The Vanderbilt Opera Theatre and Vanderbilt University Orchestra presented Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte last November in Ingram Hall. Pictured are Ben Edquist as Guglielmo (left) and Julia DiFiore as Doraballa.

Gregory Barz, associate professor of musicology (ethnomusicology), recently published The Culture of AIDS in Africa: Hope and Healing Through Music and the Arts. He served as program chair for the annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology. He was elected treasurer of the Society for Ethnomusicology and sits on the board of directors. He spent the summer conducting research on music HIV/AIDS in South Africa where he will continue his field research for the next few years. His documentary film, Inanga: A Song of Survival in a Daughter’s Rwanda, on music after the genocide in Rwanda, was recently released.

Joy Calico, associate professor of musicology, presented her Schoenberg research on the Lyceum Lecture Series at Baylor University and at the “Jewish Music and Germany after the Holocaust” conference at Dickinson College. She was also a keynote speaker at the “Music in Divided Germany” conference hosted by the University of California at Berkeley and gave a paper on the state of German studies in musicology at the national meeting of the German Studies Association. She published a book chapter on opera stagings in the collection Art Outside the Lines: New Perspectives on GDR Art Culture; a chapter on musical commemorations of Bertolt Brecht in Brecht and the GDR: Politics, Culture, and Posterity; and a book review in Modern Drama. She was also elected to a five-year term on the executive committee of the discussion group on opera for the Modern Languages Association.

Laurence Lesser, one of the most distinguished cello pedagogues in the world and former president of the New England Conservatory of Music, presented a master class in early December. With him is Blair senior Alexander Berry.

Amy Dorfman, associate professor of piano, joined violist Amy Leventhal in October to present a recital at Georgia Perimeter College in Atlanta.

Jen Gunderman, senior lecturer in music history, performed this summer with Tom T. Hall, Buddy Miller, Duane Eddy, Bobby Bare, Patty Griffin, Jim Lauderdale and others at the Country Music Hall Of Fame’s Ford Theater for Tom T. Hall’s 75th birthday party/ tribute concert. She also played with Paul Burch and Chris Scruggs at the Summertyne Festival in Newcastle, England; with The Wrights at Music City Roots Live From the Loveless Cafe; with Rolling Stones’ saxophonist Bobby Keys at the Copper Country Festival in Copper Mountain, Colo.; and with the Long Players, Vince Gill, Sam Bush, John Oates, and others at a benefit for Pete Huttlinger in Nashville. She also produced an album for Vanderbilt student Sarah Barr and gave a Vanderbilt Family Weekend lecture.

Grammy and Tony award winner Audra McDonald presented a concert in Blair’s Ingram Hall on Nov. 15. She also taught a master class while at Blair. McDonald is currently starring on Broadway in the newly opened The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess at the Richard Rodgers Theater.

Michael Holland, senior lecturer in percussion, in preparation for the April 1 Blair Percussion VORTEX concert, traveled to New York in December to witness the final performance of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. He returned in January to work with former dancers from the company as they prepare to collaborate with VORTEX in a centennial celebration that honors renegade American composer John Cage (see additional story).

Jim Lovensheimer, associate professor of musicology, presented the first Chancellor’s Lecture this year in Ingram Hall on Sept. 6, discussing “Why Musicals Matter.”

John Johns, associate professor of guitar, presented Serenata Italiana on the Blair Signature Series in September featuring music by Italian composers. Johns was joined by Kathryn Plummer, professor of viola, and Felix Wang, associate professor of cello. In October and November, he presented solo recitals in New York City at St. Stephen of Hungary’s Guitar Festival, a series featuring guitar alumni from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, as well as performances on the Faculty and Friends series at David Lipscomb University and at the University of the South.

Valerie Middleton, adjunct artist teacher of piano, performed at the October meeting of the Nashville Piano Study Club.

Cheri Montgomery, lecturer in voice, was invited to be a guest author for the September/October issue of the Journal of Singing. Her article “The Dynamic Diction Classroom” provides innovative methods for teaching lyric diction and sets standards for the course, instructor and student.

James Foglesong, adjunct professor of music business, announced plans to retire from teaching in May. Prior to coming to the Blair School in 1991, Foglesong was president of Dot Records and the Nashville divisions of ABC, MCA and Capitol Records.

Kathryn Plummer, professor of viola, gave a lecture and a viola master class last March at the National Conference for the American String Teachers Association in Kansas City. She also will serve a three-year term as the viola forum editor for the American String Teachers Association Journal. She was re-elected in April 2011 to serve as a national board member with the American Viola Society through 2014. In June 2011, she gave concerts for the 40th anniversary of the Sitka Summer Music Festival in Sitka, Alaska. In September, she served as viola clinician at the Middle Tennessee Suzuki Association. In November, she was visiting professor for a week at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Michael Alec Rose, associate professor of composition, on Sept. 30, heard Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Neil Heyde perform his violin and cello duo, Dr. Johnson and Mr. Savage, in the National Portrait Gallery in London, England, where the great portrait of Samuel Johnson by Sir Joshua Reynolds hangs. The concert was related to the NPG exhibition “Only Connect” curated by Skaerved. Rose performed as the “bell ringer,” hitting an antique Israeli brass bowl with a kitchen spoon (both of which he brought from Nashville) when the two friends “heard the chimes at midnight” together.

