Prologue

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

Michael Rinne (far right) as bassist Lum York, with actor Tom Hiddleston (center) as Hank Williams and members of the film version of Williams’ band, The Drifting Cowboys. Photo by Sam Emerson/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics   Bassist Michael Rinne, BMus’10, is a busy guy. He has recorded with artists Caitlin… Read More

Vanderbilt boasts two winners of Guggenheim fellowships this year: Beth Bachmann, writer-in-residence in English, received a fellowship in poetry, and John Powers, BA’01, assistant professor of sculpture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, received a fellowship in the fine arts division for his sculpture. Read More

A tenor who studied with Metropolitan Opera star John Alexander and currently studies with Robert White of Juilliard, Rich Miller is in his sixth year as president of the Metropolitan Opera Guild and is an advisory director of the Metropolitan Opera Association. As a Blair parent and member of the Vanderbilt Parents Leadership Committee and the Parents and Family Advisory Board, he and his wife, Carol, have made it possible for the Blair and Vanderbilt communities to access live streaming of the Met through a subscription service. 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

Vibhuti Krishna, BA’16, who majored in art and in health, medicine and society, was presented the prestigious Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award for 2016. Hailing from Solon, Ohio, she received $25,000 for a year of art research and travel, which will culminate in a solo show at Vanderbilt next year. 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

The precarious state of the Edgehill community is captured by James Threalkill’s painting “View from the Neighborhood.” Threalkill, BS’79, previously served as the community services and arts director for the Edgehill Community Center. He writes, “The painting captures a moment when a young student, rather than relaxed and engaged… Read More

Michael Aurbach, professor of art, who has taught sculpture and drawing at Vanderbilt since 1986, is retiring after 30 years. To honor him the Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery exhibited his work from mid-January through early March. The Last Laugh: Selections from Michael Aurbach’s Secrecy Series showed work in… Read More

Want to watch a live concert at Blair? Many student and faculty concerts now are streamed live from Ingram Hall, Steve & Judy Turner Recital Hall, and the Choral Rehearsal Hall from Blair’s live-streaming page at vu.edu/blair-stream. The performances are not archived. Read More

Vanderbilt alumni are making a splash on Broadway, as evidenced by several recent graduates currently working both behind the scenes and in front of the lights in New York City productions. Read More

Through March 20, viewers of the Alchemy of the Soul exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, can see “Warrior Reservoir,” a 2011 piece by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons comprised of three large panels. Beside it hangs an identifying label with the words “Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Collection” in prominent view. How it got there is the result of a process most viewers know little about. Read More

PHOTO: Richard Danielpour, standing, rehearses with Blair School of Music Dean Mark Wait at the piano prior to the debut of Danielpour’s Dec. 4 premiere of 12 new piano études. PHOTO BY JOHN RUSSELL   What are the odds a conversation about 12 new piano études will veer off to… Read More

The Rev. Mark Forrester, MDiv’83, has been named university chaplain and director of the Office of Religious Life. Forrester has been a United Methodist chaplain affiliated with Vanderbilt’s Office of Religious Life since 1994. He assumed the new role Sept. 1 at a critical point in… Read More

Most people think of printmaking as a means to multiples, but Nicole Pietrantoni, BS’03, uses the techniques of printmaking—specifically screen printing—as a means to an end. Pietrantoni, who won Vanderbilt’s prestigious Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award in 2003, screen-prints on acrylic plates, stacks the plates in… Read More

Mia Bransford, a nurse in the pediatric emergency department at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, was one of the few trained health care workers on the scene last July when a mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., left 12 dead and 58 injured. Bransford, in Colorado for a… Read More

ILLUSTRATION BY EDEL RODRIGUEZ   A tradition among first-year students to read and discuss a common text has inspired an effort to foster dialogue about gender and sexuality across the Vanderbilt community. Themes explored in the 2012 Commons Reading, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, is being… Read More