Indiana University has announced two gifts totaling $69 million to the IU Foundation from the Lilly Endowment to provide a state-of-the-art music studio and support the university's law school.

The largest portion of the gift, $44 million, will go to the IU Jacobs School of Music to build and equip the new North Studio Building with world-class technology and acoustics. In the past three years, musical luminaries such as violinists Joshua Bell and Jaime Laredo, conductor Leonard Slatkin, pianist Andr� Watts, and soprano Sylvia McNair have joined the school's faculty. The remaining $25 million will be used to support efforts by the IU School of Law — a recognized leader in many fields, including cyber-security, criminal law and procedure, environmental law, and intellectual property — to attract and retain exceptional teachers and scholars and to establish the school as one of the best public university law schools in the country.

"These extraordinary gifts will help secure the prominence of the music and law schools at IU Bloomington well into the twenty-first century," said IU president Michael McRobbie. "It will enable us to create an environment of excellence that honors the stature of our internationally renowned music faculty and further unlocks the potential of our first-rate students. It will also help us position our school of law at the forefront of legal education by enabling the school to vigorously compete for the very best faculty and students from around the globe."