuing its tradition of offering operatic premieres, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music announced today (Feb. 25) that it will present the collegiate premiere of the celebrated musical The Light in the Piazza (music and lyrics by Adam Guettel) in a brand-new production during the 2009 IU Summer Music Festival. Performance dates are July 31, Aug. 1, 7, and 8.

Soprano and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music graduate student Kiri Dyan Deonarine has made it through to the Grand Finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the elite competition to identify the best young opera singers throughout the United States and Canada. Jacobs alumna Jessica Julin, a soprano who studied with Costanza Cuccaro, is also among the eight finalists.

Following live-streamed performances of IU Opera and Ballet Theater productions over the past year, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music will stream this evening's performance of the IU Philharmonic Orchestra live over the Internet.

Karim Wasfi, director of the Iraq National Symphony Orchestra, will join Jacobs Dean Emeritus Charles H. Webb, Jacobs conductor Cliff Colnot and international arts advocate Cathy Barbash on Sunday, Feb. 22, in Bloomington for a panel discussion titled "U.S.A., Diplomacy, and the Arts." The event will take place in Sweeney Hall at 1 p.m.

Indiana University's Arts Week 2009 will close March 1 with a free, open to the public tribute to Women's History Month, "Women in Jazz." In this spotlight event, Bloomington artists Janiece Jaffe and Monika Herzig team up with regional artists Vickie Daniel, Jennifer Kirk and Shawn Plonski, as well as some up-and-coming young female jazz artists, to celebrate three generations of women in jazz.

Classical guitarist Nemanja Ostojic, a master's student at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, won first place in the prestigious Southwest Guitar Festival in San Antonio Sunday (Feb. 8). The win marks Ostojic's fourth first-place international competition finish since he began studying at the Jacobs School last year.

In a perfect complement to ArtsWeek 2009's "Politics and the Arts" theme, the political power struggles of ancient Egypt -- and the passionate love affair between the iconic figures Cleopatra and Cesare -- will come to life on the stage of Indiana University's Musical Arts Center when the Jacobs School of Music stages Giulio Cesare, one of George Frideric Handel's most popular operas.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music celebrates ArtsWeek 2009 (Feb. 19 through March 1) with a rich variety of events that includes an international panel discussion; a conversation about the influence of politics on the music of the Beatles; and Handel's high-intrigue, politically charged opera Guilio Cesare. A host of orchestral, chamber, solo and ensemble performances by a wide array of guests, faculty members and students completes the schedule during Bloomington's 11-day arts immersion extravaganza.

In a unique collaboration between the IU Jacobs School of Music's Early Music Institute and musicology professor Lawrence Bennett at Wabash College, Ind., the IU Baroque Orchestra and singers from the Jacobs School will offer two semi-staged performances of Ignaz Holzbauer's dramatic opera Hypermnestra.

Violette Verdy, a distinguished professor in the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, has been named a Chevalier (Knight) in France's National Order of the Legion of Honor, an award from President M. Nicolas Sarkozy. The order is France's highest decoration.

Eight students from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music will perform a concert on Feb. 17 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., for an audience of aspiring young artists and music connoisseurs.

For more than a decade and a half, Concerto Palatino, under the direction of Bruce Dickey and Charles Toet, has led the way in the revival of the cornetto and Baroque trombone.

Starting Feb. 19 and continuing through March 1, Indiana University will present the 25th annual ArtsWeek, a winter festival showcasing an array of arts, entertainment and discussion surrounding the theme "Politics and the Arts."

IU Opera Theater presents a new production of Jules Massenet's Cendrillon (Cinderella), based on the original fairy tale, on Feb. 6, 7, 13 and 14 at 8 p.m. in Bloomington's Musical Arts Center. The production includes new set and costume designs by IU's C. David Higgins.

Showcasing recent work by up-and-coming regional choreographers, Indiana University Ballet Theater will present "Ballet at the BCT: On the Edge" on Jan. 28 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in downtown Bloomington. General admission tickets are $10, and tickets are $5 for all students with a valid student ID.

Three Indiana University Jacobs School of Music students were named winners in the Indiana District competition of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions held on Jan. 10 at Indiana University's Musical Arts Center.

The focus is on "community" as modern dance majors at Indiana University perform two guest artist pieces as well as original faculty creations during the IU Contemporary Dance Program's annual guest artist and faculty concert.

In a Dec. 15 ceremony, both of Indiana University's 2008 Professional Staff Merit Awards went to members of the Jacobs School of Music. David Villanueva, administrative director of choral ensembles, and Erin Woodley, an undergraduate advisor, were recognized by IU Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President Karen Hanson in a reception in the Frangipani Room of the Indiana Memorial Union.

Indiana University will host the state's auditions for the Metropolitan Opera National Council in the Musical Arts Center on Saturday, Jan. 10, at 1 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Indiana University's world-renowned Jacobs School of Music is sharing its performances with the world -- free -- with a season-ending musical celebration online. Three years ago, Jacobs was at the leading edge of a trend to "bring the arts to the people" online so that a worldwide audience can enjoy the school's operas, ballets and musical performances from the comfort of their home computers.

Royce Deckard, director of business and finance at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, received dual honors at a Dec. 9 "Legends" ceremony at Bloomington High School South. He received Indiana's Distinguished Hoosier Award for his 35 years of service to the sport of wrestling. Also, Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan had earlier declared Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008, "Royce Deckard Day" in the city.

Recognizing the key role played by volunteer leaders in service and philanthropy, the Indiana University Foundation has honored seven individuals as outstanding "Partners in Philanthropy" for Indiana University.

A much-needed reed-making room takes shape in the IU Jacobs School of Music and is named for Jerry Sirucek and Leonard Sharrow, legendary oboe and bassoon teachers who taught for decades. Thanks to the generosity of donors, the space provides single- and double-reed majors the very best possible environment for their endeavors.

The Indiana University Singing Hoosiers will be a part of history in the making on Jan. 19 when they perform at the Indiana Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C., one of several inaugural balls celebrating President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration as the 44th president of the United States on Jan. 20.

Four new Jacobs Scholars and three new Jacobs Fellows, selected from a large pool of incoming students, began their studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in the fall of 2008.

Indiana University Opera Theater will close the first half of its 60th anniversary season with Sergei Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges on Nov. 14, 15, 21 and 22 at 8 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center. In this fantastical farce, set in a mythical kingdom long ago, sorceress Fata Morgana puts a curse on a prince, by which he must find and fall in love with three oranges. Absurdist comedy at its best, this lively, entertaining piece is appropriate for all ages.

Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie will lead a university delegation to the Republic of Korea, where IU is expected to form new partnerships with several leading research universities, and to China, where he will participate in a major conference on the globalization of higher education.

Bloomington and regional audiences will be treated to a free concert by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra on Sunday, Nov. 23, at 3 p.m. at the Musical Arts Center at IU Bloomington. The concert will be conducted by music director Mario Venzago and features Alexander Kerr, principal guest concertmaster of the ISO and the Jacobs School's Linda and Jack Gill Chair in the Department of Strings and Zach De Pue, concertmaster of the ISO. Kerr and Pue will perform J.S. Bach's Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins.

It's a year of significant anniversaries for Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music: The school is in the midst of celebrating the 60th anniversary of its Opera Theater. And opening Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center is IU Ballet Theater's 50th annual production of the holiday classic The Nutcracker. This Nutcracker production will feature choreography created specifically for the Jacobs School's talented dancers by Michael Vernon, chair of the Jacobs School of Music Ballet Department.

A collection of rare scores for ensemble and orchestra has been donated to the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music by Arthur Weisberg, a bassoon legend, composer, author and Jacobs faculty member from 2005 to 2008.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music is pleased to announce the release of Cornucopia II, the second CD by the group Cornucopia that features natural horn player and IU horn professor Richard Seraphinoff. The ensemble includes IU alumnus Cynthia Roberts, violin (student of Stanley Ritchie and Josef Gingold); Rachel Evans, violin and viola; David Miller, viola; and Allen Whear, cello. All are prominent performers in the period-instrument field.

Starting in late September, all 46 first-graders at Fairview Elementary School added a new subject to their regular class schedules: violin. Through an outreach program supervised by Brenda Brenner, an associate professor of music education at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, first-graders at Fairview began taking violin lessons three times a week.

Indiana University Opera Theater continues its 60th anniversary season with the lighthearted Shakespearean comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor by German composer Carl Otto Nicolai (1810-1849). The opera will be performed at 8 p.m. at the Musical Arts Center on Oct. 24, 25 and 31 and Nov. 1. The libretto, based on the Shakespeare play by the same name, is by Austrian dramatist Salomon Hermann von Mosenthal (1821-1877) and originally premiered at the Royal Opera House in Berlin in 1849. IU's production will be directed by Jacobs School of Music Professor Vincent Liotta and conducted by Jacobs Professor David Effron, chair of instrumental conducting at the school. Jacobs designer emeritus Robert O'Hearn's Falstaff set will be repurposed for the show. The dialogue is in English and arias are in German with supertitles.

The Office of University Communications at Indiana University will publish a special "arts and humanities" issue of IU Home Pages, the faculty and staff newspaper for all eight IU campuses, on Monday (Oct. 13).

