Music schools seeing influx of funds
The numbers alone are staggering:
$90 million
for Northwestern University's new music school building in Evanston;
$120 million
for the recently completed Colburn School conservatory in Los Angeles;
$193 million
for the physical expansion of the Juilliard School in New York.
And that's not all. Tens of millions of dollars more are pouring into other music schools across the country -- in an era when professional symphony orchestras are struggling to survive and jazz clubs are an increasingly endangered species (outside urban centers such as Chicago, New York and New Orleans).
Which raises the question: Why is so much money from foundations, individuals and universities funneling into institutions that train ultra-sophisticated musicians? Performance opportunities for classical and jazz artists -- primary beneficiaries of higher education in music -- would seem limited in a pop culture world.
"What I think is going on is this: There was a period of time where … going to college was about being trained for a profession," says Gwyn Richards, dean of Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, which is spending $44 million on a new building (and instruments). And maybe now we're back to the idea that [you're] going to college really to be educated as a person, and that what you do as an undergraduate doesn't have to be directly tied to what you do professionally."
Read the entire story at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-0420_musicapr20,0,7550841,full.story
Learn more about the IU Jacobs School of Music at: http://www.music.indiana.edu/
