Accolade
Storybook Endings: New book by former basketball student-athlete Barry Goheen
Feb. 17, 2020—Barry Goheen, BA’89, JD’94, the Vanderbilt basketball player who became nationally known for his numerous clutch shots that lifted the ’Dores to victory, is author of the new book about his playing days.
On Fire
Feb. 17, 2020—Nothing to See Here (2019, Ecco/HarperCollins), the latest novel by Kevin Wilson, BA’00, explores female friendship, along with the question of how to raise spontaneously combustible twins. In its review, Kirkus says, “One of his greatest strengths is the ability to craft an everyday family drama and inject it with one odd element that turns...
Accolade: Mel Chin named ‘genius’ artist
Nov. 7, 2019—Visionary artist Mel Chin, BA’75, was named Sept. 25 among the class of 26 MacArthur Fellows for 2019. Given by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and known colloquially as the “genius” grant, the fellowship honors “extraordinary originality” and comes with a no-strings-attached grant of $625,000, to be distributed over five years. Chin,...
Accolades
Nov. 7, 2019—Michael Alec Rose, associate professor of composition, had the premiere of his musical drama, Lolly Willowes, based on the novel by Sylvia Townsend Warner, in April at the MATCH–Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston. In July he was interviewed about the work and his life as a composer by Nashville Public Radio. His Seventh String...
Accolades: JJ Bleday and Kristin Quah
Aug. 20, 2019—The Miami Marlins selected junior right fielder JJ Bleday with the fourth overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft on June 3, and bowler Kristin Quah, BE’19, became just the third student-athlete in Vanderbilt history to win the H. Boyd McWhorter Award in April.
Accolade: Blair Big Band ‘biblical’ honor
Aug. 20, 2019—The Blair Big Band is the undergraduate collegiate winner in the category Large Jazz Ensemble in DownBeat magazine’s 42nd annual Student Music Awards, announced April 23. This is the Blair School of Music’s first award from DownBeat, which is widely considered the “bible” of the jazz world. The recordings Blair submitted to the competition were...
Accolade: Nafissa Thompson-Spires, MA’05, PhD’09, one of 10 Whiting Award winners
May. 23, 2019—Nafissa Thompson-Spires, MA’05, PhD’09, was announced as one of 10 Whiting Award winners March 20 at a ceremony at the New York Historical Society. Thompson-Spires’ short story collection Heads of the Colored People (2018, Atria/37 INK) has been honored with a PEN Open Book Award, longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award and Aspen Words...
Accolade: Shadle wins inaugural Cohen/RIPM Award
Feb. 19, 2019—Douglas Shadle, assistant professor of musicology, was presented with the American Musicological Society’s inaugural H. Robert Cohen/RIPM Award at this year’s annual meeting in San Antonio for his book Orchestrating the Nation: The Nineteenth-Century American Symphonic Enterprise (2015, Oxford University Press). The award honors a work of scholarship of exceptional merit based upon 18th-, 19th-,...
Alumnus Raviv in Tony-winning musical
Sep. 6, 2018—The Band’s Visit, a musical about an Egyptian orchestra stuck for a night in a remote Israeli town, swept the Tony Awards on June 10, winning 10 awards, including Best Musical. Katrina Lenk and Tony Shalhoub (above, seated) both won Tony Awards for their performances in the lead roles. The show’s small cast also features...
Blair MTNA national competition winners
Sep. 6, 2018—For the second year in a row, Blair undergraduates won national honors competing against both undergraduate and graduate students at the 2017–18 Music Teachers National Association annual competition March 17–21 in Orlando, Florida. To compete at nationals, musicians have already won their state and regional divisions. Lauren Urquhart, BMus’18, took first place in the voice...
Hamblet award recipients
Sep. 6, 2018—The Vanderbilt University Department of Art awarded its prestigious Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award for 2018 to Joshua Austin Forges, BA’18, from Davie, Florida. He received a $25,000 prize that provides for a year of art research and travel, culminating with a solo exhibition in Space 204, the main gallery space of the Department of...
Milestone Victory: Tim Corbin becomes baseball program’s all-time winningest coach
Jun. 8, 2018—Head Baseball Coach Tim Corbin became the program’s all-time winningest coach March 4 when the ’Dores defeated Houston 9–4.