The 10 original members of Indiana University's favorite a cappella group, Straight No Chaser, will perform a reunion show Saturday, Oct. 25, (7:30 p.m. at IU Auditorium) just three days before the group's Atlantic Records CD debut. Tickets to the show will become available today (Thursday, Oct. 2) at 10 a.m. Straight No Chaser first formed 12 years ago when its members were IU students. After taking part in a 2006 reunion show and posting footage from a 1998 concert on YouTube, the group experienced a resurgence in popularity and became a YouTube fan favorite, even attracting attention from Atlantic Records.

Indiana University Ballet Theater begins its 2008-2009 season Oct. 10 with Ballets of Our Time, featuring top choreographers of the 20th and 21st centuries -- including IU Ballet Department Chair Michael Vernon, who will present the world premiere of his new ballet Endless Night, with music by Philip Glass and a guest performance by Daniel Ulbricht, principal dancer of the New York City ballet. In addition to Endless Night, Ballets of Our Time will include George Balanchine's The Four Temperaments and Twyla Tharp's Sweet Fields, set to live music for the first time ever.

From the moment of implosion when a building is demolished to a lone balloon slowly deflating its way to the floor, an upcoming exhibit at Indiana University's School of Fine Arts Gallery (SOFA) showcases six artists' interpretations of a fleeting moment in time. "One Moment," opening Oct. 17, comes to Bloomington from the Thomas Robertello Gallery of Chicago.

Indiana University's first-ever "Celebrate IU Week" in 2007 was so successful, university officials will continue the new tradition with a monthlong tribute to all eight of IU's campuses. Highlights of the October celebration will include IU President Michael McRobbie's first State of the University address (Oct. 14); Homecoming (Oct. 17-25); the music of Hoagy Carmichael, for whom a bronze statue was dedicated last week at IU Bloomington; performances of La Traviata marking IU Opera Theater's 60th anniversary season and its 400th performance; groundbreakings; dedications and even a student video contest on YouTube.

The recent appointment of Arthur Fagen, a former assistant conductor at the Frankfurt Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, and the expanded responsibilities of Cliff Colnot, conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, brings to five the number of world-class instrumental conductors on faculty at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. "With these recent appointments, the nucleus of our instrumental conducting program is in place," said Jacobs Dean Gwyn Richards. "In combination with the new appointments of cellist Eric Kim and violinist Jorja Fleezanis, both of whom share an orchestral profile at the highest level, the orchestral program is now poised for unprecedented development."

From the time he could walk, Rod Clemmons took every opportunity to toddle over to the nearest piano bench and start pounding away. He could just make out the difference between the black and white keys -- Clemmons was born legally blind. He was also talented enough that his mother started taking him to piano lessons at the University of Arkansas when he was four years old. He attended college at Indiana University, where Clemmons was accepted to the prestigious piano program at IU's Jacobs School of Music.

Indiana University's Digital Library Program received a federal grant of $481,987 to demonstrate the benefits of an emerging form of cataloging using IU's vast collections of sound recordings and scores at the Cook Music Library. The Institute of Museum and Library Services, the primary source of federal support for the nation's libraries and museums, announced the National Leadership Grant Wednesday.

Adding to a growing list of renowned instrumentalists who have wide experience in orchestral performance, the IU Jacobs School of Music announced September 16 that concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra, Jorja Fleezanis, will join its faculty as Professor of Music (Orchestral Studies, Violin) and the Henry A. Upper Chair in Orchestral Studies, in the fall of 2009.

Music informatics professor Chris Raphael has received a 3-year, $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for his proposal titled, "Real-Time Planning of a Conductable Orchestra."

Widely respected bassist Jeremy Allen has been appointed assistant professor at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Department of Jazz Studies, beginning Fall 2008. He has served as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Jazz Studies at the Jacobs School since 2006.

Indiana University's Opera Theater kicks off its fall season, the first production in the 60th anniversary season and the 400th overall production, with Giuseppe Verdi's widely loved -- and once scandalous -- cross-class romance La Traviata. The opera is staged by noted director Tito Capobianco, a well-known, colorful figure who spent years working with Luciano Pavarotti and was general manager and artistic director of the prestigious Pittsburgh Opera.

Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie has awarded emeriti faculty members Denis Sinor and Harvey Phillips with the President's Medal for Excellence. The awards are among the highest honors an IU president can bestow.

The Indiana University Marching Hundred will be the first college marching band to perform at the new Lucas Oil Stadium when the Indianapolis Colts play their first regular season game this Sunday (Sept. 7) at 8:15 p.m. on national television. The band will take the field during the Colts season opener against the Chicago Bears.

Many of the globe's most prominent music figures have chosen the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as their academic home, amounting to what has been called the single greatest gathering of music faculty anywhere. The Jacobs School is pleased to welcome the latest appointees to this elite roster.

The Board of Trustees of Indiana University has selected the architects for the internationally acclaimed Jacobs School of Music's new North Studio Building. The building is funded by a $44 million gift from the Lilly Endowment. The North Studio Building, to be built north of the current Music Building Addition (also known as "the round building") on Third Street, will be designed by Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf (BDMD) Architects of Indianapolis and Flad Architects of Madison, Wis. It will accommodate faculty teaching studios as well as music practice rooms, classrooms, offices, rehearsal rooms and graduate student spaces.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music continues to nurture and present the world's greatest musicians. With four new IU Opera and Ballet Theater productions, in addition to the usual hundreds of other performances, the Jacobs School offers another ambitious season in 2008-09. Two internationally distinguished Jacobs faculty talents join forces to kick off the orchestral season on Sept. 17 as Leonard Slatkin conducts the IU Philharmonic Orchestra and violinist Joshua Bell at 8 p.m. in the IU Auditorium.

Smuggling and betrayal. Myth and reality. Can fiction be truer than fact or reach a layer of truth that the usual facts don't make accessible? These intriguing issues and others will be explored in the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music's production of ¡Unicamente la Verdad! (Only the Truth!) on Aug. 8 and 9.

Maureen McGovern's 35-year career includes recordings, concerts, Broadway, theater, films, television, radio and composing, all with a voice that defies categorization. Her collaborations with Indiana University Professor Steve Houghton, faculty and students from the IU Jacobs School of Music and regional professionals will include a hard-swinging big band, followed by a studio orchestra playing the beautiful sounds of the Great American Songbook at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 8, in the Musical Arts Center, as the IU Summer Music Festival draws to a close.

The Grammy Award-winning, all-male chorus Chanticleer and internationally renowned quintet Canadian Brass -- both of which have strong ties to Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music -- will play at IU's Summer Music Festival July 27 and Aug. 3, respectively.

For the first time ever, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music's Percussion Department will offer an intensive, five-day summer percussion workshop (July 14-18) featuring clinics, master classes and special performances by IU percussion faculty and internationally acclaimed percussion artists. The workshop includes a number of performances that are free and open to the public.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music's "Dream Team" is a sure bet for a winning evening when the Festival Jazz Orchestra performs July 14 at 8 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center during the IU Summer Music Festival. IU Distinguished Professor and Chair of the IU Jazz Studies Department David N. Baker will direct the orchestra, continuing the tradition for the third year this summer.

Vincent Liotta is well-known in the opera world for co-founding the renowned Utah Festival Opera and for his stage direction with companies ranging from the Chicago Lyric Opera to the Vienna Staatspoer. This summer, though, Liotta is most thrilled not about a classic opera, but about an uplifting musical comedy, She Loves Me, presented by IU Opera Theater as part of the 2008 Indiana University Summer Music Festival.

Indiana University Bloomington's Jacobs School of Music recently welcomed 42 talented international students for the second summer session. Besides intensive daily classes in English and their instrument of choice, these students will have a chance to shine in the series of choral and orchestra concerts traditionally held in the IU Summer Music Festival.

A 15-year-old piano student in the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music has won the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's Young Musicians Contest and will be performing with the orchestra July 18 and 19. Jingxuan Zhang, a piano student of IU Professor Arnaldo Cohen, will be performing with the orchestra this month.

Distinguished Professor Menahem Pressler recently spoke of his many awe-inspiring years with the Beaux Arts Trio. The trio will offer its final performance in Bloomington on June 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center as part of its internationally heralded farewell tour.

With four of the country's top conductors at the helm and a number of nationally renowned instrumentalists in their midst, the IU Summer Festival Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra bring world-class music to the Midwest in a series of five upcoming concerts in Bloomington.

Indiana University and its fundraising partner, the IU Foundation, announced today (June 11) that IU Bloomington's "Matching the Promise" campaign has raised more than $60 million for graduate fellowships.

Indiana University strives to create an environment that allows all students to thrive, including those with disabilities. In the IU Jacobs School of Music, arranging accommodation can be a puzzle, as some of the standard strategies don't fit neatly into a curriculum that centers on musical timing, sight reading and piano proficiency.

The Indiana University Summer Music Festival's Chamber Music Series offers an extraordinary array of national and international musicians highlighting IU Jacobs School of Music faculty. This year's series, which begins June 16, will feature a number of performances by eminent faculty members, such as violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson in the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio.

WFIU, WTIU, and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music are bringing classical music radio and TV host Fred Child to Bloomington, June 17-19, to help kick off IU's Summer Music Festival. Child is the host of American Public Media's Performance Today, the most-listened-to classical music radio show in America, with more than 1.2 million weekly listeners on 237 stations around the country.

