David Childs, associate professor of choral studies, attended the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) national conference, held in March, where his work The Choir Invisible, commissioned in memory of past ACDA Executive Director Gene Brooks, was premiered by the Soprano Alto Tenor Bass (SATB) Honor Choir at the final concert. He also directed the Mississippi SATB All-State Honor Choir in April and was guest composer-in-residence at Wichita State University in April, where he attended the premiere of Of Fire and the Rose, his unaccompanied SATB setting of T. S. Eliot’s “Little Gidding.” In June, he conducted his Requiem in a world premiere performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City. He was guest speaker and clinician at Perspectives Choral Music Conference in Santa Fe, N.M., in July.

Jen Gunderman, senior lecturer in music history and literature, performed an accordion/ukelele duet with Michael McDonald (formerly of the Doobie Brothers) at the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame induction ceremony and performed at Warren Haynes’ 20th Annual Christmas Jam in Asheville, N.C., benefitting Habitat for Humanity. Recent recording projects include a Vedic chant album with a woman who worked with the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a rock album with an Irish musician and a country album for a real-life Iranian princess. Guest speakers in her classes included multiple Grammy winner Ashley Cleveland and members of the musical groups Old Crow Medicine Show and Widespread Panic.

Connie Heard, Valere Blair Potter Professor of Violin, presented violin master classes in Irvine, Calif., in January and Wilmington, Del., in early May, where she also judged a competition at the Music School of Delaware.

Karen Ann Krieger, associate professor of piano and piano pedagogy, judged the 2009 Fletcher and Nell Morris Piano Competition in February with Jon Nakamatsu and Witold Turkiewicz in Birmingham, Ala. In April, Krieger performed as accordionist with the Battle Ground Academy middle school choir in Franklin, Tenn.

Melanie Lowe, associate professor of musicology, read three papers on Haydn this spring and summer at Princeton University’s Musicology Colloquium Series, at the York University (Toronto) conference titled “Haydn: His Times and Legacy,” and at the Haydn Society of North America conference in Boston.

Valerie Middleton, adjunct artist teacher of piano, performed a lecture recital on Mendelssohn’s intermediate repertoire in January for the National Guild of Piano Teachers, Nashville chapter. She also performed for the Nashville Piano Study Club in February.

Marianne Ploger, senior artist teacher and director of the musicianship program, during a three-day residency at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in December taught classes, met with composition students, coached a saxophone quartet and attended final rehearsals for the premiere of her composition Passacaglia and Fugue, commissioned by the university’s wind ensemble. In January, she conducted a lecture-workshop on aural training for the faculty and graduate teaching assistants at the College of Music, University of Colorado, Boulder. In January, she served as clinician in advanced aural skills for orchestral conductors at the International Academy for Advanced Conducting Workshop. She also served a residency at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., conducting classes in music perception and cognition for the conducting participants who came from the United States, France, Italy and Taiwan, and also taught classes and presented a lecture for music students and faculty.

Michael Alec Rose, associate professor of composition, had Everything Under the Sun: Four Seasons for Two Violins given its world premiere in May at Wilton’s Music Hall, which commissioned the work for its series of concerts in the heart of London. In June, Rose’s The Periodic Table served as the inaugural work for the four-day International Piano Festival at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama with the festival’s director, Aaron Shorr, featured as piano soloist. A Tree of Life: Fantasy for Clarinet, Cello and Piano was selected for “Music in Our Time: 2009,” the June concert of the American Society for Jewish Composers at the Center for Jewish History in New York City.

Agnes Wan, adjunct artist teacher of piano, in May performed a solo piano work by composer Pui-Shan Cheung at the 10th Feminist Theory and Music conference, held at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In June, she performed a solo recital on the Brio Concert Series in Weaverville, N.C. This fall, she will perform her debut solo recital at Blair and will also perform at Christ Church Cathedral in Louisville, Ky., and in a solo performance on Live in Studio C on WPLN-FM, Nashville Public Radio.

Felix Wang, associate professor of cello, appeared in concerts as principal cellist of the IRIS Orchestra in Memphis. In April, he gave a master class at Western Kentucky University, where his former Blair student, Sarah Boronow, is on faculty. In February, Felix and his wife, Carolyn Huebl, assistant professor of violin, welcomed their third child, Louisa Xin-Ying Wang, to the Blair family.

Alexander Heard

Alexander Heard, an adviser to three U.S. presidents who, as Vanderbilt’s fifth chancellor, guided the university smoothly through the stormy period of the 1960s and 1970s without the unrest and violence that afflicted many college campuses, died July 24 at his home after a long illness. He was 92.

