Latest InJordan College of the Arts

“I’ve enjoyed getting to see not just the dance part of Butler, but we’ve been able to eat in Atherton and get stuff from the bookstore and so it’s been really fun. I’ve really, really enjoyed everything about this intensive.”

Koontz said the time in Latvia also will allow her to seek some understanding of her upbringing.

The Butler Community Arts School will introduce three new programs in 2016—youth theater, music composition for high school students, and summer ballet intensive for pre-professional dancers. “We added these new programs for 2016 because the community has been asking,” said Karen Thickstun, Director of the Butler Community Arts School. “We have a strong history of […]

When she makes her theatrical debut on Wednesday, November 11, Butler University Provost Kate Morris hopes to portray a professor with the same competence she has demonstrated in 20 years as an actual professor. “I’m having some first-time stage jitters,” acknowledged Morris, who will be the first of several Butler guest stars to have a […]

Butler University’s Jordan College of the Arts has forged a partnership with the Indiana Arts Commission to become the IAC regional granting office for central Indiana, covering Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, and Shelby Counties. Butler’s role through 2017 will be to set up independent citizen advisory panels that will review grant applications. The […]

More than 100 students from four states visited Butler for Theatre Day.

On May 4, 2015, Butler Director of Jazz Studies and saxophonist Matt Pivec, bassist Jesse Wittman, and drummer Kenny Phelps walked into The Lodge recording studio in Indianapolis. Eight hours later, they left with all seven songs recorded for their new CD, Time and Direction. “It was definitely an exhausting day,” Pivec said. “We spent […]

He left Butler nearly 20 years ago, but, from 1986–1996, Michael Shasberger provided his students in the Butler Chorale with great memories—including five international tours and the staging of Handel’s “Messiah”—along with instruction that still guides them today. The memories are so strong, in fact, that over the July 24–26 weekend, about two dozen of […]

The Butler Chorale has landed another spectacularly high-profile gig: July 4 with the Rolling Stones at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as part of the band’s ZIP CODE tour. The 26-member choral group, which performed with Madonna as part of the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show, will be providing backup vocals during one song of the […]

Matthew Kraemer ’99 has been named Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra (ICO). “The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra is a dynamic organization comprised of superb musicians providing its audience an impressive variety of music and concert formats,” he said. “This position would undoubtedly be highly attractive to any conductor, but I am […]

After more than 30 years as Artistic Director of the Indianapolis Opera and guest conducting across the country, James Caraher now relies on his vast expertise to prepare the next generation of opera talent—students. Caraher, who joined the Butler Opera Theatre as Music Director in January, has opera students preparing for the upcoming “A Night […]

In the liner notes on their self-titled debut CD, the Icarus Ensemble—Butler University School of Music faculty members Jon Crabiel and Gary Walters and three members of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra—thank their fans. “You’ve waited a long time for this,” the group writes, “and we hope it was worth the wait.” Their followers have, in […]