ALAIN BARKER, Director

Office: (812) 856-5719
Email: abarker@indiana.edu
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alainbarker

Alain Barker has an entrepreneurial career that includes arts organization development, arts policy research, communications and marketing, teaching, and performance. He joined the Office of Entrepreneurship and Career Development as its founding director in July 2014.

From 2004-2014, Alain directed Jacobs School of Music marketing and publicity operations. He was executive director of the Bloomington Early Music Festival from 1994-2004. He has also worked as a consultant to the Garth Newel Music Center in Virginia where he served as agent, organizer and publicist for local not-for-profits, concert series, and artists, as well as manager of three international tours.

Alain was co-principal flute in the Orchestra of the Asturian Principality, in Oviedo, Spain, and principal flute in the Marion Philharmonic. He has performed in numerous recitals and music festivals around the U.S. and toured across the United States, Mexico, Colombia, and Israel. He taught for four years as a visiting lecturer in flute during the Jacobs School’s summer semester.

Alain has served on a number of local board and commissions, including the City of Bloomington Arts Commission, the Buskirk-Chumley Theater Board of Directors, WFIU (Public Radio) Community Advisory Board, and the IU Arts & Humanities Council.

He holds a BM from the University of Cape Town, and an MM and DM from the IU Jacobs School of Music.

 

NATHAN FISCHER, Career Advisor

For twenty years, Nathan has built a career that has taken him full swing around the world.  Currently, he is a Career Specialist with the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Office of Entrepreneurship and Career Development.

​Faculty appointments have included Senior Lecturer of Classical Guitar with the University Teknologi MARA in Malaysia, Visiting Assistant Professor and Post Doctoral Fellow at the American University in Cairo, and Visiting Professor at the National Conservatory in Cairo, Egypt.  He also held adjunct positions with the Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia, the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, and SUNY Fredonia in Upstate New York.  He received the UiTM Outstanding Service Award in 2013 for teaching and advancing students.

​As a performer, Nathan has appeared on five continents as both soloist and chamber musician with the Silver Sands Guitar Trio, the Orphika Duo, and other collaborations.  An advocate for commissioning and performing new music he has worked with many composers worldwide.

His research portfolio has included grants from the Howard Hanson Institute of New Music, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard, and a U.S. Fulbright Scholar grant recipient.  He is currently co-researcher for the Bestari Perdana grant entitled The Malaysian Art Song as a Unifying and Empowering Cultural Identity.  AUC/UiTM faculty grants enabled study of the works of Antonio Lauro with Luis Zea in Caracas, Venezuela, and presentations on Tazul Tajuddin in Istanbul, Turkey and on John Duarte at the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts in Perth.  He is an Associate Editor of Soundboard Magazine and co-founder of a new music incubator for composers and musicians called the Twisted Spruce Music Foundation (www.twistedspruce.org).  He has published with the Malaysian Music Journal and Soundset Recordings.

​Nathan holds a DMA and MM from the Eastman School of Music with Nicholas Goluses.  He attended the Accademia di Musicale Chigiani in Siena, Italy, studying with Oscar Ghiglia.  He earned his BM from George Mason University.  Upon graduating from Eastman in 2004 he received the Andrés Segovia Award for Musical Accomplishment and Human Endeavor.

 

JOANIE SPAIN, Career Advisor

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Aislin Carpenter, Communications 
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Aislin Carpenter is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the Jacobs School of Music, where she studies trumpet performance with John Rommel and Baroque trumpet and early music with Dr. Kris Kwapis.

In addition to performing in IU music ensembles, Aislin has received orchestral fellowships at the Music Academy of the West and the Round Top Festival Institute. In 2021 she was named a semifinalist in the National Trumpet Competition. She is also an avid chamber musician. Her long-standing brass quintet, Limestone Brass, was selected as a 2022 fellowship quintet at the Aspen Music Festival and maintains an active performing presence in the Bloomington area.

A passionate arts advocate, Aislin is pursuing additional studies in arts management and ethnomusicology in hopes of broadening the classical music canon and expanding educational accessibility for aspiring musicians. She has held administrative positions in various engagement organizations, including IU’s Classical Connections and the award-winning HHART Student Arts Gala. As a second-year intern on the OECD’s student leadership team, she hopes to use her enthusiasm and expertise to empower the student body at the Jacobs School of Music.

 

Sarah McDonie, Project Manager 
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Sarah Adele Kirkman McDonie is a PhD candidate in musicology with a minor in Media Studies from St. Louis, Missouri. She holds a bachelor’s of music education degree from DePauw University and a Master of Arts in musicology from IU. During her undergrad, Sarah also studied music history and saxophone performance at City University London and the Royal Conservatory of Music. Sarah’s research interests explore cybernetics, the American counterculture, experimental art, and questions of non-human agency. She is currently working on a chapter for a special edited volume that will be published in 2024.

Outside of musicology, Sarah is a freelance editor and, along with her husband, owns a custom music composition business, Opus One, LLC. When she is not doing professional work, Sarah is an avid runner and swimmer, and enjoys scuba diving, cooking and eating delicious food, and going on adventures with her husband, Brian, and Manford, their charismatic (and outrageously adorable) Shetland Sheepdog.