Mary Biddlecombe

Contact Information

Email
615-343-3167
1185 Blair

Mary Biddlecombe serves as Artistic Director of the Blair Children’s Chorus at Vanderbilt University, overseeing the program’s six choirs encompassing students in grades 1-12. She also teaches courses in music education and choral literature at Vanderbilt as part of the Blair-to-Peabody teacher education program. Before joining the faculty at the Blair School of Music, Biddlecombe spent 10 years as a public-school choral director in New York, Georgia and Florida, encompassing every grade level. She has also taught courses in conducting at Belmont University.

Biddlecombe is a renowned specialist in children’s voices, particularly middle school and secondary choral settings. Choirs under her direction have performed for conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and have toured nationally and internationally. The Blair Children’s Chorus is also a frequent collaborator with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, with recent projects including two Mahler symphonies, John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls, Britten’s War Requiem, and Orff’s Carmina Burana in Prague, Czech Republic, with the Nashville Symphony Chorus. Most recently, BCC students appeared on ABC with Americana duo The War and Treaty performing We Are One during the 2021 Tournament of Roses Celebration.

Biddlecombe is in demand as an adjudicator and clinician presenting numerous interest sessions for music educators. She has conducted all-state choruses for Alabama and Florida, as well as regional honor choirs in 10 states. In 2022 she will serve as the Children’s Choir Clinician for the Montreat Music & Worship Conference.

Biddlecombe is a native of Syracuse, N.Y. and holds a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the Florida State University, and a Bachelor of Music Education from the Crane School Music at SUNY Potsdam. She makes her home in Nashville with her husband, Tucker Biddlecombe, Director of Choral Activities at Vanderbilt.