Blair School Of Music
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Clark Hubbard, BMus’18: A Different Drummer
Clark Hubbard, BMus'18, marches to his own tune as a composer, drummer and assistant director of marching and athletic bands at Vanderbilt University. Read MoreNov 6, 2025
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Elenora Pertz, BMus’15, carves a musical path across Europe, empowering women
Elenora Pertz, BMus’15 (Claudia Araujo) Pianist Elenora Pertz, BMus’15, has chased her musical dreams across continents, from the grand halls of Vienna to Berlin—and this past summer to Florence, Italy. As a collaborative pianist for some of the world’s most prestigious opera houses, an innovative teacher and an… Read MoreOct 31, 2025
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Seizing the moment: The story behind junior Viji Burma’s Nashville Symphony Orchestra soloist debut
Collegiate voice students can only dream about the opportunity—someday—to be featured as a soloist with a major symphony orchestra. For Blair junior Vyjayanthi “Viji” Burma, a music education major, that dream became a reality in a whirlwind fashion last month. Read MoreOct 13, 2025
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Students discover music as a universal language through Immersion Vanderbilt
Blair School of Music sophomores, William Perez and Pierce Ruch, traveled with Associate Professor Thomas Verrier, senior band conductor and director of wind ensembles, to participate in the fifth annual Banda Sinfónica Integrada de Las Américas in San Roque, Antioquia. The international festival brings together student musicians from across the Americas to use music as a bridge between cultures. Read MoreSep 11, 2025
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NEW FACULTY: New professors on why they’re excited to be part of Vanderbilt
Meet some of Vanderbilt's newest faculty as they explain why Vanderbilt is the right academic home for them. Read MoreAug 27, 2025
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Osher Lifelong Learning Institute announces courses for fall 2025
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Vanderbilt is offering an inspiring lineup of fall courses and activities that reflect the spirit of lifelong learning and connection. Whether you’re diving into science, literature, music or exploring global perspectives through the highly requested new course on India, you’ll find something to spark your curiosity. Read MoreAug 25, 2025
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Vanderbilt University expands public programming in NYC with Fall 2025 Faculty Lecture Series
Building on the success of its inaugural public programming in Chelsea, Vanderbilt University today announced the next chapter of its faculty lecture series at Vanderbilt University - New York City. This fall, the university will invite New Yorkers and the Vanderbilt community to explore the intersections of music and spirituality and the mutual influence of technology and education through two public events: “Divine Rhythms: Jazz and the Sacred” on September 25 and “AI and the Future of the American University” on November 13. Read MoreAug 14, 2025
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Yusef Lateef Symposium at Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music to feature jazz luminaries, showcase Heard Libraries collection
The life, music, writings and visual art of jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer Yusef A. Lateef will be celebrated Sept. 12–13, when Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music hosts the Yusef Lateef Symposium. The two-day conference will include panel discussions, viewings of the Yusef A. Lateef Collection housed at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, a film screening, visual art displays and live music performances. Read MoreAug 13, 2025
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Collaboration between the Curb Center and Forklift Danceworks generates meaningful conversations with campus facilities and dining workers
A university requires more than professors, administrators and students to run properly. The preparation of food, maintenance and cleaning of facilities, landscaping and groundskeeping work, and thousands of other essential tasks build the foundation of every place of learning. Even so, conversations between these two worlds can be rare, and when they do occur, might be scaffolded by hierarchical ideas about work. One program, sponsored by the Curb Center in collaboration with Forklift Danceworks, seeks to change this. Read MoreJul 8, 2025
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An American in Vienna: Blair professor Derek Hartman claims first prize at International Beethoven Piano Competition
Inspired by Beethoven when he first began to play piano at age five, Derek Hartman‘s music career took a huge step forward last week as he was awarded first prize at the prestigious 17th International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna, Austria. Read MoreJun 4, 2025
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Shirley Watts, BMus’57, MA’61, MLS’67: Musician and Librarian
Shirley Marie Watts of Nashville, a musician and a longtime librarian for the Blair School’s Anne Potter Wilson Music Library, died Oct. 21, 2024. She was 89. Read MoreMay 22, 2025
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No Limits: Together, We Achieve Even More
Excellence, the first principle set forth in the updated Code of Bylaws approved by Vanderbilt’s Board of Trust, along with our other two guiding principles—academic freedom and free expression, and growth and development—drives our core purpose: to provide transformative education and pathbreaking research. It is our foremost commitment and our steadfast promise in all that we do. Read MoreMay 22, 2025
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Nashville Jazz Connections at Blair
Jazz has a long history in Music City. As long as Nashville has been a center for recording and education, it has drawn musicians of all types who found places to play—as well as to teach. Many have had connections to Vanderbilt Blair School of Music Read MoreMay 12, 2025
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Pascal Le Boeuf: A Vanderbilt ‘Strand’ in Grammy-Winning Music
Pascal Le Boeuf, assistant professor of the practice in music and technology, won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition on Feb. 2, his third nomination in the category. He talked to Vanderbilt Magazine about his influences for the Grammy-winning "Strands." Read MoreMay 12, 2025
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WATCH: Class of 2025 students’ ‘dare to grow’ drive makes a mark on the world
WATCH: Dare to grow is more than a motto for these Class of 2025 students. See how they’re pushing themselves and making an impact in cancer research, law and music. Read MoreMay 5, 2025
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‘Quantum Potential’ podcast: Musical inspiration from percussionist Ji Hye Jung
In this live performance turned Quantum Potential episode, Provost C. Cybele Raver hosts an extraordinary musical collaboration between Ji Hye Jung, associate professor of percussion at Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music, and the multi–Grammy Award–winning Attacca Quartet—Amy Schroeder and Domenic Salerni (violins), Nathan Schram (viola), and Andrew Yee (cello). The result? A rich exploration of what it means to be a classical musician in the 21st century. Read MoreApr 24, 2025
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A New Jazz Age
Vanderbilt University is becoming known as a place to study jazz performance and delve into jazz history through the acquisition of the extensive collections of Dizzy Gillespie, Yusef Lateef and Phil Schaap. Read MoreApr 21, 2025
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Mariam Adam: Internationally acclaimed clarinetist pushes musical boundaries
Mariam Adam puts a priority in her work on innovative musical collaborations that benefit her students while building a legacy to be discovered by future generations. The assistant professor of clarinet is a fierce advocate for music education who has performed with such greats as Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. Read MoreApr 15, 2025
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CLASS OF 2025: Maya Mueller finds brilliance reaching beyond her comfort zone
Find out why Class of 2025 student Maya Mueller traveled to Tanzania and see what a banana costume had to do with overcoming stage fright for this clarinet performance major. Read MoreApr 8, 2025
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Creator of ‘The Jonah People’ Hannibal Lokumbe to visit campus
The Curb Center at Vanderbilt and Belmont University are sponsoring composer and musician Hannibal Lokumbe’s visit to Nashville this April. He will be speaking with courses, giving a talk alongside his biographer Lauren Coyle Rosen, and working with the Vanderbilt 16 on their performance of two movements of his piece “In The Spirit of Being.” Read MoreApr 8, 2025