The Grammy Award-winning a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey In The Rock kicks off the 2008 Indiana University Summer Music Festival with its African American vocal repertoire and performance style on June 15 at 8 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center (MAC).

Adding to a growing list of noteworthy faculty appointments, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music announced today (May 22) that virtuoso cellist Eric Kim will join its faculty in the fall semester, 2009. Considered by many as one of the finest orchestral, chamber music and solo cellists of his generation, Kim has an international career that includes principal cello in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, a position he will have held for 20 years in 2009.

Eight students from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music will perform a 60-minute concert on May 23 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., for an audience of aspiring young artists and music connoisseurs.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music announced today (May 1) that Brent Wallarab -- a jazz performer, teacher, researcher, Jacobs School alumnus and artistic director of the Buselli Wallarab Jazz Orchestra -- has been appointed to the jazz faculty.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music announced today (May 1) that violin virtuoso and world-renowned teacher of the instrument Kevork Mardirossian will join the faculty this fall.

Grammy Award-winning African American female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock will kick off the 2008 Indiana University Summer Music Festival on June 15. Featuring more than 40 additional free and ticketed events performed by guests, faculty and students from the IU Jacobs School of Music, this year's Summer Music Festival (June 15-August 9) offers an extraordinary array of orchestral concerts, opera, chamber music, jazz evenings, recitals and outdoor band concerts.

According to a study released today (April 21), the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music accounts for $120 million a year in economic activity in Indiana, supporting about 900 jobs and generating $4.7 million in state and local taxes. The school's impact goes far beyond dollars and cents, says the study, which quantifies the ways in which the Jacobs School and its faculty, students and alumni play an essential role in the vibrancy of the state's cultural life.

The collaboration between Kelly McCormick Bangs and Gabriel Lubell began last semester with a form of speed dating, when Indiana University choreographers and composers came together in search of their like-minded counterpart. Rather than dinner and a movie, the creative pairings resulted in 15 new and robust dance/music works that will be performed this weekend at the third annual "Hammer and Nail" concert in Bloomington.

The Indiana University Wind Ensemble, conducted by Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Professor Stephen W. Pratt, will perform as a featured ensemble at the Music Educators National Conference in Milwaukee, Wis., April 12. Jacobs School Assistant Professor and saxophonist Otis Murphy will solo with the ensemble. Also represented at the conference are members of the IU Jacobs School of Music's Music Education Department, led by Department Chair Associate Professor Lissa May, who is current president of the Indiana Music Educators Association, the statewide chapter of the MENC.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music announced today (April 10) that Jeffrey Gershman has been named Associate Professor of Music and Associate Director of Bands/Wind Conducting. He will join the Jacobs School faculty at the beginning of the fall semester.

Continuing its ongoing partnership with the community, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music presents the annual "Ballet at the BCT: The Choreography Project" at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in downtown Bloomington on April 15-16 at 8 p.m. Presented by the IU Department of Ballet, the workshop will feature 13 new works choreographed and danced by its ballet majors.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music will host its annual Big Band Extravaganza, featuring IU jazzmen David N. Baker and Pat Harbison, on Saturday, April 19, at 8 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center. The Big Band Extravaganza merges two outstanding jazz ensembles of student performers trained by Baker and Harbison. This year's concert, "It Don't Mean a Thing . . . If It Ain't Got That Swing," will present masterpieces of the swing era and guest performances by vocalists Delores King Williams and Everett Greene.

Sixty years ago, the first Indiana University Opera Theater production took place in an auditorium that was built as part of an army barracks during World War II. This weekend (April 4-5), IU Opera begins celebrating its 60th anniversary with a reprise of that same opera, Les Contes d'Hoffmann -- except now it will be performed on a stage that rivals New York City's Metropolitan Opera House.

Completing 29 years on the faculty of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as a conductor, teacher and violinist, Professor Paul Biss will conduct his own retirement concert Wednesday, April 2, at 8 p.m. in Auer Hall, with the IU Chamber Orchestra.

The IU Jacobs School of Music announced today (March 27) that it has appointed not one but two internationally prominent performer-teachers to its ranks. Organists Janette Fishell and Todd Wilson will begin their tenure as professors of music in the fall of 2008.

Faculty awards for outstanding teaching, research and service to Indiana University will be presented on 2008 Founders Day, Sunday (March 30) at 4:30 p.m. during an invitation-only event for the award recipients and their family and friends, in Alumni Hall, Indiana Memorial Union.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music continues IU's Moveable Feast of the Arts Series with a performance by the Indiana University Brass Choir on April 6 in Greensburg, Ind. The concert begins at 2:30p.m. in the Greensburg Junior High School Auditorium.

Join the Singing Hoosiers of Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music for an annual spring concert, "A Celebration of American Popular Music," on April 5 at 8 p.m. in the IU Auditorium. This is the 58th year for this annual herald of spring.

Fantastical tales of love lost and inspiration found will delight Indiana University Opera Theater audiences April 4, 5, 11 and 12 at the Musical Arts Center. Jacques Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann depicts a writer's romantic adventures as he searches for his true love and ultimately finds fulfillment in his artistic calling.

The IU Ballet Department's origins as a means of supplying operas with dancers inspired Michael Vernon, chair of the IU Jacobs School's Ballet Department, to offer ballet audiences "A Night at the Opera (at the Ballet)." On March 21 and 22, dancers will perform to ballet music from beloved operas by Gounod, Rossini, Handel and Meyerbeer.

Marking a historic evening at the IU Auditorium on March 23, world-renowned composer and pianist Michel Camilo will play his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, originally commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra with Indiana University faculty member Leonard Slatkin as music director, for the first time in Bloomington.

Three major Indiana musical entities -- the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and Music for All Foundation -- will host the premiere of the Finding The Groove™ concert series this fall. The concerts are part of a larger project by the same name created to celebrate the formative role music plays in the educational development of children.

Kids Compose! -- co-sponsored by the Bloomington Community Arts Commission, IU Jacobs School of Music and the Community Chamber Music Association -- allows hundreds of schoolchildren between second and sixth grades to use their imagination to compose melodies. IU composition students help the youngsters write the scores and later perform the winners' pieces at a band performance or orchestra concert for children, teachers and parents. The next performance of winners' pieces will take place in the Musical Arts Center at 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 5.

Familiar favorites combine with forays into fantasy in the 60th Indiana University Opera and Ballet Theater season. The 2008-2009 lineup includes beloved standards like Verdi's La Traviata, Giulio Cesare by Handel and The Nutcracker ballet, in addition to fairy-tale fun in Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges and Massenet's Le Cendrillon, the Cinderella story interpreted in the French operatic style.

The IU Jacobs School of Music announced today (Feb. 26) that Maestro Arthur Fagen has been appointed as Professor of Music in instrumental conducting. Fagen will commence his activities in Bloomington in the fall of 2008.

The IU Jacobs School of Music will host a celebration, March 6, in honor of the life of conducting professor Thomas Baldner, who retires from the Jacobs School at the end of the 2008 spring semester, following more than 30 years of service.

Soprano and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music graduate student Carolina Castells has made it through to the Grand Finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the elite competition to identify the best young opera singers throughout the nation.

Jeffrey Hass, director of the Indiana University Center for Electronic and Computer Music and professor of composition, received two significant professional honors during the past several weeks. Hass, an IU faculty member since 1987, was named as one of the first four fellows of the newly-created IU Institute for Digital Arts and Humanities.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music celebrates ArtsWeek 2008 (Feb. 20 to March 1) with a rich variety of events that range from contemporary workshop readings to a musical examination of the meaning of life and death to Mozart's celebrated opera Le Nozze di Figaro. A host of orchestral, chamber, solo and ensemble performances by a wide array of guests, faculty and students completes the schedule during Bloomington's 11-day arts extravaganza.

Three students and the spirited pre-college Violin Virtuosi ensemble from the IU Jacobs School of Music will take the stage this Saturday, Feb. 16, in the IU Auditorium as Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion comes to town.

A trio of world-renowned specialists on period instruments will be making a stop in Bloomington as one of their U.S. tour destinations, culminating in a chamber music concert on Feb. 26 at 8:30 p.m. in the IU Jacobs School of Music's Recital Hall.

Faculty and alumni from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music were awarded a total of six Grammy Awards Sunday (Feb. 10).

The Indiana University Philharmonic Orchestra and Oratorio Chorus will offer two free performances of Verdi's masterwork, Requiem, in Bloomington and Indianapolis.

Starting Feb. 22, Indiana University Opera Theater audiences can hear Le Nozze di Figaro, the beloved comedy by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as Mozart himself might have heard it in the traditional "bel canto" style. Guest conductor William Crutchfield is working to revive this 18th-century method, which emphasizes smooth vocal phrases, pure tone and improvised ornamentation suited to the individual singer's voice.

Christopher Hogwood, once described as "the von Karajan of early music", will be giving a public lecture in Auer Concert Hall at the IU Jacobs School of Music on Friday, Feb. 22, at 4:00 p.m.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music is once again sweeping the Grammy Awards, with three recordings up for a total of five awards at this year's ceremony, taking place Feb. 10. Representing a diverse array of styles from contemporary classical to Spanish opera to experimental a cappella, the nominated recordings highlight the wide range of strengths at the celebrated school.

