harles H. Webb, dean emeritus of , says there is no mystery as to how Jacobs became the world’s largest school of music and one of the best. “The single most important factor is the quality of the faculty,” Webb says. “If you are an outstanding student, the foremost question (l-r) Susann McDonald, Violette in your mind is who will I study with? Who will be my mentor?” Verdy, , It’s been well documented that vaunted IU President and Chan- , and Stanley Ritchie. cellor Herman B Wells wanted to see the university develop a world-class school of music. During his presidency (1938–1962), The MASTERS Metropolitan Opera helped set the stage by traveling from its home of the in to the small Midwestern outpost of Bloomington, music school performing two operas annually for nearly two decades. Webb and the current dean, Gwyn Richards, agree that the ap- pointment of Wilfred C. Bain as dean in 1947 set the music school on its path to greatness. “When he became dean, no school in the country gave a doctorate in performance,” says Webb. “He argued that people in performance needed to be able to complete their education as high as people who were seeking a Ph.D. in other fields. So a doctorate in performance became a reality.” The ability for a student to gain conservatory-quality training and take academic classes at a Research 1 university also enhanced the allure of IU. “Bain sought faculty who knew what it was to be successful on the world’s best stages. But a good performer doesn’t guarantee a good teacher. When you get that combination of someone who can teach, and knows what it takes to be successful, that combination is unbeat- able,” Webb says. “Sometimes, it’s as much about that person’s timetable as ours,” Richards says. “We have the oldest average age of faculty members in the university, because a good number of them have come to us after a performance life. But we’ve always told them, you can still do both.” The list of musicians who have come to IU from the most pres- tigious symphonies, opera companies, and ensembles in the world is lengthy, and Webb and Richards throw out their names as easily as one lists family members — Josef Gingold, Margaret Harshaw, János Starker, James J. Pellerite, Thomas Beversdorf, Virginia Zeani, György Sebök, Franco Gulli, Charles Gorham, Philip Farkas, Harvey Phillips. “It’s all pretty much merit driven, which is one of the reasons why music is such an inclusive field,” Richards says. “One of the things we can be fairly proud of is that we did a lot ahead of the general society.” With counsel from the Jacobs School of Music, Bloom chose five renowned senior faculty members to profile — pianist Menahem Pressler, ballerina Violette Verdy, violinist Stanley Ritchie, harpist Susann McDonald, and jazz musician David Baker. “These people are path breakers. They’ve done it first and they’ve done it best, and they’ve brought what they do to its highest level,” Five of the celebrated artists who helped make the By Mike Leonard Jacobs School of Music Richards says. “Each has been at the forefront in some seminal way.  By Shannon Zahnle America’s best and brought great esteem to Indiana University Changed the field. Changed the profession. Changed the audience. We are so fortunate to have them here, working with our students.” The most senior is Menahem Pressler, 92, who arrived in Bloom- ington in 1955, the same year he co-founded the legendary . “Menahem is the perfect example of what we call the three- legged stool: scholarship, performance, and pedagogy,” notes Rich- ards. “As Menahem has always said, ‘My teaching informs my playing and my playing informs my teaching.’”

