Bonnie Ertelt

As music director for the world tour of Phantom of the Opera from 2012 to 2016–and as associate music supervisor for seven international companies of the production–Stan Tucker, BMus’73, has felt the whoosh of the show’s iconic falling chandelier hundreds of times as it landed inches from his head. Photo… Read More

Costa Rica native Jose Sibaja, associate professor of trumpet, photo by Susan Urmy Building connections with Latin American musicians has been a major focus for the Blair School’s Thomas Verrier since first traveling to Central America in 2009. Now he and a group of like-minded Blair faculty members… Read More

By Bonnie Arant Ertelt, BS’81 The Skyscraper Window (1934) by American painter Childe Hassam was loaned to Nashville’s Frist Center for the Visual Arts for a 2000 exhibit. It is one of more than 1,000 works of art in the Peabody College Collection. When George Peabody College for Teachers… Read More

Soprano Kelsey Onwuzuruigbo sings at Nashville’s inaugural Opera on Tap event, held at Harpeth Brewing Co. in September 2016. Photo by Nduka Onwuzuruigbo Nashville is known for its live music scene. Some nights you can drink a beer and enjoy country, blues, bluegrass, opera … no, not opry, opera—complete… Read More

Yarbrough's World War II scrapbook is now part of the foundational collection of the Smithsonian’s newest museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Read More

Regina Gee works with a fresco at the Oplontis villa in Torre Annunziata, Italy, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. “For the Romans living at the villa, life seems to have been a relentless, never-ending performance,” Gee says. “What you see is wealth and power laid out in the arrangement… Read More

It has been 47 years since Ben Shahn’s mosaic Peabody—1968 was dedicated in the Hobbs Human Development Laboratory on what was then the campus of George Peabody College for Teachers. The effort to commission Shahn, an artist well known for his advocacy for the poor, was spearheaded by Susan Gray, professor of psychology, emerita, and an advocate for children, particularly those held back developmentally by poverty. Read More

Politics and politicians have never been spared the cartoonist’s pen From Charlie Hebdo to the lampooning of U.S. presidential candidates, political cartoons continue to be a staple of editorial pages. While the rise of digital media—and the decline of newspapers—may have reduced their reach, political cartoons remain one of the… Read More

Jeff Coffin and Ryan Middagh work with the Blair Big Band Local music industry fuels expansion of program Nashville may be best known for country music, but the moniker “Music City” most accurately reflects the proliferation of stellar musicians in town who play all types of music. At Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music, Ryan Middagh, director… Read More

Blair students know they’ll be majoring in music—often in addition to other disciplines—but frequently they choose Vanderbilt for the other social and academic opportunities the university offers that a traditional music conservatory cannot. This means Blair students are among the busiest on campus, continuing their intense focus on music while juggling the demands of other classes. Read More

Fritz Eichenberg’s technical expertise in the difficult and now somewhat obscure medium of wood engraving, combined with his discerning eye and passion for literature, does more than illustrate words on a page. Read More

Kindergarten teachers report spending much of their math instructional time teaching students basic counting skills and how to recognize geometric shapes—skills the students have already mastered before ever setting foot in the kindergarten classroom, new research finds. Read More

By Bonnie Arant Ertelt As university traditions go, music has charms to do more than soothe the savage breast. In fact, music has the ability to invoke nostalgia for the old “alma mater,” pump up school spirit at athletic events, and stitch together collegiate memories in ways that override the… Read More