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and two Indiana University Jacobs School of Music alumni return to Bloomington with an exciting free concert in the Musical Arts Center on March 2 at 3 p.m. The concert will be a true celebration of musicians featuring two soloists who are Jacobs School alumni.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music continues IU's Moveable Feast of the Arts Series with the final of three performances this season at the Ogle Center on the campus of IU Southeast in New Albany, Ind. The Indiana University Jazz Ensemble, led by Professor Patrick Harbison, will come out swinging on Feb. 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Podcast.iu.edu, an online gateway for audio and video podcasts from IU faculty and staff and various departments and groups from all of IU's campuses, will be launched publicly on Feb. 4. The user-friendly podcast portal will pull together a variety of contributed content, including lectures, music, radio broadcasts, performances and student profiles, on one convenient home page.

Information technology (IT) calls to mind sleek laptops, huge supercomputers, or possibly high-speed virtual collaborations among international scientists. It doesn't typically bring to mind Balanchine or Bach or Balzac. Now, a newly established Indiana University institute is set to digitally redefine scholarship and creative activity in music, dance, literature and many other arts and humanities fields.

IU Bloomington faculty members Glenn Gass and John Gibson, both of the Jacobs School of Music, and Maresa Murray of the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation have each been awarded an $8,000 Summer Instructional Development Fellowship for 2008 through the Office of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculties to develop specialized and innovative courses.

When the curtain rises on this weekend's performance of A Wedding, the third of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom's operas to have its collegiate premiere at Indiana University, it will reveal the final creations of illustrious set designer Robert O'Hearn, who retires following the opera's run, at the age of 86.

New Yorker writer Alex Ross will be giving a lecture at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music on Feb. 5 at 3:30 p.m.

"You are all permitted and encouraged to laugh!" This is the declaration of Pulitzer-prize winning composer William Bolcom, who warns audiences attending his latest opera, A Wedding, not to take it too seriously. The opera, which opens Feb. 1 at Indiana University's Musical Arts Center, portrays an all-American train wreck of a wedding in which everything that can go wrong, does.

IU Jacobs School of Music student David Constantine was recently awarded second place at the Rendez-vous Internationaux de la Timbale (2nd International Timpani Competition of Lyon) in Lyon, France.

Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan has designated January 18, 2008, as Hans Tischler Day, in honor of the internationally renowned musicologist and Jacobs School of Music professor emeritus. In celebration, today Dean Gwyn Richards read the following proclamation at Mr. Tischler's Musicology Colloquium Series lecture presentation.

Jenna Sherry, a senior in the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, has been selected as a Marshall Scholar for 2008 by the British government. Sherry is from New Orleans and is completing a bachelor's of music in violin performance with Mark Kaplan, professor of music in the Jacobs School. As a Marshall Scholar, she will study at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama with violinist David Takeno starting in September 2008.

Three-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell and acclaimed pianist Jeremy Denk, two of classical music's brightest stars, with common student and faculty ties to the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, will perform a recital together at IU's Musical Arts Center on Feb. 10 at 4 p.m. This will be their first performance together in Bloomington and Bell's first local concert as an incoming IU faculty member.

Eight students from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the largest contingent from any school in the country, were among the 62 young musicians, aged 15 to 22, chosen to participate in the nationally-acclaimed New York String Orchestra Seminar (NYSOS), towards the end of last December.

Claude Baker, Class of 1956 Chancellor's Professor of Composition in the Jacobs School of Music, has been named the 2008-09 Paul Fromm Composer-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome.

Three Indiana University Jacobs School of Music students were named winners in the Indiana District competition of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions held on Jan. 5 at Indiana University's Musical Arts Center.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music is now home to a collection of six harps dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Among these classic instruments is one that Marie Antoinette, former queen of France, played during the 18th century.

Indiana University President Michael McRobbie announced today (Dec. 12) that Lilly Endowment is giving the IU Foundation two major gifts, totaling $69 million, to secure the international standing of the IU Jacobs School of Music, provide its world-class music faculty and students with a state-of-the-art studio facility and propel the IU School of Law-Bloomington to the upper echelon of public university law schools.

It is with great sadness that the Jacobs School of Music shares the news of the death of Distinguished Professor Emeritus George Gaber, who died on November 21, 2007, in Bloomington at the age of 91. Read his obituary and tributes from a number of his students.

When the New York Youth Symphony opens its 45th anniversary season at Carnegie Hall on Dec. 9 at 2 p.m., it will unintentionally host a Hoosier theme. Three of the major contributors to the performance -- the conductor, Ryan McAdams; solo violinist, William Harvey; and composer, Clint Needham -- are Indiana University graduates making their Carnegie Hall debuts.

If the giant art sculptures in front of Indiana University's Musical Arts Center (MAC) and Art Museum look a little brighter these days, it isn't the light playing tricks. The two campus landmarks recently underwent a thorough restoration process revitalizing the statues to their original luster.

The Bloomington City Council and Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan have designated December 5, 2007, as Menahem Pressler Day, in honor of the internationally renowned pianist and Indiana University Distinguished Professor.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music welcomes Townsend Plant as its new director of admissions and financial aid, beginning June 1, 2008. An accomplished classical guitarist, Plant has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician. He is a founding member of the Classical Guitar Society of Upstate New York and founding director of the D'Addario classical Guitar Competition at Ithaca College.

Harvey Phillips, tuba virtuoso and distinguished professor emeritus at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, has added another honor to one of the most remarkable careers in modern American musical history. He has become the first brass player chosen for induction into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.

The Indiana University Ballet Theater continues its tradition of holiday excellence this year by introducing its classic The Nutcracker with a new twist. The 49th annual production, opening Nov. 30 at 8 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center, will feature new choreography by Michael Vernon, chair of the Jacobs School of Music Ballet Department, following a nine-year run of choreography by Jacobs School of Music professor Jacques Cesbron.

Jacobs Professor Alexander Kerr, world-renowned violinist, added to his accolades this fall when he filled the newly-created position of Principal Guest Concertmaster with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO). He shares some of his thoughts in this interview, which includes a video version.

Audiences will experience Giacomo Puccini's classic La Bohème like never before when they attend the Indiana University Opera Theater's all new production, which opens Nov. 9 in the Musical Arts Center on the IU Bloomington campus. A cutting-edge set by IU Jacobs School of Music master designer C. David Higgins recreates the streets of 19th-century Paris on three towering, intricately detailed, rotating stages, offering audiences an awe-inspiring visual experience equaled only by the beauty of the opera itself.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music continues IU's Moveable Feast of the Arts Series with the second of three performances this season at the Ogle Center on the campus of IU Southeast in New Albany, Ind. The IU Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Jacobs Principal Guest Conductor Uriel Segal, will perform on Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m.

The Indiana University New Music Ensemble (NME) will break musical boundaries with its new season that will feature some of the most imaginative and adventurous electronica ever heard, with a unique twist -- it will be arranged for chamber ensemble. The NME season opens on Oct. 20 at 8 p.m. in the Jacobs School of Music's Auer Hall.

In a ceremony that marks a seminal event in the life of a university, Michael A. McRobbie will be inaugurated as the 18th president of Indiana University on Oct. 18 at 3 p.m. in the IU Auditorium on the Bloomington campus. The inauguration and a reception immediately following the ceremony are open to the public.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music will be a source of highlights in an already superlative stretch of celebratory and history-making events during Indiana University's "Celebrate IU" week, Oct. 13-21. Several of its faculty -- famed conductors and composers, internationally known virtuoso performers and critically acclaimed singers, all of who are major artists on the world's stage -- offer events that are free and open to the public.

The IU Jacobs School's Latin American Music Center (LAMC), in cooperation with the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble and the Chamber Orchestra, will present the collegiate premiere performance, in concert, of the chamber opera Ainadamar or Fountain of Tears, by Argentinean composer Osvaldo Golijov. The performances are free and open to the public.

Indiana University Ballet Theater begins its exciting new season Oct. 5 and 6 with the fall ballet "Perspectives 1900s," a varied selection of vignettes, all rooted in one of the most inventive artistic periods in the history of dance. "The turn of the century was a particularly fertile time for the art of ballet," said Michael Vernon, chair of the IU Jacobs School of Music's Ballet Department. "It was a time when, instead of ballet following fashion, ballet actually influenced fashion."

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music continues IU's Moveable Feast of the Arts Series with three performances at the Ogle Center on the campus of IU Southeast in New Albany, Ind.

W. Claude Baker Jr., Chancellor's Professor of Music Composition at Indiana University, will deliver the Sonneborn Award Lecture,"The Composer as Resident: The Role of the Composer in the Community," Thursday (Sept. 27), at 4 p.m. in Auer Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Indiana University and its Jacobs School of Music will again be in the limelight when the Indiana Arts Commission presents the 2007 Governor's Arts Awards, Oct. 25, at 6:30 p.m., in the Musical Arts Center on the Bloomington campus. The event marks the first time in the 35-year history of the awards that ceremonies will be conducted outside the state capital.