The first Wilma Ward Scholar, Sarah Rhoades, a violin student from Lubbock, Texas, will enter Blair this fall.

This is the second year that the Anne Potter Wilson Scholarships will be awarded. Incoming freshmen receiving this scholarship are: Seth Johnson, voice, Apex, N.C.;  Shelby Flowers, piano, Highlands Ranch, Colo.; Ann Goodrich, alto saxophone, Nashville, Tenn.; Sarah Rhoades, violin, Lubbock, Texas; Rami Grossman, percussion, Marietta, Ga.; Ali Cole, voice, Corona Del Mar, Calif.

The Chancellor’s Council ($10,000+)

BMI
Mr. and Mrs. Andrew W. Byrd
Mr. and Mrs. Frank E. Genovese
Mrs. Landis Bass Gullett
The Sartain Lanier Family
Foundation Inc.
The Martin Foundation
Nissan North America Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth L. Roberts
Mr. and Mrs. Steve Turner
Mr. and Mrs. Blair J. Wilson
Anonymous
Anonymous

The Dean’s List ($5,000+)

Mr. and Mrs. William G. Christie
Gaylord Entertainment
Mr. and Mrs. Peter M. Fyfe
Mr. and Mrs. J. Michael Hayes
Mrs. Martha Rivers Ingram
Mr. and Mrs. John C. Kornblum
Mr. Dana O’Brien and
Mrs. Helen Fox-O’Brien
Mr. and Mrs. Roland Schneller
Mrs. Linda L. Sinsar
Mr. and Mrs. Murray F. Somerville
Ms. Joanne Bell and
Mr. Steven A. Steigerwald
Mr. and Mrs. Dominique Thormann
Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos and
Ms. Lydia A. Howarth

Benefactors ($2,500–$4,999)

Dr. and Mrs. Steven Eskind
Mr. and Mrs. William M. Gandy
Ms. Jennie Smith and
Mr. James C. Gooch
Page and Bzur Haun
Mr. and Mrs. William B. King Jr.
Martha McCrory Foundation Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. John W. Poindexter
Mr. and Mrs. John W. Rich
Dr. and Mrs. Eugene B. Shanks Jr.
Dr. Mildred T. Stahlman
Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Street

Directors($1,500–$2,499)

Mr. and Mrs. Lang Aston
Mr. and Mrs. Arthur H. Buhl III
The Reverend Kimberlee Maphis
Early and Mr. Robert L. Early
Mr. Gordon R. Galloway
Mr. James H. Harris III and
Ms. Leslie R. Boone
Mr. and Mrs. H. Rodes Hart
Dr. H. Carl Haywood
Mr. and Mrs. Russell H. Hippe Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. William Korell
Monell’s Dining and Catering
Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Moses
Mr. and Mrs. Frank I. Nebhut Jr.
Ms. Virginia F. Payne
Dr. and Mrs. W. Faxon Payne
Mrs. Jean Richardson
Dr. and Mrs. Charles E. Roos
Ms. Georgianna W. Russell
The Songwriters Guild Foundation
Ms. Joanne Bell and
Mr. Steven A. Steigerwald
Mr. Christian Teal
Dean and Mrs. Mark Wait
The Washington Foundation
Dr. Barbara Engelhardt and
Mr. Justin P. Wilson

Patrons($1,000–$1,499)

