We are reimagining the relationship between universities and rural communities.
2019-2020 marks the third year of partnership between the Center for Rural Engagement and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Through activities in scholarship, pedagogy and performance, the Jacobs School of Music has worked to empower both rural communities throughout the state of Indiana and IU faculty and students through sustainable outreach initiatives. The 2019-2020 academic year planned more than 20 arts-focused projects that involved over 250 Indiana University students. We are proud to share these efforts and to demonstrate how meaningful community engagement has reframed our approach to creative work within the Jacobs School of Music.
We sparked creativity and imagination through sustained outreach programs.
The Ballet Project: Nashville, Salem
The Ballet Outreach Project spent six weekends working within the communities of Salem and Nashville, Indiana. With support from the YMCA of both Washington and Brown County, the Ballet Outreach Project offered classes in creative movement, beginner ballet and chair movement at each location. Ballet and creative movement classes targeted younger age groups, many who had limited prior exposure to ballet, while the chair movement classes welcomed older participants and those with movement restrictions. Classes were led by IU Ballet faculty Sarah Wroth and Carla Körbes, with teaching assistance from students in the IU Ballet Program. In both Salem and Nashville, the project culminated in informative performances featuring a larger group of IU dancers at Salem Middle School and Brown County High School.
“Working with IU has been a great pleasure for our community. Through this partnership, we have been able to provide a service that was welcomed with open arms into our community. We have heard nothing but good things, and the want to bring this ballet workshop back to Washington County. The communication, marketing and entire process was easy and well planned. Thank you for working with us and helping us to better Washington County.”
-Chelsey Miller, YMCA Youth First Director
“Being a part of this outreach was an extremely memorable experience for me. It was amazing to be able to spread my love of ballet and empower through movement. The kids were great to work with; they were engaged and excited to learn which made my job easy. Seeing their progress in 3 short weeks was incredible and I hope that I touched their lives as much as they touched mine!“
-Daisy Ye, IU Ballet Student & Project Teaching Assistant
Hamiltunes: Nashville, Salem, Huntingburg, Bloomington
“I can’t agree more with the message of this musical”
– John Hamilton, Bloomington Mayor
The Singing Hoosiers, a Grammy-nominated student show choir at IU, united performers from all parts of campus for a dynamic project called Hamiltunes. Maximizing the cult-like following of Broadway Rap Musical Hamilton, these performers presented a Hamilton sing-along concert that traveled through Salem, Nashville, Huntingburg and Bloomington, Indiana.
IU performers incorporated local high school students into the rap-focused musical performances at each location, crafting unique relationships through the tongue-twisting fun. The musical Hamilton spreads messages of diversity, ambition and perseverance, and the performers highlighted these themes with contextual explanations between songs. The final performance in Bloomington was met with a sold-out audience at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, and even featured the conveniently named Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton.
Classical Connections: Nashville
Student organization Classical Connections worked regularly with Brown County High School band students through mentoring clinics and all-day musical events. Four clinics connected small groups of Jacobs musicians with high school students in one-on-one coaching sessions and group sectional rehearsals. Classical Connections students participated in these clinics continuously, which allowed the high school band members to connect with the same mentors more than once and form valuable relationships. Several all-day events additionally offered larger masterclasses, panel discussions, performances and side-by-side rehearsals between the mentors and high schoolers.
“Everyone was absolutely thrilled to work with the IU students. My students only have positive things to say.”
– Matthew Finley, Brown County HS Band Director
We crafted meaningful relationships through collaborative performances.
Sileo Quartet: Nashville
The Sileo Quartet worked with composer Katherine Bodor to bring an innovative concert to the Brown County Playhouse. These musicians, all Jacobs School of Music students, collaborated with local Nashville storyteller Michael “Ash” Ashburn to fuse their classical expertise with the culture of Brown County. Katherine Bodor composed original music to accompany Ash’s immersive tales, and the Sileo Quartet performed these compositions while Ash performed his spoken original, “The Whittlin’ Man”.
In addition to this collaboration, the Sileo Quartet performed works from their classical repertoire and spoke about the lives and intentions of the composers. The concert was preceded by a warm reception hosted by the Brown County Art Guild, which connected Nashville and Bloomington community members around showcases of local artwork.