When IU Opera Theater kicks off its 2007-2008 on Sept. 21, with Giuseppe Verdi's ever-popular Rigoletto, few opera-goers sitting in the Musical Arts Center may realize that the opera's lavish set was built 33 years ago and is part of the oeuvre of legendary set designer Max Röthlisberger. Swiss-born Röthlisberger had acted, directed and designed sets in Europe's leading opera houses for more than 40 years and was in his 60s when he was recruited to IU by former School of Music Dean Wilfred Bain in 1973. Rigoletto's set was first used in 1974 and is being used for the last time for this season's production, which runs at 8 p.m. Sept. 21, 22, 28 and 29 in the MAC. Pre-show "Opera Insights" begins at 7 p.m. in the MAC Mezzanine before each performance.

In an auspicious moment in the life of the Jacobs School of Music, internationally renowned conductor Leonard Slatkin will begin his tenure as faculty member by conducting the IU Philharmonic on Sept. 23. The maestro will lead the orchestra in Barber's Symphony No.1 in One Movement, Op. 9, and Elgar's Enigma Variations, Op. 36. Elevating the occasion even more, fellow Jacobs faculty member Sylvia McNair, Grammy-Award winning soprano, will join Slatkin and the orchestra for Canteloube's Selections from Chants d'Auvergne. Slatkin is the latest addition to a long line of musical superstars who, in the last three years, have chosen to base their teaching careers in Bloomington.

David Dzubay, composer and professor of music at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, took home first prize in the 2007 Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival/Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra Composition Competition. A 2007 Guggenheim Fellow, Dzubay was awarded $2,000, and his winning piece, "Double Black Diamond," will be performed at the Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival on Nov. 9.

Musical performances by Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, André Watts, Marietta Simpson and David Baker, and comedy by David Sedaris will highlight the cultural offerings of Indiana University's "Celebrate IU" week Oct. 13-21.

Legendary jazz musician David Baker, the 2001 Indiana Living Legend award winner, has another honor to add to his resume. The opening of the newly renovated Baker Place Building and Art Gallery was recently announced by Ron and Liz Stanhouse, the Bloomington Area Arts Council (BAAC), Downtown Bloomington, Inc., the City of Bloomington Mayor's Office and the City's Housing and Neighborhood Development Department. In July, a dedication ceremony was conducted on the sidewalk in front of the building, located at 115 S. College Ave. in downtown Bloomington.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music will continue its tradition of welcoming the world's most illustrious musicians -- both in residence and as guests -- and presenting new and legendary music when it kicks off its 2007-2008 season next month. Among other highlights is the debut of Leonard Slatkin as a Jacobs School faculty member conducting the IU Philharmonic.

Internationally acclaimed hornist Jeff Nelsen is adding to his impressive resume at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music by rejoining hit brass quintet Canadian Brass. Nelsen, who was a member of the world famous group from 2000 to 2004, will continue to teach at IU full-time while touring with the ensemble. Nelsen's re-appointment to the Canadian Brass continues a long tradition in the Jacobs School in which faculty maintain a significant link to the world of international performance.

Restoration of the Peau Rouge Indiana, the stabile outside the Indiana University Musical Arts Center, begins Monday (Aug. 6).

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music's "Dream Team" will bring its talent to the stage with a performance on Monday (July 16) during the IU Summer Music Festival.

Gaetano Donizetti's The Elixir of Love is considered by many to be comic opera at its sparkling best. In the Indiana University Opera Theatre's Summer Music Festival production, one of the two singers in the lead female role of Adina is Betsy Uschkrat, a masters student in vocal performance at the Jacobs School of Music and the reigning Miss Indiana. Live at IU caught up with Betsy during a rare pause in her busy schedule and asked her about the upcoming production and her future plans.

Indiana University Jacobs School of Music faculty Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson will appear in a live edition of Public Radio International's "A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor" on Saturday (June 30). The live broadcast will be from the Koussevitzy Music Shed at Tanglewood, in Lenox, Mass., on Saturday at 6 p.m. EST. Laredo and Robinson will perform several movements from "Suite for Two," which violinist Andy Stein wrote for them this year to celebrate 30 years of marriage and 30 years of performing together.

Indiana University Jacobs School of Music student Brian Buch has been named one of the finalists in the 2007 Queen Elisabeth Composition Competition in Brussels. Buch's piece, Prayer for an Unnamed Grave, was one of five scores selected from 165 compositions on five continents. At 22, Buch is the youngest finalist, and the only composer from the western hemisphere.

Virtuosic harp music will once again ring through recital halls on the Indiana University Bloomington campus, as the 7th USA International Harp Competition takes place from July 4-14. Founded in 1989 by renowned harpist and IU Jacobs School of Music Distinguished Professor of Music Susann McDonald, the USA International Harp Competition is one of the largest and most prestigious events of its kind in the world. The public is invited to attend all competition stages and competition events, which are free and open to the public.

Three Indiana University Jacobs School of Music composition students and one alumnus have been named winners in the 55th Annual BMI Student Composer Awards. No other school or university had more than one winner. IU captured four of the total 11 awards that went to young classical composers ranging in age from 15 to 25. IU student Clint Needham was named the winner of the William Schuman Prize, which is awarded to the score judged "most outstanding" in the competition.

A group of students from the IU Jacobs School of Music will reveal their talents on Saturday, May 26th, at 6pm at the John F.Kennedy Center Terrace Theater in Washington, D.C., as they participate in a concert series that focuses on the remarkable vitality and virtuosity being cultivated by America's top music programs.

Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Distinguished Professor Menahem Pressler will be appointed as an Honorary Fellow of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.The title "Honorary Fellow" is bestowed by the academy upon artists whose exceptional contribution to the fields of music and dance has influenced artistic expression in Israel and throughout the world. Beginning this June, on the academy's 75th anniversary, the world-renowned pianist will accept the position for one year.

This fall, two top-flight percussionists will join the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Percussion Department's already formidable faculty ranks. Jacobs alumnus John Tafoya, principal timpanist for the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., since 1999 and director of percussion studies at the University of Maryland School of Music, will become professor of music, pending approval by IU trustees. Kevin Bobo, assistant professor of percussion at the University of Kansas at Lawrence since 2003, has been appointed associate professor of music.

Now in its fourteenth year, the Bloomington Early Music Festival (BLEMF), an annual celebration of music from Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and Classical times, will take place May 18-28 at a variety of venues in the Bloomington community, including two performance spaces on the Indiana University Bloomington campus.

The Jacobs School of Music congratulates Professor David Dzubay, composer and chair of the composition department, who was recently named a 2007 Guggenheim Fellow. The prestigious award is one of the most affirming research awards worldwide for artists, humanists, and scientists.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music announced today (May 4) that it is in the final stages of negotiations with C. B. Fisk, Inc. of Gloucester, Mass., to build its pipe organ in Auer Concert Hall. With almost 4,000 pipes the instrument -- originally conceived by organ builder Manuel Rosales -- will be transformed into a Fisk organ, Opus 135, and is expected to debut in the fall of 2010, the year the school turns 100.

Grammy Award-winning violin virtuoso, newly-crowned winner of the coveted Avery Fisher Prize and Indiana University's favorite son Joshua Bell will return to his alma mater to join the faculty of the IU Jacobs School of Music, school officials announced today (May 3).

During the month of May, WFIU will air a number of nationally produced programs featuring alumni from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

What becomes a legend most? How about prime real estate in the heart of the Indiana University campus? Today (May 1) at 10 a.m., the Jacobs School of Music will dedicate the "Helen Clouse Plaza." in front of the Music Practice Building on Third Street, between Ballantine and Hawthorne. Clouse, who has assisted IU music students since 1960, turns 100 today.

IU Jacobs School of Music Professor of Composition Claude Baker has received two of Indiana University's most distinguished accolades. This spring, Baker was appointed to the rank of Chancellor's Professor and, this fall, he will receive the Indiana University 2007 Tracey M. Sonneborn Award.

Attracting an impressive array of internationally renowned musicians and showcasing some of the extraordinary faculty and student talent at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, the upcoming IU Summer Music Festival (June 17-Aug. 4) promises sonorous and visual splendor. The festival features more than 30 events in Bloomington, including the Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer.

In the last edition of Lecture Notes for the semester, take part in National Cover the Uninsured Week, explore the photographs of Tijani Sitou and celebrate the 2007 Indiana Law class.

Jacobs School of Music graduate Erick Carballo has received the 2006-2007 Esther L. Kinsley Ph.D. Dissertation Award, the highest honor for a research document that Indiana University bestows upon a student each year.

The Singing Hoosiers, a premier collegiate concert show choir from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, will close its 2006-2007 season by traveling to Greece for a 10-day, four-concert tour that promises to provide the choir and its Greek audiences a rare opportunity for cultural exchange.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music has an illustrious history of educating winners of the annual Avery Fisher Artist Awards. This year, that history was further illuminated when IU alumnus Joshua Bell was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize in an April 10 ceremony at Lincoln Center. The prize, a $75,000 accolade presented for lifetime achievement, firmly establishes his reputation as the most revered U.S. violinist of his generation.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music will host its annual Big Band Extravaganza featuring IU jazzmen David Baker and Pat Harbison on Saturday, April 21, at 8 p.m. at the Musical Arts Center. The Big Band Extravaganza merges two outstanding jazz ensembles of student performers trained by Baker and Harbison. This year's concert will include best known and beloved selections from the songbook of the late jazz singing legend Ella Fitzgerald, who would have turned 90 on April 25.

In this edition of Lecture Notes, celebrate the study of Alzheimer's, explore the artwork of Kalidou Sy and find out if you are fit to breed.