Beegie and Billy Adair
Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Averbuch
Emanuel Ax
Ms. Marcelle Guilbeau and
Mr. David J. Baird
Mr. Joseph and Judith Liff Barker
Mr. and Mrs. John S. Beasley II
Mr. and Mrs. Martin S. Brown
Mrs. Monroe J. Carell Jr.
Mrs. Robert Chalfant
Dr. and Mrs. Eric Chazen
Drs. Ann N. and James H. Clarke
Ms. Karin Dale Coble
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Cone Sr.
Mrs. Elizabeth Cormier
Mrs. Walter R. Courtenay
Mr. and Mrs. Brownlee O. Currey Jr.
Anna and Walter Durham
The Earthman Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Mark F. Eberle
Mr. Michael K. Eldred and
Mr. Thompson B. Patterson Sr.
Dr. Darrel L. Ellis
In memory of David Schnaufer
Mrs. Annette S. Eskind
Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Eskind
Mr. and Mrs. William W. Featheringill
Mr. and Mrs. Jim Foglesong
Susan and Joel Fuller
The Reverend Dick Game and Mrs. Anne Zipp Game
Dr. Susan Gray and
Mr. J. Dawson F. Gray
Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Hanselman
The Honorable Stella L. Hargrove and Dr. Joel T. Hargrove
Mr.* and Mrs. Alexander Heard
Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Houghland
The Hudson Family Charitable Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. John R. Ingram
Mrs. Lavelle T. Jones
Mr. and Mrs. James L. Johnson
Dr. and Mrs. Martin Katahn
Mr. and Mrs. Fred W. Lazenby
Dr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Lefkowitz Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel C. Loventhal
Mrs. Alexandra MacKay
Mrs. Alyne Queener Massey
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph L. May
Provost Richard C. McCarty and
Mrs. Sheila M. McCarty
Mr. William McInnes
Dr. and Mrs. Alexander C. McLeod
Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. McNeilly Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Adam Ramsay Michael
Ms. Susan A. Michael
Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth E. Mifflin
Mr. and Mrs. C. Geren Moor
Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Morphett
Mrs. Nancy Perot Mulford
Drs. Jane H. Park and
Charles R. Park
Ms. Christy L. Passmore
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Pryor
Drs. Nancy and Harry Ransom
Mrs. Sara W. Robertson
Mrs. Roscoe R. Robinson
Dr. and Mrs. John S. Sergent
Drs. Margaret and Charles B. Rush
Mr. and Mrs. John C. Schroeder
Dr. and Mrs. Steve Smartt
Mrs. Ada Smith
Street Dixon Rick PLC
Ms. Natilee Duning and
Mr. Ernest Frank Sutherland Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Earl S. Swensson
The T & T Family Foundation
The Reverend and Mrs. Timus G. Taylor Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Hall W. Thompson
Professor Cecelia Tichi and
Mr. William J. Tichi
Dr. and Mrs. Alexander S. Townes
Mr. and Mrs. Cal Turner Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Eugene H. Vaughan Jr.
VSA Arts of Tennessee
Mr.* and Mrs. James A. Webb Jr.
Mrs. Ann Harwell Wells
Mr. and Mrs. W. Ridley Wills II
Mr. and Mrs. William M. Wilson
Mr. and Mrs. Richard H. Wylly
Anonymous

The Blair KeyBoard

Martha Rivers Ingram, Chairman
Mark Wait, Dean
Del Bryant
Marianne Byrd
Ann and Jim Clarke
Emily Eberle
James S. Foglesong
Jennie Smith and James Gooch
Jim Harris
Patricia I. Hart
Bzur Haun
Samuel Loventhal
Kevin P. McDermott
Robert M. Moses
Georgianna Paul
Ellen Jones Pryor
Michael B. Reid
Norma Rich
Kenneth L. Roberts
Dominique Thormann
Judy Turner
Blair J. Wilson
*deceased

For information about giving to the Blair School, please contact the Blair Development Office at
(615) 322-7650 or email virginia.payne@vanderbilt.edu.

Dean Mark Wait prepares to award the Founder’s Medal to Kathryn Moreadith, who will embark on a year of travel and study as a winner of Vanderbilt’s Michael B, Keegan Traveling Fellowship.

Founder’s Medalist: Kathryn Moreadith
Banner Bearer: Julie Aiken
Alma Mater Vocalist: Jena Carpenter
Student Marshals: Molly Reinker and Sam Parler

Dean Wait confers the Bachelor of Music degree on graduates.

New Members of the Eta Iota chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda

Class of 2009
Sam Parler
Molly Reinker
Alina Satterfield

Class of 2010
Lindsay Cunningham
Jordan Holland
Alexandra Matloff
Arreanna Rostosky
Johna Smith

Vanderbilt University Summer Research Program participants

VU Global Summer Fellowship: Andrew Merritt

Vanderbilt University Summer Research Program: Mary Mathews

Blair’s Michael Hime presents the Richard C. Cooper Award to Ben Detrick.

Awards

SAI College Honor Award: Brittany Cooper
SAI Scholastic Award: Alina Satterfield
MTNA Student Achievement Recognition Award: Michael Krewson
Martin Williams Award: Arreanna Rostosky
Delene Laubenheim McClure Memorial Prize: Katie Heaton
Robin Dickerson Award: Victor McMillan
Jean Keller Heard Prize: Julie Aiken, Sarah Davis, Ben Detrick, Ben Hart, Chris Lowry
Magda Lachs Award: Tierney Bamrick
Blair Composition Competition Prize: Scott Lee
Blair Volunteer Service through Music Award: Madeline Myers
L. Howard “Zeke” Nicar Award: Brittany Cooper
Elliot and Ailsa Newman Prize: Lauren Henry and Alina Satterfield
Richard C. Cooper Award: Ben Detrick
Sue Brewer Award: Pierce Siebers
David Rabin Prize: Jacob Sievers
Margaret Branscomb Prize: Caroline Hart
Presser Scholarship: Johna Smith

Blair's pink banner among the other school banners in the Commencement processional.

