The Blair School of Music was established in 1964 by members of the Justin and Valere Potter Wilson Foundation as the pre-college music division of George Peabody College, offering musical instruction of distinction to the Nashville and Middle Tennessee region. Named after Mrs. Potter’s mother, Myra Jackson Blair, “Blair Academy,” as it was then known, provided preparatory musical training for thousands of talented schoolchildren under the leadership of C. B. Hunt, Director of the Peabody College School of Music and later Dean of the Peabody Graduate School.

In 1981, initiated by Chancellor Alexander Heard and directed by John F. “Del” Sawyer, Blair became the tenth school at Vanderbilt University. Blair brought music to Vanderbilt, providing an essential component to the University’s liberal arts curriculum. The music degree program began in 1986, with a Bachelor of Music in performance. The school now offers a bachelor’s degree in four areas — performance, composition/theory, musical arts, and teacher education, as well as a Master of Education degree for prospective music teachers, which can be achieved in one year following the completion of the bachelor’s degree.

Since 1993, the Blair School has been under the direction of Dean Mark Wait. Dean Wait’s administration has led the school through a series of expansions of facilities, faculty and instruction offerings.

Today, the Blair School offers instruction for degree-seeking students from across the nation, as well as over 500 pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade and adult students each year. Subjects range from music history, theory and songwriting to private and group instruction in all orchestral instruments, including Suzuki violin, as well as folk instruments such as dulcimer, fiddle and mandolin. Performance and instruction opportunities abound in individual voice and choral ensembles. Classes in the business of music, opera history, tai chi for musicians, jazz improvisation, computer music, sight singing and ear training are also offered.