Vanderbilt Blair School Of Music

Chris Lowry, BMus’11, and Peter Dayton, BMus’12, both received recognition in the American Viola Society’s 2024 biennial Maurice Gardner Competition for Composers. Among the 77 submissions to the contest, Chris Lowry was the first prize winner, with his work, “Zenith (for Jackson)” for viola and electronics. Read More

An upcoming motion picture, 'Cabrini,' features a score composed by Blair School of Music alumnus Gene Back, BMus’06. Coming to theatres on March 8, International Women’s Day, 'Cabrini' was directed by the award-winning Alejandro Monteverde. Read More

Some have said that singer Dashon Burton’s bass-baritone is enormous, capable of raising the dead or like looking directly into the sun. This year, the two-time Grammy winner is nominated once again with vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth in the Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance category for their album Rough Magic (New Amsterdam Records, 2023). Read More

WATCH: Learn how Blair composition student Tatum Earp was inspired by her late father's senior photography project to create a unique and inspiring Immersion Vanderbilt project. Read More

By Jenna Somers A trans-institutional team from the LIVE Initiative at Vanderbilt University has progressed to the final round of the National Science Foundation’s Visionary Interdisciplinary Teams Advancing Learning (VITAL) Prize Challenge for designing BeatBlox, a music-based framework for teaching computer science. The team, Code to Joy,… Read More

To kick off LGBTQI+ History Month, the Blair School of Music faculty presents a concert of works written by and for composer and author Ned Rorem. Known for both his breadth of output for both vocal and instrumental forces, Rorem entered gay icon status through the publication of his diaries over forty years, beginning in 1966. In addition to a selection of works by Rorem, a new work by Blair composer Russell Platt—writing in honor of Rorem—will be performed. Read More

The Vanderbilt Wind Symphony, conducted by Thomas Verrier, associate professor of conducting, will open its fall performance season on Friday, Sept. 22, with Symphonic Songs. The Vanderbilt University Orchestra will perform Rhythmic Tapestry on Saturday, Sept. 23, where Ernesto Estigarribia Mussi, assistant professor of conducting, will make his Blair conducting debut. Read More

'Florence Price: A Celebration,' a multi-event music festival, will pay tribute to the life, music and enduring legacy of a woman who broke barriers of race and gender in classical music. Taking place Oct. 3–Nov. 14 at venues across Nashville, the series is produced by Blair's Douglas Shadle, associate professor of musicology. Read More

The public is invited to join the world-renowned Limón Dance Company for an open rehearsal event, as the company continues its two-week residency at the Blair School of Music. Seating is extremely limited and free advanced tickets are required.  Read More

The residency will take place June 20–July 1 and include a free, open-to-the-public interactive outdoor movement class on June 23. Limón’s outdoor classes in New York’s Bryant Park have become very popular events, and the company wants to bring the same experience to Nashville. Come ready to move! Read More

Exclusive early viewing of War Requiem, the first performance in Ingram Hall to be captured by Blair School of Music’s new state-of-the-art recording and streaming technology, is being offered this week to MyVU readers. This ambitious production brought together the full force of the Blair School and ushered in a new level of technological capabilities. Read More

Class of 2023: For some, a piano is just an instrument. For Jack Allen, a piano performance major at the Vanderbilt Blair School of Music, it is a vehicle for compassion, inspiration, teaching and community. Read More

Blair alumna Krystal Grant Folkestad uses her musical skills to serve multiple audiences while focusing on how life affects art and art influences activism.  Read More

Blair Wilson, BA’74, whose family has deep ties to Vanderbilt University and its Blair School of Music, has endowed the Mark Wait Piano Scholarship to support students studying piano performance at the Blair School. The merit-based scholarship is named in honor of Dean Emeritus Mark Wait, who led Blair from 1993 to 2020.    Read More

When Jennifer Janes arrived at Vanderbilt Blair School of Music in 1998, she had two career paths in mind—veterinary medicine and teaching piano at the college level. Her abiding interest in horses and veterinary medicine eventually won out. Today, Dr. Janes is an associate professor of veterinary anatomic pathology at the University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Read More

The Vanderbilt Blair School of Music has secured $5 million in funding for the pilot phase of a comprehensive scholarship, the Blair Community Scholars Program, which will recruit highly talented students from underrepresented and vulnerable backgrounds. Read More

Vanderbilt students who are part of the inaugural Vanderbilt Choral Scholars program spent a week in cathedrals in the United Kingdom to better understand the community impact of church music in Europe.    Read More

Blair School Dean Lorenzo F. Candelaria sees opportunities to revolutionize the experience of classical music in ways that cultivate new and diverse audiences for the art form. In some cases, it means taking the music to unexpected places.  Read More

The Vanderbilt University Symphony Orchestra and Vanderbilt's collegiate choirs will host a musical tribute to remember those who’ve suffered a loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. The concert will be on April 10 at 2 p.m. at the Martha Rivers Ingram Center for the Performing Arts at Vanderbilt Blair School of Music.  Read More

Vanderbilt Blair's Eunoia String Quartet, coached by Carolyn Huebl, professor of violin, won the 2022 Music Teachers National Association Chamber Music String competition. They and another Blair student ensemble, the Arsevi Trio, competed as two of only seven national finalists. Read More