Tucker Biddlecombe
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education; Director of Choral Activities
CONTACT INFORMATION
1109A Blair
(615) 322-5801
Email
EDUCATION
B.M. (SUNY Potsdam); M.M. (Florida State); Ph.D. (Florida State)
Performance highlights at Blair have included Britten’s War Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem, and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Biddlecombe founded the Vanderbilt Choral Scholars, an annual summer project immersing a cohort of students in cathedral choirs throughout the United Kingdom. He has conducted honor choruses in a dozen states, two concerts at Carnegie Hall, and in 2022 conducted the UCTB honor choir for the Southern Region of the American Choral Directors Association. International engagements have included guest conducting throughout the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, and a residency with the Central Conservatory in Beijing. He 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. This season includes performances of Verdi Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, the world premiere recording of Jonathan Leshnoff’s oratorio The Sacrifice of Isaac, and a recording of Carol Barrett’s The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass. He has prepared the chorus for two major world-premiere recordings, John Harbison’s Requiem (rel. 2018, Naxos) as well as the November release of Gabriela Lena-Frank’s Conquest Requiem. He frequently conducts the chorus and orchestra in performance, including Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and a concert of opera choruses.
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 Vanderbilt Youth Choirs.