Four of this year's Guggenheim Fellows are professors at Indiana University Bloomington. The election of IUB science historian Domenico Bertoloni-Meli, composer David Dzubay, Near Eastern languages and cultures Professor John Walbridge, and sociologist Pamela Barnhouse Walters brings IU's total of Guggenheim Fellows to 123.

Indiana University Jacobs School of Music master's student Jamie Barton was named a grand prize winner at the annual Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions on Sunday (April 1), making her the eighth winner from the IU Jacobs School of Music in the past 10 years.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Musicology Department's newest recruit, Assistant Professor Phil Ford comfortably merging cultural studies with traditional musicology. "We are very excited that Phil Ford is joining the department," says Musicology Department Chair Massimo Ossi. "He will bring to the Jacobs School a wide range of interests in American music of the second half of the twentieth century, including jazz, musical theater, and radical and countercultural intellectual movements."

Join Indiana University's Singing Hoosiers for an annual spring concert, "A Celebration of American Popular Song" on March 31, at 8 p.m. in the IU Auditorium. This is the 57th year for the concert.

An Indiana University professor from the Jacobs School of Music was recenetly recognized as a living legend among jazz artists. IU Jacobs School of Music's Distinguished Professor David N. Baker was among those included in the roster of musicians who received their "Living Jazz Legend Award" for lifetime achievement. The award is one of many accolades Baker has received in his extraordinary career.

The Indiana University Wind Ensemble, directed and conducted by Stephen W. Pratt, has been invited to perform the opening concert of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), March 28, in Ann Arbor, Mich. The ensemble was selected following a rigorous screening process by a distinguished panel of musicians. Joining Pratt on the podium will be Jacobs wind conducting faculty members Paul Popiel, Scott Weiss and David Woodley.

Indiana University Opera and Ballet Theater, which has staged a number of world premiere performances in recent years, will add to its list of firsts during its 2007-2008 season, announced today (March 5). The upcoming season at the IU Jacobs School of Music features the nation's first collegiate performance of the opera A Wedding by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom, who has commissioned IU Opera Theater for two previous collegiate premieres.

In this edition of Lecture Notes, explore the creation of comic books, learn how humans process alcohol and meet Pulitzer Prize winner David Halberstam.

In the case of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, a new name has brought with it an exciting flurry of creative activity and change, noteworthy accomplishments and an infusion of new talent that will ensure the school stays at the forefront of music education and performance for years to come.

Adding to the already impressive roster of premier faculty at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, internationally renowned bassoon pedagogue William Ludwig will join its ranks in the fall of 2007.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music celebrates 2007 ArtsWeek with a rich variety of events that range from collaborations focusing on music, dance, and technology, through an "Informatics Philharmonic" experimental project, to the glorious opera "Arabella" by Richard Strauss. A host of orchestral, chamber, solo, and ensemble performances by guests, faculty, and students from near and far complete the schedule during Bloomington's 11-day arts extravaganza.

Featuring 20 musicians who deftly glide through new solo, chamber and large ensemble works from composers around the world, the Indiana University New Music Ensemble expects to make a sizeable impact on the East Coast music scene next month when it tours the area with a concert titled "New Music from Indiana."

Begin with violinists, bring in a computerized musical accompaniment program, and it all adds up to a unique blend of classical music. Christopher Raphael, associate professor at the Indiana University School of Informatics, will share center stage with Mimi Zweig, professor at the Jacobs School of Music. They're appearing together in Informatics Philharmonic at 3 p.m., Saturday (Feb. 24) at Sweeney Hall in the Simon Center Music building.

Close out Black History Month with a Union Board lecture and attend the 61st annual IU Business Conference in Indianapolis in this edition of Lecture Notes.

How do you improve upon something that's already so perfect? That was the challenge Arri Simon confronted when, during his freshman year at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, his music composition master class was assigned to set a segment of Martin Luther King Jr.'s legendary "I Have a Dream" speech to music. In what would be a dream scenario for many composers, Simon's resulting piece, written to complement the magical nature of King's words, will be performed by two-time Grammy Award-winning soprano Sylvia McNair on Tuesday (Feb. 20) in Atlanta.

The IU African American Arts Institute, in collaboration with the IU School of Music and the Archives of African American Music and Culture, will present the annual concert, "Extensions of the Tradition," on Sunday, Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. in Auer Hall of the IU Jacobs School of Music.

As part of its ongoing commitment to present performances in the region, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music will deliver a concert of choral works at the St. James Cathedral in Chicago on Feb. 18 at 4 p.m.

The Indiana University Marching Hundred has been named the recipient of the 2007 Sudler Intercollegiate Marching Band Trophy, the nation's highest and most coveted award for college and university marching bands. The award is often called the "Heisman Trophy" for college marching bands.

The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index--a new survey which uses faculty research and scholarly activity from more than 350 universities as a measure--has recognized and ranked 14 programs at Indiana University Bloomington and two at the IU School of Medicine.

Meet composer and IU Jacobs School of Music faculty member Edwin Penhorwood whose work "Too Many Sopranos" will be produced by IU Opera Theater on February 2, 3, 9, and 10 in the Musical Arts Center.

Indiana University's Moveable Feast of the Arts will present its next offering on Jan. 27 when the IU Philharmonic Orchestra travels to New Albany, Ind., for a performance featuring music -- now considered masterful, but once the cause of controversy -- of the great Russian composers Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

In this edition of Lecture Notes, find events that allow you to look at portraits by Joyce Wilson and war photos by James Nachtwey, confer with 'CSI' consultant Gary Telgenhoff and dedicate new artwork to the IU Art Museum.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music took center stage at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts this past weekend with a trio of performances by two of its most high profile recent faculty appointees: world-renowned conductor Leonard Slatkin and pianist André Watts.

Two world-class concerts will take place this evening in different venues in the nation's capital: the Kennedy Center's Hall of Nations and the Library of Congress. Both feature Indiana University Jacobs School of Music-related musicians.

Move over Mary J. Blige and Justin Timberlake. Step aside Red Hot Chili Peppers. Some red hot musicians from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music are ready to crash the Grammy Awards. With one legendary faculty member and a host of alums competing, the school will be heavily represented at the annual awards ceremony, to be held on Feb. 11.

This issue of Lecture Notes features speakers on the Bloomington campus discussing a variety of topics, including sexual risk taking, the foundations of physics and the beauty of Roman women.

It's the perfect holiday gift and yet another expression of just how talented the singers who make up Indiana University's Singing Hoosiers are. A critically acclaimed new CD from Maestro Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops orchestra, Christmas Time is Here, features among its widely acclaimed guest artists the Singing Hoosiers, one of America's premier popular music symphonic concert choirs specializing in popular music and the music of Broadway.

Jacobs alumnus Jeremy Denk, MM'93, whose piano playing has been described as "effortlessly virtuosic and utterly joyous" by the New York Times, will return to Bloomington this Sunday, December 3, when he joins the acclaimed Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as soloist at 8pm in the IU Auditorium. Click here for Concert Information!

With an already impressive and growing international career as a virtuoso performer, teacher, pedagogue and musical commentator, hornist Jeff Nelsen has been appointed Associate Professor of Music at the IU Jacobs School of Music, it was announced today (Nov. 16).

The IU Jacobs School of Music congratulates Associate Dean for Instruction Mary Wennerstrom, who has received the internationally significant Gail Boyd de Stowolinski Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Music Theory Teaching and Scholarship. The award was announced at the Society for Music Theory's annual conference in Los Angeles on Friday, November 3, 2006.

The Indiana University Philharmonic Orchestra, the premier orchestral ensemble of the IU Jacobs School of Music, continues IU's Moveable Feast of the Arts series next month at the historic Embassy Theatre in Fort Wayne, Ind., with a performance that features recently appointed faculty violinist Alexander Kerr. The concert will be held on Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. and marks the second year of the Moveable Feast of the Arts initiative, which is designed to showcase the university's cultural resources to Hoosier communities and IU campuses across the state.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music today (Nov. 7) continued its growing role as a leader in the emerging digital frontier with the announcement of its inaugural podcast. The audio and video project, found within the school's new "IUMusicLive" Web site ( http://music.indiana.edu/iumusiclive), includes performances by violinist Joshua Bell, conductor Michael Stern and the Beaux Arts Trio, and showcases three recent IU Opera Theater productions.

Following its acclaimed performance last year, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra will return to Bloomington in November with a program featuring Indiana University Jacobs School of Music faculty members Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson. Laredo (violin) and Robinson (cello) will perform the popular Double Concerto in A Minor by Johannes Brahms. The free offering on Sunday, Nov. 12, at 3 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center will be conducted by the ISO's Music Director Mario Venzago.

Soprano Lorna Dallas, musical theater star and alumna of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, will give a free benefit performance of "The Great American Songbook" on Sunday (Nov. 5) at 3 p.m. in the IU Auditorium.

Following a number of guest appearances at the Indiana University Summer Music Festival, internationally recognized American conductor Leonard Slatkin has decided to make the IU Jacobs School of Music his academic home, it was announced today (Oct. 27). Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra and five-time Grammy Award-winner, will be named the Arthur R. Metz Foundation Conductor at the Jacobs School.

