BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The L-shaped stretch of limestone and concrete may look like just another cluster of university buildings, and this low-key city tucked in the gentle hills of Southern Indiana may seem an unlikely place to find world-renowned musical talent.

But Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music has been attracting high-profile instructors and promising young students from around the world for decades. Among other major accomplishments, the school has:

» Recruited widely known singers and instrumentalists to its faculty since 2004, including pianist Andre Watts, National Symphony Orchestra music director Leonard Slatkin and Bloomington's own concert violinist Joshua Bell.

» Averaged about 20 graduates each season since the late 1990s on the artist roster of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, including Indianapolis native Angela Brown.

» Provided many of the nation's top orchestras with players, including concertmaster William Preucil of the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic violinist Yulia Ziskel and violist David Nicastro of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

» Earned top rankings among music schools. Classical Singer magazine listed IU among the top 10 voice schools in America in 2004. In 1997, U.S. News & World Report rated IU among the top five graduate programs for opera, piano, orchestras, conducting and composition.

Interactive report: IU's Jacobs School of Music

Now, as it approaches its second century in 2010, the Jacobs School is working to attract new generations of star professors and student prodigies -- and to build them new places to play. The school has raised $104 million since 2000 for new faculty appointments, student scholarships and building projects. Major planned construction includes a $44 million faculty studio building.

"We have absolutely always talked about IU-Bloomington as one of those extraordinary places where great music was made and where great young artists were coming from," said Deborah R. Card, president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. "That was long before Josh Bell, the current superstar from the school, came around."

But when Gwyn Richards, dean of the School of Music, began his tenure in 2001, he knew he had work to do. He would have to rebuild a faculty that was aging -- and reverse financial problems of the late 1990s -- to stay competitive with large music schools such as the University of Michigan and small conservatories such as Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music.

Richards, 57, has been productive on both counts. He has built a multigenerational faculty that includes younger artists but still features veterans such as pianist Menahem Pressler and cellist Janos Starker, who joined IU during its first wave of recruiting star talent back in the 1950s. Pressler and Starker are both in their 80s.

Bell, 40, said he "grew up in the era of Starker, Pressler, Josef Gingold and that whole group of amazing teachers who came in the 1950s and '60s. Now that some of them are nearing the end of their careers, I did start to worry about where Indiana could go from there."

What IU did was hire concert pianists Andre Watts and Arnaldo Cohen as professors in 2004. Husband-and-wife chamber musicians Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson followed in 2005. Appointments in 2006 included Alexander Kerr, former concertmaster of Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; opera soprano Carol Vaness, who distinguished herself singing Mozart and Puccini; and Jeff Nelsen, a French horn player with the Canadian Brass. Bell and Slatkin signed on last year.

Caleb Mossburg, an 18-year-old freshman violin student from Fort Wayne, said he chose Indiana over three other schools that accepted him, partly because he won a four-year scholarship. But he also was excited about studying with Kerr, 37.

"It's awesome, because of the fact that he had a career, and he's still young," Mossburg said.

Carolina Castells, a 25-year-old soprano and graduate student from Miami, said her decision "really came down to the right teacher."

"Costanza Cuccaro is an amazing teacher and an amazing person. She's a noted soprano (known for singing Gilda in "Rigoletto" and for performing in top European opera houses). . . . She is also a motherly type who is very protective of all her singers."

Richards has found it easier to recruit faculty now that fundraising has soared and the school's financial straits have been reversed.

In the late 1990s, during David Woods' tenure as dean, the School of Music was operating with a deficit, according to George M. Logan, author of "The Indiana University School of Music: A History." The Indiana Daily Student, the campus newspaper, reported that the deficit was nearly $2 million.

Now, Richards is projecting "a modest surplus" on the school's $50 million operating budget for 2007-08.

The dean also has long-range ambitions, aiming to keep IU among the nation's top music institutions.

He has scheduled a series of world premieres of operas and orchestral works, as well as major construction projects -- including the new faculty studio building and upgrades to the Musical Arts Center (home of the IU Opera Theater and campus ensembles) -- from 2010 to 2021.

Those years mark the 100th anniversaries of the founding of IU's Department of Music and its successor, now known as the Jacobs School of Music.

Major fundraising has been necessary to support those projects.

In 2005, the Jacobs family of Cleveland gave $40.6 million for undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships. In December, IU announced that Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment would give $44 million for the new faculty studio building.

Richards wants to break ground on the tentatively named North Studio Building next year but said that 2010 might be more realistic. On Friday, he met with representatives of four architectural firms in Indianapolis to discuss the design.

Less definite, but still on the drawing board, are plans to begin interior and exterior renovations to the Musical Arts Center, or MAC. Meanwhile, IU is working to premiere a series of music and dance works.

"We think one of the best things we can do to celebrate our anniversaries is a series of commissions," Richards said. "Some will be operas, some orchestral, some chamber music or jazz."

Plans have not been finalized, but Richards hopes to commission pieces from internationally known composers such as John Adams and John Corigliano, as well as IU professors including Don Freund and P.Q. Phan.

Richards also is negotiating with composer Bernard Rands to present his opera on Vincent van Gogh.

Card, the president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, supports commissions, saying they are "a really important part of what all of us, as music institutions, need to do. You don't know where your next great work of art is going to come from."

Richards is hoping that it will be from IU.