IU Summer Music Festival kicks off this weekend with Sweet Honey in the Rock

The IU Summer Music Festival begins June 15, touting an impressive lineup of performers from around the world. With more than 40 performances scheduled through Aug. 9, this year’s festival will present Bloomington with world-class orchestra, jazz, opera, a capella and chamber music all summer long. \n“It is the largest, longest and most active college summer music festival of any in the world,” IU Jacobs School of Music Dean Gwyn Richards said. \nGrammy Award-winning Sweet Honey in the Rock opens the festival this Sunday at 8 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center ($20, $10 for students). The female a capella ensemble has been singing about environmental and social change since 1973 and continues to captivate audiences with their soulful voices and African performance style.\n“Sweet Honey in the Rock is a fantastic group of spirited performers,” said Marietta Simpson, an associate professor in the IU Jacobs School of Music. “They always engage their audiences in the performance and are very exciting to watch and listen to.”\nMany of the festival’s performers are Jacobs School faculty or alumni, including Menahem Pressler of the Beaux Arts Trio, Jeff Nelson of Canadian Brass and members of the a capella group Chanticleer. IU’s musically diverse faculty is largely responsible for the artistic enormity of the festival, Richards said.\n“The School of Music has never been about a single style,” he said. “It’s about teaching the language of music and allowing students to go where they want to go.” \nPressler’s Beaux Arts Trio will play at 7:30 p.m. June 28 in the Musical Arts Center as part of a farewell tour following more than 50 years of touring. Considered by many the best chamber trio of our time, the performance promises to be emotional for Bloomington audiences and longtime admirers of the group, Richards said.\nOther festival highlights include all-male a capella group Chanticleer on July 27, horn ensemble Canadian Brass on August 3, and three performances of this year’s Festival Orchestra will be led by celebrated conductors Lawrence Renes, Xian Zhang and Robert Spano, according to an IU press release.\nMaureen McGovern’s Aug. 8 performance with IU professor Steve Houghton and friends “includes a hard-swinging big band during the first half, followed by the beautiful sounds of the great American songbook with a studio orchestra in the second,” according to the press release.\nIU Opera Theater will perform Jerry Bock’s award-winning musical “She Loves Me” on July 25 and 26 in the MAC. Also, the Buskirk-Chumley Theater will conclude the festival Aug. 8 and 9 with showings of “¡Unicamente la Verdad!,” an opera-film portraying the culture of the Mexican \ndrug-trade.\nAside from its entertainment value, the festival allows Bloomington residents to see firsthand the strong connections the Jacobs School has forged with the world’s music community, director of marketing publicity for Jacobs School of Music Alain Barker said. IU music students relish the opportunity to see their teachers in the festival limelight. \n“Our faculty members are known as great performers on an international scale,” Tom Wieligman, executive administrator for the Jacobs School said. “Our students need to hear faculty perform not only in the studio, but in front of live audiences. It adds another dimension to their education.”\nIndividual tickets are still available for every event with discounts for IU students. For a complete list of Summer Music Festival performances and further information, visit www.music.indiana.edu/summer.