Blair School of Music will host a yearlong series of lectures and events throughout the 2024-2025 academic year investigating the complex, powerful, and infinitely various roles that music plays in the lives of individuals and communities. The Music in the Real World Colloquium seeks to present diverse perspectives from Vanderbilt faculty, students, and staff, as well as from distinguished guest artists, scholars, pedagogues, and laypersons from many walks of life. Co-directed by Blair professors Michael A. Rose, Mariam Adam, and Deanna Walker, the project involves faculty members from across Blair’s areas of study.
“Blair School’s 2024-2025 Colloquium (Music in the Real World) is inspired and directly supported by Provost Cybele Raver’s Discovery Initiative,” said Rose. “The Guest Artist Series events focus on music’s radical potential as a force for good in the world, at the same time confronting the various obstacles to this vision. Guest artists and local musicians will share diverse strategies for seeking social justice, addressing marginalized individuals, collaborating with various institutions, building new communities, and promoting human flourishing.”
The 10-event series begins Monday, September 16 with a lecture and interactive music session with Richard Casper in conversation with Deanna Walker. Casper, a Marine Corps veteran and Purple Heart recipient, is a co-founder of CreatiVets, a non-profit organization that empowers wounded veterans with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries to heal through art and music. The program will be hosted in the Blair Turner Recital Hall, 7:00 p.m. Tickets are “Pay as You Wish” ($0 – $30) and available at http://vu.edu/091624-tix. Ticket proceeds will be donated to CreatiVets.
“I’ve deeply admired Richard and the organization he built, CreatiVets, since Blair partnered with him to create our first songwriting class for veterans at Vanderbilt,” said Walker. “Many people sincerely want to help others, but it’s rare to see someone follow through and achieve the level of success, the scale, and the outreach that CreatiVets has. My hope with this conversation is that we are able to translate his experience into broad, actionable information listeners can apply to making their own dreams of helping others a reality.”
Other upcoming fall Colloquium events include:
• Monday, Oct. 21 – Knowledge Exchange Violin: A Performer’s Odyssey – Peter Sheppard Skærved, violin
• Wednesday, Nov. 20 – Arreon Harley-Emerson, Equity Sings
• Thursday, December 4 – Jim Keller, producer, publisher, composer (in conversation with Jen Gunderman)
To view the full Colloquium schedule visit http://vu.edu/mitrw