In 1989, Maestro Bitetti founded one of the finest guitar programs in the world at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and has run the department ever since.
-Guitar International.com
Many American and international students, while studying at this prestigious department, have won numerous important international prizes. Students who studied at IU Guitar Department came from all over the world: United States, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Brasil, Colombia, Norway, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Italy, Ukraine, Taiwan, South Korea and Australia.
Moreover, graduates from the department have gone on to secure a variety of careers in music, including important teaching positions and performance careers around the US and abroad.
Each student, from undergraduate to master’s level to doctoral degree to artist diploma, receives personal attention with a minimum one-hour individual lesson weekly and participation in a weekly performance/master class. The department is committed to nurturing each student, helping the student to grow and learn in a healthy atmosphere. In addition to lessons and master classes, the department offers chamber music coaching, repertoire class, pedagogy class, and transcription class.
Our elective guitar program, through various classes and individual lessons taught by our Associate Instructors (graduate students with a full scholarship), attracts an amazing number of students each semester (300-400) .
Overall, with over 1,000 classical music performances a year, and only 11 students for every faculty member, the Jacobs School of Music has one of the most favorable student-to-faculty ratios available at a major conservatory of music. There are more than 180 faculty at Indiana who have as their primary responsibility the instruction and training of students. The average performance studio size is just 18. Performance majors are not assigned to graduate students.