Music is a universal language. Despite differences in styles, cultures, rhythms, etiquette and ideals, the powerful connections music fosters bring people together the world over…and what better example of that transcendence than the melting pot of jazz in the classical music mecca of Vienna! Once home to Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn, Vienna’s musical scene has long since opened up to the soulful melodies of jazz, allowing musicians from all over the world to come together and create a unique blend of genres, rhythms, and cultures.
In today’s interconnected world, international collaboration has become more important than ever, and not just for genre-bending musicians. Cross-cultural education is just one challenge in the crucial journey to prepare students for navigating a diverse world with confidence and respect. It’s a challenge that IU has embraced wholeheartedly. One initiative to ensure every IU graduate is prepared to compete in the international labor market is the Global Classroom Fellowship, which gives instructors the opportunity to add an international dimension to their course by partnering with a partner university abroad. With the support of IU Global leaders, a cohort of their peers, and funding, faculty collaborate with an international colleague to create meaningful collaborative projects with students from around the globe—without leaving their IU campus.
Enter Monika Herzig, accomplished jazz pianist, composer and senior lecturer at IU. Herzig’s passion for music and experience in the industry led her to apply to be a Global Classroom Fellow with the proposal for Music Industry II, a course that gives students a breadth of career options across the musical landscape.
“I had done four overseas courses before,” Herzig explains, thinking back to how she originally envisioned the Global Classrooms class. “I taught one [IU] course – Comparative Music Industry – that I took 3 times to Austria as an overseas experience, where students were immersed in Austrian culture to explore the differences between the industry there and in America. Then, just before the pandemic, in 2019, we went to Berlin and Weimar with the class. I always see how eye-opening it is for the students to do these overseas adventures, and with the last class and grad in 2018 we actually visited the JAM lab.” The challenge for Global Classrooms? How to bring these eye-opening experiences to students who don’t travel to Vienna.
read more to find out how