102 Bloom | February/March 2016 | magbloom.com magbloom.com | February/March 2016 | Bloom 103 “A national (top, l-r) Menahem Pressler in his studio; the perfectionist; Pressler still treasure.” practices for hours every day. (left, top) Pressler as a young recording artist for MGM. (left, bottom) The Beaux Arts Trio’s final Bloomington performance, June 28, 2008. Photos courtesy IU Jacobs School of Music

Debussy music, he won first prize. “I really didn’t go to win,” he says. “I only went to find out, how good am I?” He soon found out. His victory led to a career as a successful solo pianist, including his American debut with The at Carnegie Hall, and as a recording artist with MGM Records. In 1955, Pressler co-founded a trio with two illustrious peers: violinist and cellist . At Guilet’s insistence, the group was named the Beaux Arts Trio, honoring its French influence. “Our debut in 1955 was at Tanglewood (then the Berkshire Music Festival) and our success was immedi- Menahem ate. The critics couldn’t say enough, especially about me,” Pressler says. “We succeeded and it seemed like everything we touched turned to gold.” Pressler That same year, Pressler joined the piano faculty at IU, and to this day he continues to take on private Pianist students, teach master classes, and perform throughout the world. Other cellists and violinists replaced the original Beaux Arts musicians over time, but Pressler remained throughout the trio’s 53-year history, which ended in August 2008. The group never lost its luster, and in 2005 The Washington Post reported: “Since its found- was a wintry Christmas Eve, said was, ‘I have to practice.’ I said, ‘Well, emotionally irrepressible — is from another ing 50 years ago, the Beaux Arts Trio has become the about a decade ago, recalls let’s get your car out of the ditch first,’ and he age and is a virtually forgotten sensibility. He gold standard for trios throughout the world.” Charles Webb, dean emeri- said, ‘Forget the car,’ he had to practice. I said, is a national treasure,” a reviewer lauded in Pressler ascribes the group’s success, and his own, tus of Indiana University ‘Well, I have three pianos in the house,’ and the Los Angeles Times. to a singular philosophy: “There is always more to be Jacobs School of Music. Menahem Pressler, I don’t think it was even five minutes later A native of Magdeburg, Germany, Pressler found. That was my motto. It actually was the group’s although Jewish, had nonetheless stopped by that I heard him start playing,” Webb recalls. was 14 during Kristallnacht (November motto. We always felt we can do better, and we should the Webb home to drop off a gift. He said his “I think that single-mindedness of purpose 9–10, 1938), when nationalist fanatics do better.” goodbyes and went off on his way. is one thing that separates the good from the attacked Jewish homes, synagogues, and He says there’s probably no better proof of the trio’s Maybe 10 minutes later, Webb received a great.” shops, including the Pressler family’s cloth- when two talented musicians, a violinist and a cellist (the son of future constant development and never-ending quest for phone call. It was Pressler, on his cell phone, As a distinguished professor of music, ing store. In 1939, his immediate family fled Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir), showed up outside his family’s apart- excellence than the 2015 decision by Decca Records to explaining that he had driven off Webb’s Pressler, 92, has mentored a family tree of their homeland, first to Italy, then to Israel. ment and asked if he’d like to join them in a trio. He was 16, and Pressler release the group’s entire recorded catalogue in an enor- driveway and was stuck in the yard. “I said, students who have gone on to prominent His grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins says the young men uttered the magic words: They’d get paid to play. But mous 60 CD boxed set. “That’s 120 records,” he says ‘Well, come back into the house,’ and he said positions in performance and pedagogy were all subsequently murdered in concen- what to play? They would start with Schubert. Pressler was sold. with a tone of amazement. “You ask me what makes he couldn’t; he was next to a hill and couldn’t throughout the world. His own eminence tration camps. In 1946, still living in Israel, Pressler read about the Debussy me proud. That made me proud. Of course, many, many get out of his car.” as a performer is without peer. “Menahem Pressler was already a promising young International Piano Competition in San Francisco. With the help of a beautiful things happened to us. And now to have this Webb went outside and helped an agitated Pressler’s joyous pianism — technically pianist when he left Germany, and received benefactor, he traveled to the . He says he suspected that great joy of bringing out 120 records, 60 CDs? That’s Pressler exit his vehicle. “The first thing he faultless, stylistically impeccable, further confirmation of his ability, he says, music would be his lifelong pursuit when, with relatively little practice of something.”

