Tucker Biddlecombe

Associate Professor of Choral Studies; Director of Choral Activities; Director of the Music Teacher Education Program

Tucker Biddlecombe is associate professor and director of choral activities at Vanderbilt Blair, where he chairs the ensembles department, conducts the Vanderbilt Chorale and the Vanderbilt Glee Club, and coordinates the Blair-to-Peabody teacher education program, teaching courses in choral conducting and music education. In addition, Biddlecombe is entering his fifth season as director of the Nashville Symphony Chorus, the vocal arm of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.

Performance highlights at Vanderbilt have included Mozart's Requiem, Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Haydn's Creation, Bernstein's MASS, and collaborations with cutting-edge vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth. In 2018 the Vanderbilt Chorale released its first solo album, Music in the Listening Place (Navona), with Gramophone UK noting that the Chorale "shine in a variety of repertoire that suggests the experience of hearing an actual concert."

Biddlecombe's work with the Nashville Symphony has included chorus preparation for the world-premiere recording of Harbison's Requiem (Naxos), and other choral-orchestral masterworks by Bernstein, Stravinsky, Ravel, Haydn, Verdi, Handel and Mahler. Upcoming engagements include recordings of Gabriela Lena-Frank's Conquest Requiem and Antonio Estévez's Cantata Criolla with the Nashville Symphony, Cc-conducting the Southern Division ACDA Honor Choir, and serving as senior high choral clinician for the 2022 Montreat Music & Worship Conference.

Biddlecombe is a passionate advocate of music education and a veteran public school music teacher. In 2019 he completed an invited residency with the Central Conservatory in Beijing, where he coached student and professional choral conductors. He is currently serving a two-year term as president of the Tennessee Chapter of ACDA, with the goal of visiting every secondary choral program in the state during his tenure.

Biddlecombe is a graduate of SUNY Potsdam and Florida State University, where he completed studies in choral conducting and music education with Daniel Gordon and André Thomas. He resides in Nashville with his wife Mary Biddlecombe, who is the director of the Blair Academy at Vanderbilt and artistic director of the Blair Children’s Chorus.