Tucker Biddlecombe

Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education; Director of Choral Activities

CONTACT INFORMATION

1109C Blair
(615) 322-5801
Email

EDUCATION

B.M. (SUNY Potsdam); M.M. (Florida State); Ph.D. (Florida State)

Tucker Biddlecombe (Ph.D.) is associate dean for undergraduate education and director of choral activities at Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music, where he conducts the Vanderbilt Chorale and Glee Club. He also serves as coordinator of the Blair-to-Peabody teacher education program, teaching courses in conducting and music education. He is the founding director of the Vanderbilt Choral Scholars Immersion Program, which annually brings students to perform and study choral music throughout the United Kingdom. In addition, Biddlecombe recently concluded his seventh season as Director of the Nashville Symphony Chorus, the vocal arm of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.

Since joining the faculty in 2012 Biddlecombe has invigorated choral activities at Vanderbilt, with a focus on large choral works and music by living composers. Performance highlights have included Britten’s War Requiem, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Haydn’s Creation, Bernstein’s MASS, and multiple collaborations with the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth. He founded the annual Choral Prism concert, consistently the largest drawing event on the Blair concert calendar. 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.” Dr. Biddlecombe is a recipient of the Blair Faculty Excellence Award.

His work with the Nashville Symphony has included chorus preparation for many of the repertoire’s most revered masterworks. Notable performances have included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Bernstein “Kaddish” Symphony No. 3, Haydn Creation, Mozart Requiem, Verdi Requiem, Mahler Symphony No. 2, and the annual performance of Handel’s Messiah. During his tenure the chorus has toured the Czech Republic in 2019 performing Orff’s Carmina Burana at Smetana Hall in Prague. He has prepared the chorus for two major world-premiere recordings, John Harbison’s Requiem (rel. 2018, Naxos) and Gabriela Lena-Frank’s Conquest Requiem (to be released on Naxos in 2024). Upcoming projects include a recording of Antonio Estevez’s Cantata Criolla and conducting Messiah in December 2023.A passionate advocate of music education and a veteran teacher, Biddlecombe has served as President of the Tennessee Chapter of the American Choral Director’s Association (ACDA) and on the Florida ACDA Executive Board. Ensembles under his direction have performed at state and regional conventions of ACDA and toured both nationally and internationally. His credits include All-State choruses in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, New York, and North Carolina, and serving as co-conductor of the UCTB (Unchanged, Cambiata, Tenor, Bass) honor choir for the Southern Region of ACDA. International engagements include invitations from the United Kingdom and China, including a 2019 residency with the Central Conservatory in Beijing. Biddlecombe made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2019 conducting Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna and will return to conduct Carol Barnett’s The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass in February 2024.

Tucker 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, respectively. He resides in Nashville with his wife Mary Biddlecombe, director of the Blair Academy at Vanderbilt, and artistic director of the Blair Children’s Chorus.