104 Bloom | February/March 2016 | magbloom.com magbloom.com | February/March 2016 | Bloom 105 “I lived in a world of fairy tale.” violette

verdy dynamic, streamlined tech- Verdy’s hazel eyes dance nique,” dance writer Marina when she talks about her career. Harss wrote last year in The Na- “I lived in a world of fairy tale. tion. “With the exception of her I was in a fairy tale myself,” she fearlessness, [the petite] Verdy says. did not embody this type at all. Patricia McBride, a former ‘I was more of a French poodle New York City Ballet dancer than a borzoi [large, long-haired and IU faculty member, has dog]’, she likes to say.” said, “Everybody needs to be in a Verdy says she and Bal- room with Violette Verdy. She is anchine shared a deep love like sunshine.” and understanding of music. Among her many honors, Balanchine and composer Igor in 2009 Verdy was awarded Stravinsky were friends and the title Chevalier (Knight) in mutual admirers, she says, and ’s National Order of the “Everybody needs to be in a room with Violette Verdy. She is like sunshine,” says Balanchine and Verdy worked Legion of Honor, her native Patricia McBride, a former New York City Ballet dancer and IU faculty member. with a deeply held belief that land’s highest decoration. Photo courtesy IU Jacobs School of Music dance, at its finest, could be a vi- sual manifestation of the rhythm allerina and teacher Indiana University Jacobs School brains are missing something. That’s and mood of a composition. Violette Verdy will for- of Music. why for those of us in ballet and Verdy says she tries to teach ever be associated with From 1958 to 1977, Verdy was music, it feels so right. We complete this to her young dancers at IU George Balanchine, of the principal dancer for the New the picture.” and at workshops around the which she is very proud. York City Ballet, which Balanchine Verdy was born Nelly Guillerm world. She is known as a nurtur- The New York Times called co-founded. He served as its artistic on December 1, 1933, in Pont- ing teacher who can articulate Balanchine “one of the greatest director and, as The New York Times l’Abbé, a Breton village in northwest mood and technique in ways choreographers in the history of described, established it as “one of France. Her father, a shopkeeper, War II to German-occupied She’d acquired the stage that both educate and amuse her ballet” upon his death in 1983, and the foremost artistic enterprises the died when she was just four months . There, she says, she was name of Violette Verdy by the students. At the same time, she Verdy says he was every bit as great United States has called its own.” old, and her mother, a schoolteacher, lucky to study under Carlotta time the American Ballet The- embraces the advice that New a teacher as he was a choreographer. Verdy, 82, served as director of the enrolled her daughter in dance les- Zambelli, a ballerina from Milan atre invited her to come to New York City Ballet co-founder Lin- “He was an educator to the hilt, and Paris Opera Ballet and Boston Ballet sons only because neither piano nor who danced with La Scala and York in 1957, and was admittedly coln Kirstein once gave her. “He that was something I so loved about before coming to teach at IU in 1996, violin proved to be vigorous enough the Paris Opera, and then Ma- stunned when the great Russian said the perfect ballet school is him,” she says. where she now holds the title of to harness young Nelly’s boundless dame Rousanne Sarkissian, an choreographer Balanchine asked a cross between a seminary and And Verdy? “She was the muse distinguished professor. energy and enthusiasm. Armenian teacher with Russian her to join his New York City West Point,” she recalls. “The Verdy in a lighter moment with her men- for Balanchine. The one who “For me to be here, like this, is the Her talent almost immediately training. Nelly was still in her Ballet. discipline required is obvious. tor, the great choreographer George Balanchine, and dancer Edward Villella. sparked his creative imagination, crowning achievement,” she says. signaled that she needed better early teens when she started “Balanchine was known for But taken at best and understood Photo courtesy IU Jacobs School of Music to see her ability and translate it “To be accepted at this particular training than she could receive in touring with Roland Petit’s Bal- his love of tall, leggy, and fearless properly, ballet is also a spiritual into an expression. She’s right at the university. Because universities Brittany, and her mother, despite lets des Champs-Elysées and his American dancers whom he had pursuit.” nexus of Balanchine to the audi- have tons of great brains. But if the strong family opposition, shep- Ballets de Paris. trained in his own, more ence,” says Gwyn Richards, dean of heart is not taken care of, the great herded 9-year-old Nelly amid World

