Blair

By Amelia Dirks Dean Emeritus Mark Wait traces the story of Ingram Hall back to 1995, when Martha Rivers Ingram took her seat in the back row of the Blair School of Music’s recital hall to watch a Vaughan Williams opera. Then serving as chairman of the Vanderbilt… Read More

Two compositions by Blair School of Music professor Russell Platt will be heard on consecutive nights in Wisconsin this week, including a recent work beginning a series of performances around the country and a decades-old concerto given new life through Platt’s collaboration with Blair colleague Mariam Adam. Russell Platt On… Read More

The Schmidt Vocal Arts Competition will be Nov. 7 at Blair School of Music. Schmidt Vocal Arts (SVA), a national nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the next generation of classical singers, will host its Tennessee High School Regional Competition at Vanderbilt Blair School of Music on Saturday, November 7, 2026,… Read More

When clarinetist Mariam Adam heard musicians abroad performing works by her longtime friend and collaborator Valerie Coleman, she kept returning to a question: Why hadn’t they recorded these pieces together? Many were written for Adam and her colleagues or during their years in Imani Winds, the Grammy-winning wind quintet Coleman… Read More

For the second year, Blair School of Music will host the Zildjian US Young Drummer of the Year Competition, a nationwide search to recognize and elevate the brightest rising stars in drumming. The competition culminates with an exciting live event celebrating excellence, creativity, and the future of… Read More

Jared Hauser and Willis Delony will perform in Turner Recital Hall on Oct. 1. Oboist Jared Hauser and pianist Willis Delony will bring their longstanding musical collaboration to Vanderbilt’s Blair Master Series on Thursday, October 1, at 7:30 p.m. in Turner Recital Hall. The recital follows the July release… Read More

This week, Vanderbilt hosted Lecture on the Lawn, a companion event to Lights on the Lawn, one of Nashville’s largest student-run benefit concert series. The event connected Vanderbilt students with six music and entertainment professionals for a firsthand look at careers across the industry. Deanna Walker, senior lecturer of songwriting… Read More

Lucas Maida performs as a soloist with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. (Nashville Symphony photos by Kurt Heinecke and Matthew Oh.) Two young singers from the Vanderbilt Youth Choirs took center stage with the Nashville Symphony over the weekend. Decani choir members Logan Harris, 12, and Lucas Maida, 11, performed the… Read More

Nora Li is a piano performance major at the Blair School of Music. Blair School of Music first-year Nuoyan “Nora” Li will be featured on NPR’s nationally syndicated From the Top radio program and podcast in early November. Li recently recorded a performance and interview in Turner Recital Hall for… Read More

Composer Daixuan Ai. On Friday, Sept. 11, Blair School of Music faculty members David Samuel, Dashon Burton and Sun-A Park will present the world premiere of The Ghosts of Chinatown, a new work that uses music and visual storytelling to illuminate one of the deadliest and most often overlooked… Read More

The Blair Big Band presents Archive Grooves: The Music of Mike Longo on Sept. 28, 2026. The award-winning Blair Big Band will open its 2026–27 season with a musical journey into Vanderbilt’s jazz archives as it celebrates the musical legacy of pianist, composer and arranger Mike Longo. Archive Grooves: The… Read More

For cellist Felix Wang, building a recital program is partly an exercise in exploration: revisiting music he has known for years, rediscovering works he hasn’t performed in some time and finding unexpected connections among them. That process shapes Wang’s Sept. 4 Blair Master Series recital, where he will explore what… Read More

A well loved professor becomes the new dean of The Ingram Commons. Hear what Tucker Biddlecombe is most excited about as the Class of 2030 starts their journey at Vanderbilt! Read More

When I Became We premieres this October at New York’s Atlantic Theater, audiences won’t encounter a traditional musical or even a conventional play. Instead, they’ll experience what composer Jack D. Coen, BMus’16, calls a “play for choir,” an original theatrical work performed entirely by a 16-person choir. “It really is… Read More

Sun-A Park and Ammon Perry Bratt will perform September 1 at Blair. When Blair School of Music piano professor Sun-A Park and her husband, pianist Ammon Perry Bratt, sit down at the piano together Sept. 1, they’ll share more than the stage. They’ll share the same 88 keys. Park and… Read More

Young musicians and their families from across the Southeast — and as far away as Oregon, Montana, and Maryland — will gather at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music July 12-17 for the Nashville Suzuki Institute, a weeklong immersion in music education built on the renowned Suzuki method. Now in… Read More

When EA SPORTS College Football 27 launches July 9, millions of gamers will hear the sounds of college marching bands performed by an ensemble that included 18 Blair School of Music students, faculty and alumni. The recording sessions marked the third consecutive year that Blair musicians have played a major… Read More

When Hiram Rodriguez, BMus’20, was recently appointed to the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, it marked the latest milestone in a career defined less by convention than by curiosity. A trombonist, composer, songwriter and artistic explorer, Rodriguez has built a professional life by embracing opportunities both inside and outside traditional classical music,… Read More

Claire Thaler still remembers walking into Blair School of Music for her audition weekend at Vanderbilt. As a violinist from Tallahassee, Florida, she had spent years imagining a future in music, but she wasn’t entirely sure what that future would look like. “Seeing the student showcases and talking to current… Read More

Tucker Biddlecombe, professor of music in Blair School of Music and associate dean of undergraduate education, will succeed Melissa Gresalfi, who has served since 2019 as dean of residential colleges and residential education and dean of The Martha Riv... Read More

The Blair School of Music jazz program is enjoying a moment that is both a culmination and a launching point. With two new DownBeat Student Music Awards, the release of a new Blair Big Band EP, and a steadily growing national profile, the program under Director of Jazz Studies Ryan… Read More

https://cdn.vanderbilt.edu/vu-sub/wp-content/uploads/sites/279/2026/05/11153029/kady_hillman_video_edit.mp4   When Blair School of Music graduating senior Kady Hillman stepped onto the stage at Vanderbilt’s May 8 Commencement, she delivered an electrifying rendition of the school’s alma mater that drew a powerful response and extended ovation from an estimated crowd of around 10,000 in attendance at FirstBank… Read More