Multimedia
An Impact Impossible to Quantify
Radio Commentary of
President Michael A. McRobbie
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN
June 27, 2008
Introduction
IU’s economic development and outreach activities have received considerable attention recently. These activities include undertakings such as the new Indiana Innovation Alliance with Purdue and the clinical services of the IU School of Medicine. They also include technology transfer across the university and the Kelley School’s widely acclaimed work in entrepreneurship. Less well known is the remarkable statewide impact of our arts and humanities programs.
One of the most visible of these is the IU Jacobs School of Music, which is among the finest in the world. The school offers more than 1,100 public performances each year. These include some 50 Moveable Feast performances and concerts by the Singing Hoosiers in towns across Indiana. The school enrolls 1,600 students from every state in the union and approximately 55 other countries.
These students are taught by the single greatest gathering of music faculty anywhere. The Jacobs School recently did an economic impact study to quantify its contributions to the state. The findings are impressive. Let me share a few of them with you.
The Economic Impact of the Musical Arts at IU
The school supports more than 900 jobs and has a total economic impact on the State of Indiana that amounts to $120 million annually. More than 400 of the school’s alumni work as music educators statewide. Jacobs School alumni comprise anywhere from 29% to 48% of the state’s major philharmonic and symphonic orchestras.
The school continues to offer professional development programs to Indiana’s music teachers. It also provides lessons for several thousand students annually. Some of these are offered through a program that gives free instruments and instruction to low-income students in southern Indiana.
Our pre-college program serves students who range from toddlers to 18 year-olds. These programs develop musicians of the future. Moreover, the school has developed the most active collegiate summer music program in the U.S., with approximately 30 events, including a world-class chamber music series, an opera, and three performances by the world-renowned Festival Orchestra. My wife and I attend as many of these superb performances as possible. We always leave uplifted and enriched.
International Reach
While its direct service to the state is significant, the influence of IU Jacobs School reaches well beyond the borders of Indiana. As a training center for musicians, singers, dancers, composers, and music educators, the Jacobs School is one of the world’s most prolific exporters of cultural activity.
As a magnet for international students, scholars, and professional musicians of the highest order, the school represents a Hoosier identity that is cosmopolitan, sophisticated, and culturally current. Jacobs School alumni can be found in just about every major orchestra, choral ensemble, and opera house around the world. They can be found in international conservatories and colleges as teachers, scholars, and administrative directors. As each of these individuals develops their careers, the reach of IU and the spirit of Indiana extend across the globe and far into the future.
Conclusion
But, of course, the school’s impact is not merely economic or cultural. It also is individual. Plato put it well when he said that “music gives soul to the universe, wings to the world, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything.” That is an impact impossible to quantify.