106 Bloom | February/March 2016 | magbloom.com magbloom.com | February/March 2016 | Bloom 107 But with symphonies and major ensembles still averse to hiring black musicians, Baker immersed himself in the surprisingly fertile Indianapolis jazz scene. A trombonist at the time, he played with all of the Indianapolis heavyweights and toured with Lionel Hamp- ton, Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, George Russell, and Quincy Jones. In 1962, Baker and his hometown colleague, Slide Hamp- David ton, shared Down Beat Magazine’s New Star Award for trombone. Shortly afterwards, the ramifications Baker from jaw injuries suffered in a car wreck nearly a decade before manifested them- Jazzman selves to the point that doctors told him he Extraordinaire could never play a wind instrument again. He ultimately switched to cello and returned to IU to get his doctorate. And then, the pedagogy really kicked in. ida Baker rises in her seat and “I think David really codified jazz studies responds as though it’s a quiz show in a way no one thought was possible,” says question when her husband, David, Gwyn Richards, dean of IU Jacobs School is asked to name something from of Music. “We’ve had faculty members take his career that makes him genuinely proud. his improvisation class and walk away not “His students and how successful they’ve be- knowing what to say. He can take people out come,” she says. “You can’t be around this guy of their comfort zone and make them like I have and not know how much pride he understand music in a different way.” takes in what his students have done and how It’s also a point of pride for Baker to note (top to bottom) Baker in high school at he keeps up with what they are doing.” that the Jazz Studies Department at IU is Crispus Attucks; with They’re everywhere, playing in nightclubs known as the place where you can learn the his old pal Quincy and concert halls and teaching in conserva- ABCs of jazz. The acronym stands for Jamey Jones; and in his Indiana Avenue days tories. The names include versatile jazz and Aebersold, a Baker student whose books and with guitar great Wes rock trumpeter Randy Brecker and Grammy- jazz camps have influenced thousands of Montgomery. Photos winning artists such as bassist/composer players; Baker; and Jerry Coker, who acceler- courtesy IU Jacobs School of Music John Clayton and star contemporary jazz ated IU’s fledgling jazz program and handed it trumpeter Chris Botti. Shawn Pelton, a off to Baker in 1966. top-tier New York session man and house Baker has performed on more than drummer for Saturday Night Live for more 65 recordings; written 70 books and 400 than two decades, says, “I feel like I wouldn’t articles; and composed more than 2,000 have a career if it weren’t for the things David musical works, including jazz, symphonic, passed on to me. A day doesn’t go by where I and chamber pieces. Compositions include don’t draw on something.” pieces commissioned by the likes of Josef years — promising more financial rewards, Baker can’t pinpoint when he knew where Gingold, János Starker, and the New York more artistic freedom, more public visibility his career path was headed, but it started Philharmonic. He founded, conducted, and — but he always chose his teaching and his with gaining the approval of Russell Brown, served as artistic director for the Smithson- students as his principal calling,” Jones the exacting music teacher at Crispus At- ian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, received writes. “The choice to dedicate one’s tucks, the historically black high school in his the American Jazz Masters Award from the life to helping others achieve their native Indianapolis. Under his senior photo- National Endowment for the Arts, and was aspirations is a mark of a truly graph in the 1949 school yearbook, Baker lists named a Living Jazz Legend by the John F. selfless and kind person.” his career ambition as music teacher. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. A straight-A student in high school, Baker In the foreword of Monika Herzig’s 2011 came to Indiana University in 1950, a time biography, David Baker: A Legacy in Music when black students still faced segregation in (IU Press), Quincy Jones pays homage to housing and at many commercial establish- his friend of more than 50 years, compar- ments. “I had every intention of being a clas- ing Baker’s career to his own widely known sical musician,” he says. He earned bachelor’s accomplishments in the recording and music “A truly selfless and and master’s degrees and demonstrated a production business. “I’m sure there have prodigious talent for composition as well. been many similar temptations over the kind person.” 