Faculty

Students, faculty, and deans gathered recently with Malcolm Matthews, adjunct artist teacher of organ and harpsichord, to celebrate the installation of Blair’s new practice organ, a 10-rank mechanical instrument built by Austrian builder Gregor Hradetzky. Originally constructed for a home in Arizona, the organ was later used as a liturgical… Read More

Raheleh Filsoofi Raheleh Filsoofi has been awarded a Tennessee Art Commission Grant for her project, “The Resonance of the Lands: Finding Identity and Place in Tennessee Through Clay, Music, and Community.” The program involves mapping and extracting clay from various locations across the city to create 25 clay instruments, taking… Read More

We’re excited to share photos from the groundbreaking Banding Together United States / Cuba collaborative orchestra festival in Cuba. Directed by Blair’s Thomas Verrier, the finale performance in Havana on July 21 featured a concert band comprised of 40 Cuban musicians from the Centro Nacional de la Musica de Concierto,… Read More

Molly Herron Molly Herron will be in New York next week for the July 25 premiere of her new orchestral work, “Spin, Span, Spun,” which will be performed by Orchestra of St. Luke’s at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, conducted by Brad Lubman. Herron is one of three composers… Read More

Kathryn Huether   Kathryn Huether will join the Blair faculty as a visiting assistant professor of musicology in fall 2023. She is a classically trained violinist who received her Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Minnesota in 2021, followed by a year as a postdoctoral fellow. She just completed… Read More

Thomas Verrier leads a rehearsal in Colombia during the 2022 Banding Together event. Thomas E. Verrier will lead a Vanderbilt group to Cuba this week for the third rendition of the groundbreaking collaborative music project, Banding Together: La Orquesta CubanAmerican de Vientos (“The Cuban American Wind Orchestra”). Funded by a… Read More

Dr. Nathan Cheung Nathan Cheung will join the Blair School of Music as an instructor of collaboration in fall 2023. A native of the San Francisco Bay area, Cheung is known for his versatility as a soloist, collaborator, composer, and improviser. These roles are fueled by a life-long passion to… Read More

Russell Platt(photo: Alejandro Otero)Russell Platt, Adjunct Associate Professor of Music, has been awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship in composition from the Tennessee Arts Commission. “I am grateful to have been awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship,” said Platt. “I have been living and composing in Tennessee and at Vanderbilt… Read More

Mat Britain, Adjunct Instructor of Steel Drums, led a group of 14 adult students from Vanderbilt’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institue (OLLI) to the island of Saint Lucia in the Eastern Caribbean for a 10-day Steel Band Workshop in May, where he taught alongside world renowned steel pan performer/educator/composer Andy Narell. Read More

The annual cohort of the Vanderbilt Choral Scholars is in Leeds and Liverpool from May 16-27, singing performances and services at Leeds Cathedral and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Led by Tucker Biddlecombe, these are Immersion Vanderbilt experiences in which students perform the choral concert repertory they study at the Blair… Read More