U.S. Senators Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), at right, listen as Susanna Johnson, at left, plays the viola and Kameron Myers, second from left, plays the violin at a constituent event on July 12. Pre-college student Myers, a member of the Curb Youth Symphony, and Johnson, an alumna of the CYS, were in Washington, D.C., to participate in the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute.

Helena Simonett, adjunct assistant professor of music history and literature, presented her current research at the SEMSEC meeting on “The Soundingness of Seeing: A Phenomenological or a Neurological Problem?” and at the ICTM Music Archeology Study Group meeting in Valladolid, Spain, on “Songworks: Insight into Musical Practices of the Past through Ethnography.” Three of her articles on transnational musical phenomena have been published this year: “Giving Voice to the ‘Dignified Man’: Reflections on Global Popular Music,” Popular Music 30 (2); “Re-localized Rap and Its Representation of the Hombre Digno,” in the volume Transnational Encounters: Music and Performance at the U.S.-Mexico Border; and “‘La vuelta al mundo en 80 tambores’: reflexiones sobre músicas migrantes.” With a grant from a Swiss foundation she finished her applied ethnomusicology project: the illustration of a children’s book narrated by a Mexican indigenous musician that tells the story of the beginning of the ceremonial fiesta. She spent the month of May continuing her fieldwork among the Yoreme in northwestern Mexico.

Longtime patron of the Blair School and for 16 years chairman of Blair’s KeyBoard, Martha Rivers Ingram was honored with a concert celebrating her affiliation with Blair in September at Ingram Hall. Pictured are Mrs. Ingram with Dean Mark Wait (left) and Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos at the reception following the concert.

Celeste Halbrook Tuten, senior artist teacher of Suzuki violin, was one of the accompanists for the Middle Tennessee Suzuki Association fall workshop at St. Cecilia Academy in September.

Amanda Virelles, adjunct artist teacher of piano, played recitals last spring at Jackson State Community College and at Blair with guest artist Alejandro Drago. She released Souvenir de Cuba, in July featuring music by Ignacio Cervantes, Manuel Saumell, Nicolas Ruiz Espadero and L.M. Gottschalk. The CD is available on iTunes, CDbaby and Amazon. In October she played the Nightcap Concert Series at Blair and recitals in Huntsville, Ala., and at Union College in Kentucky.

Felix Wang, associate professor of cello, was a featured guest artist at the University of North Carolina Greensboro’s Cello Festival in March, where he performed and taught master classes. He also coached and led Vanderbilt’s String Orchestra in a performance of Webern’s Langsamersatz and Mahler’s arrangement for string orchestra of Beethoven’s Op. 95 quartet. He helped direct Cellaboration, overseeing the Blair cello and composition studios in a presentation of eight new works by student composers for student cellists. In addition to performances with the Blair Quartet and Blakemore Trio, he also continued his role as principal cello of the IRIS Orchestra. During the summer, he joined the faculty of the National Music Festival in Floyd, Va., where he taught lessons, performed chamber music and served as principal cello of the festival orchestra. He also served again on the faculty of the Brevard Music Center. At Brevard, he was a featured soloist with the Brevard Sinfonia, performing Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D major. His performance at Brevard of Chopin’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, with fellow Blair faculty member Craig Nies, associate professor of piano, was chosen for radio broadcast on the program SummerStages, which broadcasts to NPR stations across the country.

Members of the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet served a residency at Blair in October. Here, Walter Seyfarth instructs Scott Franco (class of 2014) at a clarinet master class. The quintet played a concert as well as holding numerous master classes.

Thomas Verrier, associate professor of wind studies, conducted the Hong Kong Wind Ensemble in Hong Kong in November. Verrier has served as their artistic adviser for the last four years.

Vanderbilt Opera Theatre and the Vanderbilt University Orchestra presented Otto Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor for two performances in November. The fully staged and orchestrated production took place in the Martha Rivers Ingram Center for the Performing Arts. Pictured in foreground from left are Julia Taylor (class of 2012) and Mary Hewlett (BMus’10, MEd candidate, 2011).

For five weeks last June and July, Associate Professor of Trombone Lawrence Borden traveled to La Paz, Bolivia, to teach and conduct master classes. Invited by David Handel, conductor of the National Orchestra of Bolivia, Borden worked with members of the brass section of the orchestra as well as students at the National Conservatory, military band members and members of other sections of the orchestra.

