Author: Jim Patterson
Dana Kelley, BMus’12, Music from Within
Feb. 19, 2019—Being a student at the Blair School of Music kept Dana Kelley busy, but being a professional musician in New York City adds a whole new meaning to the word. Kelley is violist with the Argus Quartet, the Juilliard School’s quartet-in-residence, which played on the Blair Concert Series last September. She also recently joined the...
Elizabeth Lee “Betty” Klepper, BA’58, First in Soil Science
Feb. 19, 2019—Elizabeth Lee “Betty” Klepper, a retired scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Columbia Plateau Conservation Research Center in Pendleton, Oregon, died at her home Oct. 26, 2018. She was 82. Born in Memphis, Klepper attended school in Tennessee and graduated summa cum laude in chemistry as Founder’s Medalist for Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and...
Dr. Blair E. Batson, BA’41, MD’44, Role Model for Child Health Care
Feb. 19, 2019—Dr. Blair E. Batson, the first chair of pediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, died Nov. 26, 2018. He was 98. Dr. LouAnn Woodward, UMMC vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, said Batson’s importance to the health of children in the state “cannot be overestimated....
Transforming Community: Nyree Ramsey, BS’97, MEd’00, and Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes, BS’96
Nov. 19, 2018—When Nyree Ramsey visited New Orleans in 1995, three words came to mind: “This is home.” “I loved the culture, the food, the sense of community—all things intergenerational,” she says. “My father was a musician, an immigrant from Jamaica, and my mom comes from a close-knit artistic family in New York. I understand that sense...
Mind’s Eye: New Perspective
Nov. 19, 2018—Works by Middle Eastern women artists build bridges of understanding Stereotypes are hard to escape when pondering the Middle East, especially those applied to women. Misconceptions about the hijab and abaya, the head scarf and black robe that many women wear, and about the status of women in Islamic culture pervade the West’s understanding of...
Bailey Spaulding, JD’09, Something’s Brewing
Nov. 19, 2018—Shortly after graduating from law school, Bailey Spaulding got a harebrained idea: She’d open a brewery and name it the Jackalope Brewing Co., after the mythical rabbit–antelope hybrid that she believed in as a kid. Seven years after the business was launched in Nashville’s Gulch neighborhood, Jackalope makes 6,500 barrels of suds, including the flagship...
Rediscovered: Concert Celebrates the Music of Florence Price
Nov. 19, 2018—Florence Price was the first African American woman to have her music performed by a major symphony orchestra—in 1933. Bringing together the European classical tradition in which she was trained and the haunting melodies of African American spirituals and folk tunes, Price’s music has experienced a recent resurgence in the concert hall. In celebration of...
A Family Legacy Inspires Students
Nov. 19, 2018—As a young girl, Natalie Vlach, BMus’18, fell in love with her electronic keyboard. Unlike some childhood infatuations, however, Vlach’s passion for piano endured and deepened, leading eventually to her winning the Linde B. Wilson Scholarship at the Blair School. “Blair is an incredible place,” Vlach says. “I’m so grateful to the Wilson family for...
Poetry to Expand the World: M.F.A. candidate Joshua Moore hosts an innovative storytelling podcast
Nov. 19, 2018—When listeners tune in to Nashville Public Radio’s Versify podcast, they’re greeted by the voice of host Joshua Moore, a second-year master of fine arts candidate in Vanderbilt’s creative writing program. Versify—which can be found at vu.edu/versify-npr—grew out of Poetry on Demand, or POD, a community outreach program of The Porch, Nashville’s nonprofit writing center....
Impression
Nov. 19, 2018—In October, Vanderbilt University Theatre opened its 2018–19 season with The Language Archive by Julia Cho, a comedy that explores what is lost and found in the gaps between what is meant and what is said. “One of the most interesting aspects of working on The Language Archive was wrestling with the questions the play...
Accolade
Nov. 19, 2018—Dean Whiteside, BMus’10, of Miami—shown conducting that city’s New World Symphony PULSE concert—is the 2017–18 winner of the American Prize in Conducting in the Professional Orchestra division. After earning his undergraduate degree at Blair, the New York City native trained in Vienna at the University of Music and Performing Arts, where he graduated with distinction....
Virginia George, BSN’47, MS’72, Champion of the Nurse Practitioner
Nov. 19, 2018—Virginia Maxwell George, professor of nursing, emerita, and an early champion of nurse practitioners, died of natural causes July 26 in Nashville. She was 94. George was founding director of Vanderbilt’s Family Nurse Practitioner program, one of the first in the Southeast. A 1947 VUSN graduate, she taught at Vanderbilt for 28 years, earning teaching...