Following two years of acclaimed guest appearances at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the Orion Quartet has been appointed as the school's Quartet-in-Residence for the 2006-2007 season.

An Indiana University-produced documentary celebrating the legendary Beaux Arts Trio and IU Distinguished Professor of Music Menahem Pressler will air nationwide on PBS this Monday (Oct. 23).

Vermont Governor James H. Douglas and the Vermont Arts Council will present the 2006 Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts to Vermont Symphony Orchestra Music Director and Jacobs School Professor Jaime Laredo in a public ceremony at the State House in Montpelier beginning at 1:00 PM on Thursday, October 19, 2006.

A benefit concert in support of the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Habitat for Humanity Musicians Village will be performed on Sunday, October 15, 2006, at 1:00 p.m. in Auer Hall at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Faculty participants include violinist Federico Agostini, violist Atar Arad, cellist Emilio Colon, violist Yuval Gotlibovich, pianist Jean-Louis Haguenauer, violinist Mark Kaplan, violinist Alexander Kerr, violinist Jaime Laredo, cellist Sharon Robinson, and pianist Yael Weiss. International prize-winning student violinist Frederieke Saeijs will also perform. Works to be performed are by Brahms, Prokofiev, and Schumann.

Indiana University Ballet Theater begins a new era Oct. 6 and 7 as it opens its 2006-07 season with the Fall Ballet "From Balanchine to Baker: An International Evening of Dance" at the Musical Arts Center. The program will mark Michael Vernon's official debut as the newly appointed chair of the IU Jacobs School of Music's Ballet Department, while his ballet Cathedral also makes its Bloomington debut the same weekend.

Distinguished Professor David N. Baker, chair of the Jazz Studies Department, received the Tracy M. Sonneborn Award for 2006 on Thursday, September 7. The annual award recognizes an IU faculty member who has achieved international recognition for work as a performer, composer, scholar, and educator. With an extraordinary career as composer, jazz pedagogue, performer, and national arts leader, Baker continues to inspire students, faculty colleagues, and alumni, as well as musicians and arts leaders around the world.

A new composition by Indiana University Distinguished Professor of Music David Baker will incorporate audience members' cell phones in order to create a shared participatory performance experience. Baker's Concertino for Cellular Phones and Orchestra is scheduled to kick off the 20th anniversary season of the Chicago Sinfonietta on Oct. 1 and 2 under the direction of Maestro Paul Freeman.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music will continue a longstanding tradition of opening its doors to the world's most illustrious musicians and presenting both new and legendary pieces of music when it kicks off its 2006-2007 season next month.

It's becoming apparent that the musical stars are once again aligned over the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as the venerable institution approaches its second century of training the world's top young musicians. The school officially welcomed this week several top musicians to its faculty, including two-time Grammy Award-winner and IU alumna Sylvia McNair.

Addressing a widely acknowledged need for qualified string music educators in public schools, the IU Jacobs School of Music announces the appointment of violinist Brenda Brenner. The new full-time tenure-track position takes advantage of the Jacobs School's excellent string performance program, a nationally recognized pre-college string program, and one of the country's leading music education departments.

In what amounts to a homecoming of sorts, Indiana University alumna, two-time Grammy Award-winner and internationally renowned soprano Sylvia McNair is returning to Bloomington to join the voice faculty at the IU Jacobs School of Music.

Soprano Betsy Uschkrat has been named Miss Indiana! Last February, she was crowned Miss IU, automatically qualifying her for the June 24 Miss Indiana competition. The Miss Indiana judges could not resist the aria she performed from La Boheme, winning the talent competition that night. With her Indiana win, she will compete for the Miss America crown in January. Uschkrat is a student of Costanza Cuccaro.

As the newly appointed chair of the Department of Ballet at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Michael Vernon has been charged with carrying on the tradition of excellence and high professional standards that have become synonymous with ballet in Bloomington, while also putting his own "stamp" on the ballet department. It's a mission, he says, that he looks forward to leading.

The IU Jacobs School of Music has assembled the crème de la crème of the Indiana jazz world, and beyond, to form a new ensemble to add to the already impressive ranks of its Summer Music Festival. The Festival Jazz Orchestra, directed by IU jazz legend David Baker, makes its debut on Friday, June 30, at 8 p.m. in the university's Musical Arts Center. "The assemblage of such top-flight jazz talent into one performance group is unprecedented since I've been here," said Baker, "and I've been here since 1949!"

Indiana University Jacobs School of Music alumnus Lawrence Brownlee has been named the 2006 winner of the Richard Tucker Award. The honor, given to just one singer in the United States each year, includes a prize of $30,000. Previous winners include some of the world's most renowned opera stars, including Renée Fleming, Paul Groves, Deborah Voigt, Stephanie Blythe and David Daniels.

Janet Williams, an Indiana University School of Music alumna who has delighted audiences and critics internationally, will receive the IU African American Arts Institute's Herman C. Hudson Alumni Award.

The "Moveable Feast of the Arts" is traveling once again to showcase Indiana University Bloomington's most talented student performers. IU's Broadway Cabaret will perform at the Executive Inn's Crystal Room in Evansville on April 25 at 7:30 p.m. The performance is free and open to the public.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music offers its deepest condolences to the families and friends of the five IU Jacobs School of Music students who lost their lives around midnight on April 20, 2006. A dedicated Web site has been established.

A performance by international violin sensation and Indiana University alumnus Joshua Bell, the world premiere of a composition by acclaimed Scottish composer James MacMillan, the return of the Beaux Arts Trio and the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, and the debut of a new Festival Jazz Orchestra highlight a powerful lineup for Indiana University's 2006 Summer Music Festival. The festival, which features opera, orchestral, band, chamber and solo concerts, will be held from June 18 to Aug. 13 at the IU Jacobs School of Music.

Congratulations to Jacobs School of Music musicologist J. Peter Burkholder, who was recently appointed to the rank of Indiana University Distinguished Professor.

IU Opera and Ballet Theater formally announced its 2006-07 season today (April 8), giving regional music and dance patrons an opportunity to choose from a broad offering of blockbuster favorites, as well as a few works that stray from the well-trodden path. With seven operas and three ballets this season, IU Opera and Ballet Theater continues to lead the nation in the number of collegiate productions it produces.

In its 30-year history, the New York Baroque Dance Company has been embraced by music and dance lovers worldwide and credited with the revival of 18th-century ballet. Its members have taken steps, literally, to ensure that future generations experience this influential style of dance. As part of that effort to reach out to future generations, Turocy and her troupe are now partnering with music and dance students at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. They are engaged in a two-week residency at the school, which will culminate with a performance with the IU Baroque Orchestra under the direction of IU violin professor Stanley Ritchie on April 2 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in downtown Bloomington.

Baroque dance, opera, ballet. In Bloomington, most people would associate these things with the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and they would be correct. However, this time there's a twist. Expanding its ongoing partnership with the community, the Jacobs School of Music is proud to present three world-class events at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in downtown Bloomington in April 2006. All events are free and open to the public!

Indiana University Ballet Theater will salute three patriarchs in the world of dance when it presents its annual Spring Ballet on March 24 and 25 at the Musical Arts Center. The evening of legendary ballets will feature ballets choreographed by Marius Petipa, the father of classical ballet who elevated Russian ballet to international fame; contemporary choreographer and American ballet founder George Balanchine; and August Bournonville, who led the Royal Danish Ballet during the height of the Danish Golden Age. Music for the concert will be performed by the IU University Orchestra, conducted by Ronald Zollman.

With music as the centerpiece of a historic day in the life of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, a "Naming Concert" on Friday (Feb. 24) at 4 p.m. in Auer Hall on the Bloomington campus will mark the official moment at which the venerable institution takes on its new identity.

Indiana University's thriving -- and ever-growing -- arts scene will be in full bloom during ArtsWeek, the annual campus-community arts festival in Bloomington, Ind., now celebrating its 22nd year. ArtsWeek 2006, which will be held from Thursday (Feb. 23) to March 5, will offer audiences a cornucopia of opportunities to experience the best and most exciting creative work on and around campus and the community. The festivities include the world premiere of Ned Rorem's opera Our Town, as well as performances by such touring headliners as the Urban Bush Women and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Eight students from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music will perform on Feb. 14 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., for an audience of aspiring young artists and music connoisseurs. The performance is part of the center's Conservatory Project, a week-long concert series designed to showcase artists from America's leading music schools.

Indiana University's "Moveable Feast of the Arts" will have even more of a celebratory flair next month when it heads north to offer two performances of one of Mozart's best-known choral works.

The 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth will be celebrated by the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music with an international conference on the composer's choral works and several performances, including the Indiana premiere of the Mass in C minor as reconstructed and completed by celebrated pianist and Mozart scholar Robert Levin.

Charles Rosen, who has enjoyed worldwide acclaim as a music theorist and virtuoso pianist, will visit the Indiana University Bloomington campus next week (Jan. 15-20) as a Patten Lecturer. Rosen will deliver a two-part Patten Lecture series on the representation of sentiment in music. He will supplement the lectures with a special performance of the last three Beethoven piano sonatas, Op. 109-111.

American composer Ned Rorem has accomplished what many of his predecessors could only dream of: the transformation of the classic play Our Town into an opera. On Feb. 24 -- almost 68 years to the day that Thornton Wilder's quintessential American drama debuted in Princeton, N.J. -- what legendary composer Aaron Copland and others once imagined will finally become a reality. On that day, Indiana University Opera Theater will present the world premiere of Rorem's Our Town, with libretto by renowned American poet and writer J.D. McClatchy.