108 Bloom | February/March 2016 | magbloom.com has six orchestras (like IU). The opportunities that gives to a harp program are immeasurable.” “Beyond a Just as IU Jacobs School of Music, with more than 1,600 students, is one of the world’s calling.” largest, McDonald built her harp program into the world’s largest and most acclaimed, with 25 students currently majoring in harp performance. Most schools have only two or three. McDonald says serving as the artistic director of the World Harp Congress, from its incep- tion in 1981 until 2011, probably ranks as the one accomplish- ment of which she’s most proud. “I know the harp world is small, but they (participating harpists) all became good friends and I

(above) A publicity photo, circa promoted their careers,” she 1957. (below) 1970 University of says. “I always felt that help- Southern California Harp for virtually all of the world’s ing people was part of why I Ensemble. Photos courtesy IU Jacobs School of Music important harp competitions. was here. That’s anathema for Talk to McDonald about her most people. They don’t want to career and she invariably em- promote the competition. That’s phasizes teaching and mentoring what I live for, to see my students young harpists. “I always loved and my fellow harpists succeed.” teaching,” she says. “I started In 1989, McDonald created Susann teaching when I was in junior the USA International Harp high school. By the time I gradu- Competition, staged every three ated from high school, I had six years in Bloomington. It is the or seven harpists in the Tri Cit- only international harp competi- McDonald ies (now called the Quad Cities) tion held in the United States. studying with me.” “I get such a lift from my stu- Harpist McDonald was splitting time dents,” she says. “I can be feeling between teaching at The Juil- tired or down, and I go to school liard School in New York City and I totally forget what I’m doing and USC in Los Angeles when and get so wrapped up in my stu- Dean Charles Webb of IU School dents’ playing and helping them of Music came calling in 1981, plan their careers. It’s beyond a usann McDonald says she was point that I felt I’d truly arrived and this was earned her accolades, including being named offering a full-time position. calling, in a way. I have students “probably about 40” when she probably what I was meant to do.” “one of the greatest living harpists” by the McDonald remembers, “I asked, all over the globe, literally, in the felt comfortable with the notion Those are surprising words from the Swiss magazine Harpa. ‘Is it all right to keep teaching most prominent positions in that she was successful and woman who, while still in her teens, left Rock McDonald started a publishing company, at Juilliard?’ and he said, ‘Okay, their countries. And when they would spend the rest of her life Island, Illinois, to study in Paris under the MusicWorks-Harp Editions, and, with fellow but you won’t want to continue leave me, it’s not like we don’t see in music. fabled harpist and teacher Henriette Renie. harpist Linda Wood Rollo, created teach- very long.’ He was right. I went each other anymore.” “Columbia Artists had just wooed me and In 1955, at age 20, McDonald became the ing methods and arrangements that now to Juilliard in ’75, came here in signed me for concert management,” she first American to receive the Premier Prix are standard instructional materials used ’81, and resigned from Juilliard recalls. “I was also teaching at the University de Harpe from the Paris Conservatory. And around the world. “Harpists previously used in ’85.” of Southern California (USC) and concert- just a year later, she was invited to perform piano compositions, and keyboard writing “I can’t say I knew that would izing when the president of Juilliard called — solo — for an audience of 60,000 at the doesn’t use the whole range of the harp,” Mc- happen, but I kind of did,” Webb and said I was the right person to take over Chicagoland Music Festival at Soldier Field. Donald says. “We created pieces to show off says. “No school in the country the harp program there. It was only at that McDonald’s mastery of her instrument has that whole range.” She’s also served on juries

