Arts And Culture

James Berkenstock (top right) and his wife, Jean, co-founded the Midsummer’s Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin, dedicated to the chamber repertoire. (Courtesy Midsummer’s Music Festival) Some people believe the life of a musician is nomadic, traveling the world and playing in all kinds of venues. However, James… Read More

Inspired by last year’s flooding in Louisiana, Chris Lowry wrote his winning composition, which premieres in June in Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of Christopher Lowry In August 2016 much of southern Louisiana lay underwater, flooded by more than 7.1 trillion gallons of rainfall. It was, meteorologists said, a… Read More

Lucy Mensah is completing a prestigious fellowship at NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lucy Mensah, MA’12, PhD’16, who graduated with a doctorate in English, is drawing on her humanities training to take a path less traveled. Mensah started graduate school in 2011 with the goal of… 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

“Day Boy Night Girl” by Sarah E. Vaughn is on view at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center exhibit “Breaking Ground” through June. Whether we realize it or not, we often silence individuals who have intellectual and developmental disabilities because of our own inability to communicate with those unlike ourselves. Read More

• The Blair Big Band, directed by Ryan Middagh, director of jazz studies, was invited to play the recent annual conference of the Jazz Education Network, the professional organization for jazz musicians and jazz educators, in New Orleans. The conference features the finest professional and educational jazz musicians and… Read More

Polar, by a 26-year-old male diagnosed with schizophrenia, reflects how he presents himself to the world (right side) compared to how he feels (left side) An exhibit during the fall at Vanderbilt’s Department of Art displayed the works of clients from an outpatient mental health program in The… Read More

Sabrina Bradford (violin), Antonia Rohlfing (piano) and Blake Kitayama (cello) rehearse their chamber music piece at the Blair School. Photo by Anne Rayner Musicians learn not only how to play an instrument, but how to play in a group, be it a full orchestra or a quartet. Learning to… Read More

Painting 1909: Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Henri Bergson, Comics, Albert Einstein, and Anarchy (2017, Yale University Press) by Leonard Folgarait, professor of history of art In 1909, renowned artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) embarked on a series of stylistic experiments that had a dramatic effect on modern art. The book examines… Read More

The Observers, 2006, graphite on paper, 30 by 22 inches At the end of the spring 2017 semester, after 37 years of teaching Vanderbilt undergraduates drawing and painting, Professor of Art Marilyn Murphy will retire. From the beginning Murphy has brought an interesting point of view to her… Read More

Handbook of Early Childhood Special Education coedited by Erin Barton, assistant professor of special education, with Brian Reichow of the University of Florida, and Brian A. Boyd and Samuel L. Odom, of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2016, Springer) The handbook discusses early childhood special education, with particular… Read More

The Blair School of Music opened its concert season with numerous premiere performances this fall, including several world premieres of works specifically commissioned for Blair faculty. Read More

In his American Epic series, currently on display at Vanderbilt Divinity School, Shaw presents broad themes like religion and technology in lush, detailed and sometimes disturbing imagery, rooting his interpretation in the style of the painters of the Mexican Mural Renaissance. Read More

Read about noteworthy accomplishments by Vesna Pavlović, associate professor of art, and Cecelia Tichi, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English. 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

Check out the latest book offerings from Vanderbilt alumni and faculty. 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

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