Blair School Of Music

The opera The Ghosts of Gatsby, by Joshua McGuire, left, andEvan Mack, was staged in October at the Blair School. Photo by David Pike Many of history’s greatest musical collaborators have pursued a creative approach perhaps best described as “you wash, I’ll dry.” Mozart was more than happy to… Read More

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… Read More

The Blair Big Band, Photo by Susan Urmy 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… Read More

Blair’s Deanna Walker, left, welcomes to her songwriting class Claude Kelly, middle, and Chuck Harmony of the duo Louis York. Photo by Steve Green Deanna Walker was initiated into the world of hit Nashville songwriting in the usual way. She suffered a broken heart. In the 1990s,… Read More

Toren Stafford, a 20-year-old sophomore studying voice at Blair School of Music, staged a “Tiny Dorm Concert” in Vanderbilt’s Morgan House in March. Read More

Junior Nicholas Heilborn conducts his commissioned piece with chatterbird musicians. Photo by Susan Urmy The composer Michael Slayton can’t remember the first time an ensemble performed one of his pieces. That’s perhaps not surprising, since Slayton’s works, especially his chamber music, are now frequently commissioned and performed… Read More

Photo by Anne Rayner 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… Read More

courtesy of AETN.com 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… Read More

Natalie Vlach, BMus’18. Photo by Joe Howell 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… Read More

Every single member of our diverse community, from the oldest alumni to the newest admitted students, contributes a vital part to our core mission. We are united by a distinct set of values. That’s why we are a university, not a poly-versity. We stand together. We are one Vanderbilt. Read More

Students play alongside faculty in this side-by-side concert at the Aspen Music Festival. Photo by Alex Irvin Cornelia Heard has spent nearly every summer since she was in eighth grade at a music festival. “I went to the Rocky Mountain Summer Music Center that first summer,” she… Read More

Lauren Urquhart, photo by Steve Green 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… Read More

Such Sweet Thunder, the debut recording of the Blair Big Band, was released in March and includes Blair students and faculty, plus some of Nashville’s veteran players. Tracks include new compositions as well as standards such as “The Very Thought of You,” which features legendary Nashville pianist Beegie Adair. Read More

As music director for the world tour of Phantom of the Opera from 2012 to 2016–and as associate music supervisor for seven international companies of the production–Stan Tucker, BMus’73, has felt the whoosh of the show’s iconic falling chandelier hundreds of times as it landed inches from his head. Photo… Read More

The power of hope—and a dark history—come to life through violin project Some say the violin is the instrument that most closely imitates the human voice. In March, 22 violins, most of which were played by Jewish musicians interned in concentration camps during the Holocaust, will arrive in… Read More

Costa Rica native Jose Sibaja, associate professor of trumpet, photo by Susan Urmy Building connections with Latin American musicians has been a major focus for the Blair School’s Thomas Verrier since first traveling to Central America in 2009. Now he and a group of like-minded Blair faculty members… Read More

Will the Count be caught cheating? Will Cherubino really be voted off? And who, exactly, will marry Figaro? Vanderbilt Opera Theatre cast members were filmed by students from the Department of Cinema and Media Arts for webisodes to preface VOT’s Marriage of Figaro, produced at Blair in November as a… Read More

Michael Kurek, associate professor of composition, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Album chart this summer with The Sea Knows, an album that continues his transition to more traditionally melodious music. The Sea Knows, on the Navona label, features a lush, gorgeous sound in the traditional… Read More

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

Recently, Berger graduated from Massachusetts-based Hebrew College, where she was ordained a rabbi–cantor—the school’s first, and one of only a handful in the country. Read More