Indiana University President Adam W. Herbert announced Thursday (Nov. 17) the naming of the IU School of Music in honor of the late David H. Jacobs and his wife, Barbara, of Cleveland. The school will be known as the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in recognition of Barbara and David Jacobs' long history of leadership and service to Indiana University and to the IU Foundation, as well as their gift of $40.6 million for the school. It is the largest single gift to a school of music at a public university. It is also the largest single gift ever given by individuals to IU.

Adding to a burgeoning list of recent noteworthy faculty appointments, the Indiana University School of Music announced today (Nov. 11) that virtuoso violinist Alexander Kerr will join its faculty ranks, pending approval of the IU Board of Trustees. Kerr comes to IU from the famed Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, where he is concertmaster.

The IU School of Music is pleased to announce that Artist Diploma violinist Frederieke Saeijs, a student of Mauricio Fuks, recently won the Long-Thibaud International Violin Competition in Paris. The prestigious event, with more than 200 competitors, was held October 21-31, 2005.

WTIU Public Television and the Indian University School of Music are proud to announce that Circling Around: The Violin Virtuosi will premiere on public television stations throughout the United States beginning January 2006. The one-hour program, produced by RIAX in association with WTIU, documents the extraordinary life-journey taken by talented and dedicated young violinists from the IU School of Music String Academy (Mimi Zweig, Director.) Click here to buy the DVD!

Carol Vaness, one of the most sought-after opera sopranos in the world, is set to join one of the world's pre-eminent voice programs. Vaness, who performs regularly at major theaters, opera houses and concert halls across the globe and sang opposite Luciano Pavarotti in his celebrated final operatic performance, has been appointed to the Department of Voice faculty at the Indiana University School of Music, pending approval by the IU Board of Trustees.

The Indiana University School of Music's Music Education Department is pleased to host the Committee on Institutional Cooperation's (CIC) 2005 Annual Conference Oct. 19-21 in Bloomington. The conference is titled "Intersections: Music Performance, Research, and Education."

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra comes to Bloomington with a rare performance in the Musical Arts Center on Sunday, Oct. 30, at 3:00 p.m. The concert, featuring world-renowned pianist and School of Music professor Arnaldo Cohen, will be conducted by the ISO's Music Director Mario Venzago.

Reinforcing his international eminence, Menahem Pressler, distinguished professor in the Indiana University School of Music, has been awarded the German President's Deutsche Bundesverdienstkreuz (Cross of Merit) First Class, Germany's highest honor.

The Indiana University Ballet Theater will open its 2005-06 season Oct. 7 and 8 at 8 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center. The performance will feature four striking pieces, highlighting the talents and artistry of the dancers and faculty in one of the country's leading programs. Scheduled are two pas de deux, both significant in the development of contemporary ballet, and two world premieres.

The IU Digital Library Program today (Sept. 20) received a $768,747 National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to extend its groundbreaking digital music library to college teachers and students across the country. The project will create an online learning and research tool, like the highly successful version already in place at IU, that can be easily deployed at a wide range of college and university libraries.

Menahem Pressler, a distinguished professor in the Indiana University School of Music, was presented with the Commandeur in the Order of Arts and Letters award, France's highest cultural honor, by French Counsul General Richard Barbeyron in a special ceremony Saturday evening (Sept. 17).

The Indiana University School of Music will host a benefit concert for the victims of Hurricane Katrina on Sept. 26 at 8 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center. "A Benefit for New Orleans: The Cradle of Jazz" will feature the IU Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Distinguished Professor of Music David Baker along with IU alumna and Grammy Award-winning soprano Sylvia McNair and Distinguished Professor of Music and renowned baritone Timothy Noble. All proceeds raised from the benefit concert will be given to the Red Cross in support of its efforts to assist New Orleans refugees.

The Indiana University Philharmonic Orchestra, the premier orchestral ensemble of the IU School of Music, begins a new tradition this month on the university's South Bend campus with a performance that features violin virtuoso Jaime Laredo. The Sept. 18 concert will serve as a pilot project for IU's Moveable Feast of the Arts initiative, which is designed to showcase the university's cultural resources to IU campuses and communities across the state.

Seven faculty from four IU campuses have received awards from various Fulbright programs, a major source of federal funding, for the 2005-06 academic year.

Through six editions and nearly half a century, A History of Western Music has defined the way music history has been taught. But it's the seventh edition of the book, which was revised and rewritten by Indiana University musicologist Peter Burkholder, that promises to significantly impact the way students listen to, learn and understand Western music.

Indiana University President Adam W. Herbert announced that 19 IU graduate students -- six more than last year -- have received prestigious IIE-Fulbright or Fulbright-Hays grants, both funded through major federal grant programs, for the 2005-06 academic year. Founded in 1946 by the late Sen. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program for U.S. Students aims to increase understanding of American culture and values through scholarly exchanges of knowledge and skills.

Violinist Mark Kaplan, who has played with nearly every major American and European orchestra and performs regularly around the world as both a soloist and a chamber musician, will join the faculty at the Indiana University School of Music. He will be joined on the faculty by renowned concert pianist Yael Weiss, it was also announced today.

Two Indiana University School of Music composition students, Joseph Sheehan and Jeffrey Stanek, have been named winners in the 53rd annual BMI Student Composer Awards competition. No other school or university had more than one winner. Sheehan became the first student composer to win the William Schuman Prize more than once. The honor is given to the composer whose work is judged most outstanding in the competition.

Woodstock. Monterey Pop. The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Live Aid? Indiana University rock 'n' roll historian Glenn Gass looks back at the historic Live Aid charity concert 20 years later and weighs its place among rock's biggest moments.

Fifty years after its debut, the legendary Beaux Arts Trio continues to set the standard for chamber music performance, maintaining its freshness and creativity, and inspiring musicians and audiences worldwide. As part of its 50th anniversary celebration being held this year, the trio, which is led by Indiana University Distinguished Professor of Music Menahem Pressler, will perform three concerts during the IU School of Music's annual Summer Music Festival in Bloomington.

As the leading center for the study of music in the United States, the Indiana University School of Music continues to attract the finest musicians, scholars, and pedagogues in the world, and announces the appointment of mezzo-soprano Marietta Simpson to the Department of Voice, Scott Weiss to the Department of Bands, Ayana Smith to the Department of Musicology, violist Yuval Gotlibovich to the String Department, and Arthur Weisberg to the Woodwind Department.

Grammy-winning violinist and conductor Jaime Laredo has been appointed to the faculty of the Indiana University School of Music, it was announced today (April 29). He is the second faculty member appointed to the school through the university's "Commitment to Excellence" program, which is helping the school add four eminent master teachers. His wife, Sharon Robinson, an accomplished cellist, also will join the faculty.

Angela Brown, the Indiana University School of Music alumna who delighted audiences and critics in her Metropolitan Opera debut last fall, will return to Bloomington on Monday (April 25) to receive the IU African American Arts Institute's inaugural Herman C. Hudson Alumni Award.

Menahem Pressler, a distinguished professor in the Indiana University School of Music, has been named a commander in France's Order of Arts and Letters by French Minister of Culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres. The title is France's highest cultural honor.

Indiana University alumna Kathleen Tran, who in 2002 became the 14th IU student and second woman from IU to be named a Rhodes Scholar, has been named as one of 30 winners of the 2005 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. She will receive up to a $20,000 stipend plus half-tuition for as many as two years of graduate study at any institution of higher learning in the United States.

The School of Music congratulates composer and Professor of Music Don Freund who was recently named a 2005 Guggenheim Fellow.

Four of this year's Guggenheim Fellows are professors at Indiana University Bloomington. The election of IUB biologists Lynda Delph and Jeffrey Palmer, composer Don Freund and historian Michael Grossberg brings IU's total of Guggenheim Fellows to 117.

Congratulations to Professor of Music Lawrence Hurst, chair of the department of strings, and Distinguished Professor of Music Janos Starker on their receipt of distinguished awards from the American String Teachers Association (ASTA).

Jordan Bisch, a 23-year-old student of Distinguished Professor Timothy Noble at the IU School of Music, was one of four grand prize winners in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions on Sunday (March 20). Bisch will receive $15,000. He is the School of Music's 33rd grand winner and fifth grand winner in the last five years.

The Indiana University Ballet Theater will debut a world premiere production of Cinderella on March 25 and 26 at the Musical Arts Center, the largest university performance stage in North America. The performances will feature all-new choreography, sets and costumes to accompany Sergei Prokofiev's score performed by students of the IU School of Music.

Two IU School of Music faculty members - Miriam Fried and Violette Verdy - and one doctoral student - Victoria L. Malawey - are recognized for their outstanding teaching and research at the annual Indiana University Founders Day celebration on March 6 at 1 p.m. in Bloomington's Assembly Hall.

Violette Verdy is one of the premier ballet dancers of the twentieth century and has dedicated her post-performance life to training future generations of dancers. Her remarkable achievements as a dancer, teacher, and administrator in several of the world's foremost dance companies and ballet schools have garnered her international acclaim. Now, she is honored with IU's Distinguished Professor title.