Students who participated in the Blair Fall Chamber Music Camp for Strings, held at Blair in late August, were taught by the Atlantic Ensemble featuring Blair faculty members Wei-Tsun Chang, Seanad Chang and Kirsten Cassel Greer. From left to right: Jacob Schafer, Will Bender, David Bender, Mary Grace Bender, Michelle Chintanaphol, Teanna Goesser, Heather Hendrickson, Nathan Lowry, Hannah Hendrickson, Jesse Kasinger and Annie Bender.

Felix Wang, associate professor of cello, (left) was principal cellist for the IRIS Orchestra’s opening concert in Memphis with Yo-Yo Ma.

The Blakemore Trio gave the world premiere of Susan Botti’s Gates of Silence in February at Blair and in March at New York City’s Merkin Hall. Composer Botti (pictured right) sang the soprano solo for both concerts.

Andrew Jennings, professor of violin and chamber music at the University of Michigan and founding member of the Concord String Quartet, gave a violin master class in Turner Hall this spring. Here, he works with Michelle Godbee, student of Carolyn Huebl.

VIVA el MAMBO! A Night of Big Band Salsa featuring Lalo Davila, Sylvia Garcia and percussionists John Santos, Dann Sherrill & Marcus Finnie had audience members dancing in Ingram Hall.

Vanderbilt’s African Drum and Dance Ensemble with Kwame Ahima, director

Garrett Groesbeck rehearses his composition Study No. 1 – Oil on Canvas with a quartet consisting of Mana Yamaguchi, violin; Melissa Woo and Tori Bates, harps; and Mira Chang, violoncello. The quartet played the piece at the Student Composers Forum in February.

Student Showcase winners this spring included (back row, left to right) Tierney Bamrick, Chris Lowry, Katie Heaton, Jacob Sievers, Andrew Villemez, (front row, left to right) Alicia Enstrom, Ben Detrick, Caroline Gilbert, Sarah Davis and Cecilia Fleming.

Composer Peter Schickele held a master class for Blair students and faculty in Turner Hall last March prior to the premiere of his piece A Year in the Catskills, composed for the Blair Woodwind Quintet.

The Nashville Youth Repertory Orchestra performs in Ingram Hall in May. Sally McFadden is the director.

Internationally renowned soprano Renee Fleming presented a sold-out concert in Ingram Hall in April. A reception was held following the concert. Fleming, a star of the Metropolitan Opera, praised the acoustics and the audience at Ingram Hall.

Blair faculty member Mat Britain worked with students at the Taipai International Percission Summer Camp last July. (Photo: Mat Britain)

Vanderbilt Opera Theatre presented Kurt Weill’s Street Scene in November. (Photo: Steve Green)

Former and current Blair students (with Blair faculty member Cornelia Heard) attended the Aspen Music Festival last summer. On top of Aspen Mountain: Bonnie Brown, Andy Braddock, Shona Goldberg-Leopold, Johna Smith, Heard, Preetha Narayanan, Jennifer Estrin and Kathryn Eberle, Not pictured, but also attending Aspen were Blair viola alums Whitney Bullock and Eliza Thomason. (Photo: Connie Heard)

Blair students Mira Chang, Blake Johnson, Justin Goldsmith and Emily Nelson with Yo-Yo Ma (second from left) at the Schermerhorn Center last fall. Nelson and Blair precollegiate cellist Wesley Skinner participated in Ma’s master class. (Photo: Connie Heard)

Members of the Blair Percussion Ensemble, led by Blair faculty member Michael Holland, performed with rocks as intruments for one of the works in their November concert in Turner Hall. (Photo: Jenny Mandeville)

Blair alumni and current students gather for dinner to discuss “What’s Next?,” a career networking event at the beginning of Reunion Weekend. (Photo: John Russell)

Master Class with guest violinist Kathleen Winkler, right, of Rice University included Blair students Ben Hart & Michelle Godbee.

Jim Foglesong, adjunct professor of music business, threw out the first pitch at the Vanderbilt vs. Kentucky baseball game on April 27.

Dame Evelyn Glennie, Grammy-winning percussionist, gave a percussion master class during the spring semester. She was in town to perform Corigliano’s Conjurer: Concerto for Percussion Soloist and Strings with the Nashville Symphony. Here she works with senior Chrissy Smith.

The Commodore Steel Drum Band, directed by Mat Britain, performed in Ingram Hall at the Blair School of Music in April.

This year’s Appalachian Celebration focused on the Pa’s Fiddle project, a program that draws on traditional

Renowned trombonist Wycliffe Gordon joined the Nashville Jazz Orchestra during the spring semester for a concert in Ingram Hall. He also presented a master class prior to the concert.

Student showcase winners at Blair this spring were (from left) Ben Hart, Dean Whiteside, Daniel Ibarra-Scurr, Benet Braun and Steve Riddle.