About the Composition & Theory Department

Department chair: Michael Slayton    

The Composition/Theory program seeks to equip students with the creative, technical and critical mechanisms central to developing their artistic and intellectual lives as scholars.

Working closely with faculty, composition students at Blair enjoy a freedom of exploration in a variety of styles, working to create a diverse portfolio of compositions. Student composers have numerous opportunities to hear their music performed each year, culminating with a full-length portrait recital during the senior year.

Capitalizing on Blair's integral role in the cultural and intellectual life of one of America's premier universities, The Composition & Theory program also develops opportunities afforded by access to Vanderbilt's excellent musical and non-musical course offerings, encouraging students to understand how their own music relates to a host of other disciplines, such as art, history, literature, philosophy, and the sciences.

A guiding principle of Blair's program in Composition & Theory is that both the art and craft of composing are strengthened in developing a relationship between personal growth and the vast network of ideas and experiences available to students in the 21st century.

The Musicianship Program

Director: Marianne Ploger

Increasingly, musicians are called upon to perform in diverse styles and genres, including music of the classic western tradition, jazz, popular and world music. To satisfy these demands, we at the Blair School are committed to providing students with the practical skills they will need to effectively perform in this eclectic environment.

Our musicianship program is designed to ensure that students systematically develop technical aural skills including pitch, interval and rhythm recognition, scale and mode identification, chord identification, et cetera. Additionally, students gain insight into how to augment musical communication and expression through the implementation of these skills.

Based upon teaching methods developed by Marianne Ploger since 1976, Blair musicianship courses focus on developing fluency in all of these areas.

Learn more about the Musicianship Program and register for 2017 Musicianship Intensives

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Faculty

	Michael Slayton Associate Professor of Composition and Theory; Chair of Composition & Theory Department	Email Website (615) 322-7673 2107 Blair
	Emelyne M. Bingham Senior Lecturer in the Teaching of Music	Email 615-322-4924 1189 Blair
	Paul Deakin Senior Lecturer in Music Theory	Email 615-322-5825 3104 Blair
	Michael Kurek Associate Professor of Composition	Email Website 615-322-7667 2113 Blair
	Stanley B. Link Associate Professor of the Philosophy and Analysis of Music	Email 615-322-4920 2106 Blair
	Joshua McGuire Senior Lecturer in Aural Skills	Email Website (615) 322-6891 2121 Blair
	Marianne Ploger Associate Professor of Music Perception and Cognition; Director of the Musicianship Program	Email (615) 343-9065 2110 Blair
	Michael Alec Rose Associate Professor of Composition	Email Website (615) 322-5817 2102 Blair
	Carl F. Smith Jr. Senior Lecturer in Music Composition and Theory; Coordinator of Music as a Second Major	Email (615) 322-4912 3114 Blair
	David Binns Williams Senior Lecturer in Musicianship and Choral Studies Director of the Vanderbilt Concert Choir; Director of the Vanderbilt Community Chorus	Email (615) 322-7164 3157 Blair