110 Bloom | February/March 2016 | magbloom.com magbloom.com | February/March 2016 | Bloom 111 What expressed a desire to have one. was old “My parents decided, ‘Well, it’s cheaper than a piano,’” he became new recalls. The boy’s first violin lessons were delivered by the again. only violinist in the region, a nun in a convent. “I didn’t have many peers, as it were,” he says. “It was kind of a sissy thing to do in the eyes of a rural society. Oh, I was picked on,” he recalls with a chuckle. “I was an only child. I had red Stanley hair. I played the violin. And my name was Stanley.” And while he took his play- Ritchie ing very seriously, he admits, “I’ve got to say right now I early Music never had a burning ambition. I never thought I’d be the next Violinist (Yascha) Heifetz or anything. I just followed my nose and one thing led to another.” In 1974, Ritchie teamed up with harpsichordist Elisabeth ndiana University Ja- techniques and tonal qualities of Ritchie expounds on that Wright to form Duo Gemin- cobs School of Music the instruments used at the time history in his 2012 book, Before iani, and the two immediately Dean Gwyn Richards (1600–1760). the Chinrest (IU Press), which became prominent in the rising says, “People think of With Ritchie, what was old examines in detail how chinrests early music field. Less than us as a static, anachro- became new. He’s hailed as a and shoulder rests stabilized the a decade later, Ritchie and nistic institution and pioneer of the modern early violin, as well as the techniques Wright were invited by lutenist we’re anything but. It’s music movement in the United and styles that became standard and musicologist Thomas in motion. It’s evolv- States, and in 2009 was awarded for contemporary players. Binkley to come to Blooming- ing. It’s changing. The thing that Early Music America’s Howard “I always liken playing the ton, where he was establish- keeps it together is the values.” Mayer Brown lifetime achieve- baroque violin to driving a sports ing what would become the Violinist Stanley Ritchie ment award. car. The instrument is so much world-famous Early Music stands as a singular example “In April 1970, I quit the Met lighter without the chinrest. It’s Institute (now the Historical of that kind of evolution, and because I never wanted to be an lighter in terms of weight and in Performance Institute). “We not in a way one might expect. orchestral musician all my life,” terms of action,” he says. “Play- only had minimal experience Trained in the classical style Ritchie says. He began playing ing baroque music on a modern as teachers when we were first as a modern violinist, Ritchie in chamber ensembles in New instrument is certainly possible, hired, but now I can say I truly has been concertmaster of the York City and remembers telling but not nearly as pleasurable or love teaching,” Ritchie says. New York City Opera Orchestra, harpsichordist Albert Fuller as natural. It just works. It’s like Ritchie remains adept at associate concertmaster of the that he’d really like to delve more the old saying, ‘The right tool for “the tried-and-true conser-

Metropolitan Opera Orches- deeply into baroque music. “He the job.’” (top to bottom) Ritchie vatory style of playing and tra, and first violinist of the said, ‘You know what they’re Ritchie, 80, was born and teamed up with harpsi- teaching” and describes his Philadelphia . But doing in Europe at the moment? raised in the small town of chordist Elisabeth Wright specialization in early music as in 1974 to form Duo the work for which he is best They’re tuning violins down half Yenda, Australia, about 350 miles Geminiani. Photo courtesy a luxury. “It’s not necessary for known involves reaching back a step.’ And I said, ‘Why on earth west of Sydney. His father was an IU Jacobs School of Music anybody to know how to play to the Baroque era and early would they want to do that? orchardist who also grew wine Ritchie today. Photo by baroque violin for a living,” he Shannon Zahnle Teaching music, exploring how the music Yuck.’ But he talked me into get- grapes and other fruits. “I was a a class at IU. Photo cour- says. But, he adds with a self- would have been envisioned by ting an old violin returned to its farm kid,” he says. But at age 7, a tesy of IU Jacobs School deprecating grin, “If I hadn’t composers such as Bach, Handel, original specifications and the violin in a shop window in Syd- Music discovered baroque violin, I and Vivaldi and played with the rest is history.” ney caught his attention and he might be sitting in the back of an orchestra now.” *

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