Choir Collaboration: Huntingburg
Led by much-loved director Chris Albanese, fifty members of the Singing Hoosiers ensemble traveled to Huntingburg to rehearse and perform with the Southridge High School Choir. The Singing Hoosier students provided insight about musical opportunities available in college, sharing their favorite performance experiences and discussing other performing ensembles at Indiana University. The two choirs then worked together in a professionally paced rehearsal to create a joint performance for the public. The Huntingburg community showed tremendous support, filling the high school auditorium with an audience of approximately 200 for the collaborative show.
“The students loved it. They really loved interacting with the other IU students. I think getting to talk with them and understand that they aren’t that different in age and ability was huge. The performance was of course fantastic!”
– Erich Kendall, Director of Southridge High School Choir
We built foundations of musical excellence among young students.
Volante Winds: Batesville, Oldenburg
Volante Winds is a quintet comprised of Jacobs School of Music doctoral candidates, all united in their passion for chamber music and innovative pedagogy. Volante Winds traveled to Batesville and Oldenburg, Indiana to engage with high school students through performances and masterclasses.
The quintet worked closely with band students at Batesville High School and Oldenburg Academy, providing miniature private lessons, coaching solo excerpts, and breaking apart elements of their own performance in critical back-and-forth discussions. Volante Winds shared their vision of making excellence in chamber music accessible for all types of audiences, and additionally gave students guidance about studying music at the collegiate level.
“It was the first time any of them had seen a wind quintet, and for some, even chamber music. We mentioned that chamber music is, in essence, the classical musicians’ equivalent of forming a rock band in someone’s garage. Just the fact that they now know such a thing exists is so important.”
– Wai Ki Wun, Volante Winds
IU Band Outreach: Nashville, Salem, Huntingburg
The IU Band Outreach Project brought two of the largest and most notable ensembles from the Jacobs School of Music, the IU Concert Band and the IU Symphonic Band, to local high schools in Nashville, Salem and Huntingburg. Most Jacobs students involved in this project were not too far in age from the high school students themselves, which made for relaxed and highly collaborative masterclass sessions.
High school musicians connected with collegiate ones who played the same instrument as them, and were additionally challenged in rehearsals by faculty band directors Eric Smedley and Jason Nam. These visits all finished with top-notch performances by the IU bands, made more impactful by the newly crafted student relationships.
“You gave them new dreams to dream.”
– Bonnie Harmon, Band Director, Salem Community Schools
Soma Saxophone Quartet: Bedford
The Soma Saxophone Quartet is breaking new ground by building connections in Bedford, Indiana. The four saxophone students networked with music teachers at Bedford Middle School to develop interactive curriculum exposing students to entertaining quartet repertoire. In their first clinic, the Soma Quartet performed for forty middle school students, sharing insight from their work as saxophonists and making their lessons applicable for students with varying interests. They held focused workshops with smaller groups of music-interested students after the larger performance. Following the success of this first visit, the Soma Saxophone Quartet is working with the Bedford community to establish a sustained relationship and schedule additional visits.
Julia Bentley: Nashville
Julia Bentley, an associate professor of voice at Jacobs, performed a holiday concert with her students at the Brown County Public Library. While community members gathered to enjoy hot chocolate and cookies, Julia and her students sang a special 100th birthday tribute to the library. The concert concluded with an exceptional close-harmony arrangement created specifically for the community celebration.
We increased arts appreciation through education and performance.
Reimagining Opera for Kids: Nashville, Bedford, Bloomfield, Ellettsville
Reimagining Opera for Kids (ROK) is a non-profit organization that introduces children to opera through engaging firsthand experiences. In addition to roughly 40 performances state-wide, ROK presented seven programs in elementary and middle schools connected with the Center for Rural Engagement.
Their program “Mooch the Magnificent”, set in a futuristic zoo of animal robots, was shared with elementary schools while “The Telephone” detailed a comical romantic relationship for middle school audiences. Both of these titles are short, original operas performed in English for younger audiences. ROK accompanied these performances with classroom activities like classical music jeopardy, listening-based guessing games and music vocabulary word searches.
Pacifica Quartet: Salem
The Pacifica Quartet is a world-renowned group comprised of Jacobs School of Music faculty members. They have served as the Quartet-in-Residence at Indiana University since 2012, and perform regularly at notable venues like Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In September, the Quartet performed to a highly receptive audience in Salem, Indiana at Salem Middle School.
They celebrated the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth with an inspiring performance of the Beethoven Quartets. A reception beforehand brought together music teachers, students and community members in Salem along with the Pacifica Quartet and other Jacobs School of Music contacts.
Lauren Richerme: Huntingburg
Lauren Richerme is an associate professor of music education at the Jacobs School of Music teaching courses on music education foundations, philosophy, and sociology. Her course titled “Sociology of Music” (MUS-E517) focuses on the topic of rural community engagement. With support from the Center for Rural Engagement, Lauren shaped her class curriculum specifically around the town of Huntingburg, Indiana. We worked in partnership with Lauren to help her class establish contacts in Huntingburg, conduct meaningful interviews with local residents, and draw conclusions about the relationship between sociology and music in rural communities.
“Grounding the graduate Sociology of Music course (E517) in the question “How might Jacobs collaborate with Huntingburg?” made the course readings and discussions meaningful and engaging. The students demonstrated genuine dedication to the question and process, often going above and beyond course requirements to find additional information online and to offer suggestions (e.g., coming up with a class mission statement). In particular, I have been impressed with how they keep considering their role as outsiders, including struggling with the tension of providing resources from Jacobs while still valuing the rich musical lives that community members already possess. I hope to repeat and expand this project when I teach the class again in two years, and I might explore similar work with other courses.”
-Lauren Richerme
What’s Up Next…
With IU’s unexpected transfer from in-person to online education this spring, our projects for late March, April and May of 2020 were all postponed. These exciting projects are summarized below and will serve as the foundation of our future efforts.
Electronic Music: Oldenburg
Jacobs faculty Chi Wang and John Gibson from the Center for Electronic & Computer Music worked with Kris Wampler, a faculty member from Oldenburg Academy, to organize an immersive visit to the electronic music program. High school students will have the chance to explore the Jacobs School of Music, tour electronic music facilities, participate in workshops and watch student performances.
Kids Compose: Nashville, Salem, Huntingburg
Started in Bloomington in 2006 by Debbi Ponella and Ruth Boshkoff, and with the assistance of the Jacobs School of Music Composition Department, Kids Compose aims to foster children’s natural talent for composing melodies. Debbi Ponella has worked to create tailored composition programs for young students in Salem, Huntingburg and Nashville that will culminate in student collaborations with local artists.
Violin Virtuosi: Paoli
The Jacobs Violin Virtuosi, led by faculty member Mimi Zweig, is a String Academy open to children 5-18 who wish to study violin or cello through a professionally crafted curriculum. In coordination with Jacobs alumna Jordana Greenburg, Violin Virtuosi planned several in-school clinics in Paoli, Indiana followed by a larger music festival performance.
Bloomington Early Music Festival
In a considerable and exciting collaboration, alumnae Monika Herzig and Janice Jaffe, David Brent Johnson, the alumni-filled B-town Bearcats, and storyteller Tom Rosnowski prepared jazz-focused concerts as extensions of the Bloomington Early Music Festival. Focusing on the emergence of jazz in the 1920s, community performances and school engagements will tour through Bloomington, Salem, Nashville, with original plans to finish at the CRE conference in French Lick, Indiana.
Jazz Education Network: Bloomfield, Edgewood
Jacobs students in the Jazz Education Network student organization arranged visits to Greene County High School in Bloomfield, Indiana and Edgewood High School in Edgewood, Indiana. Through 3 visits to each school, these students will offer mentoring clinics, side-by-side rehearsals and performances focused on jazz and improvisation.
Classical Connections: Nashville
Classical Connections organized a celebratory event to culminate a year full of mentoring clinics at Brown County High School. This event will bring Brown County High School students to Bloomington to tour the Jacobs School of Music, observe and participate in classes, and witness an on-campus performance.
Singing Hoosiers: Nashville
The Singing Hoosiers will replicate their collaboration in Huntingburg with the community of Nashville, working with Brown County High School students to bring an exciting performance and reception at the Brown County Playhouse.
Organ Project: Huntingburg
The Huntingburg United Church of Christ houses a beautiful Casavant organ. Jacobs faculty Janette Fishell has worked with the church’s music director, Jeremy Woodward, to organize an organ demonstration and performance. Jacob’s organ curator, Patrick Fisher, will introduce and explain the organ’s features to audience members, followed by informative performances by several organ students.
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