The Blair Quarter Note, Vol. 33, No. 2, Fall 2009 © 2009 by Vanderbilt University. All rights reserved.

Editor, Bonnie Arant Ertelt

Art Director, Donna DeVore Pritchett

Designer, Christopher Collins

Contributors, Angela Fox, Liz Latt, Lisa Robbins and Cindy Thomsen

Web Design and Development, Lacy Tite

Associate Dean for Development and Alumni Relations, Virginia Payne

Director of External Affairs, Cindy Steine

Pre-college, adult, and undergraduate alumni are encouraged to send their professional or personal news to:

The Blair Quarter Note
2400 Blakemore Avenue
Nashville, TN 37212-3499

Or by e-mail to: quarternote@vanderbilt.edu

Undergraduate alumni news now appears in both Vanderbilt Magazine’s class notes section and in The Blair Quarter Note. Any news sent by undergraduate alumni is forwarded to Vanderbilt Magazine.

Visit us on the Web at www.vanderbilt.edu/Blair/

Vanderbilt University is committed to principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action.

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.

Registering for VUconnect is easy. You’ll create your user ID and password using a 4-digit VUconnect code. If Vanderbilt has your e-mail address on file, you should have received this code in June via e-mail. Then go to www.vuconnect.com/register to get started. (Your code will help you create a password; it is not your password.)

Registered Dore2Dore users will need to create a new user ID and password for VUconnect. The user name and password you had for Dore2Dore will not automatically register you for VUconnect, and Dore2Dore is no longer active. Biographical information from Dore2Dore has been automatically transferred to VUconnect with the exception of Career Advisor profiles, as VUconnect includes a new, improved system for this resource. Alumni with an @alumni.vanderbilt.edu e-mail address will continue to have e-mail forwarding service. Users of OwenConnect, the Owen Graduate School of Management’s online community, will need to also register for VUconnect to gain access to this comprehensive Vanderbilt online community.

Vanderbilt is committed to the privacy of its alumni, and registration for VUconnect is only open to Vanderbilt alumni and students.

Questions? Email vuconnect@vanderbilt.edu or call the Help Desk at (615) 322-5578. Help is available weekdays 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m. Central time.

Dean Mark Wait

This issue of the Quarter Note features a broad range of subjects reflecting both the achievements and expanded mission of the Blair school.

You have read in previous issues of the Blair Commissioning Project, funded by the James Stephen Turner Family Foundation, which is producing major works for the school’s leading chamber ensembles. This issue deals with one of the most ambitious commissions: Susan Botti’s Gates of Silence, composed for the members of the Blakemore Trio. As I write this, the work is approaching completion. Plans have been made for the Nashville premiere performance in February 2010, and the subsequent New York premiere will take place at Merkin Hall in March. Gates of Silence already promises to transcend several boundaries of the traditional piano trio, and we anticipate its rehearsals and performances with special pride and great pleasure.

Just as our faculty are creating and performing the music of the future, so are our students extending the art of music into parts of the community that might not otherwise have access to instruction and performance. The W. O. Smith Music school in Nashville holds special importance, for its faculty teach entirely on a volunteer basis. Students and faculty from the Blair School are an essential part of this mission; it affords us the opportunity to give back to the art form which has nourished us for many years. I hope that you will derive the inspiration from this article that we have felt at the W. O. Smith school and in other ventures.

Finally, I hope you will read carefully of the achievements of our students—both collegiate majors and alumni of the pre-collegiate program. They have distinguished themselves in a remarkable array of accomplishments which clearly demonstrate the degree to which music itself, and its place in the world, have been transformed in recent years. These are all signs of an art form and a school that are vitally and integrally involved not merely in preserving the monuments of the past, but in creating a bold future that will guide, instruct and inspire generations to come.

Mark Wait, Dean
Martha Rivers Ingram Dean’s Chair

Highlights include:

BLAIR SIGNATURE SERIES

A Plucked String Event, John Johns, guitar
Chair of the guitar department, John Johns, duets with Blair’s Marian Schaffer, harp, and Amy Dorfman, harpsichord.
Thursday, September 10, 8 p.m., Ingram Hall

Vanderbilt Wind Symphony, Thomas Verrier, conductor, and Vanderbilt String Orchestra, Robin Fountain, conductor
With guest conductor Michel Camatte, directeur, Conservatoire Darius Milhaud
Thursday, October 8, 8 p.m., Ingram Hall

“Viva La France!” Program to include Debussy’s Danse Sacree et Profane and Milhaud’s Suite Francais.

The Blair String Quartet Celebrates Mendelssohn
Christian Teal, violin; Cornelia Heard, violin; John Kochanowski, viola; Felix Wang, cello; with
guest artists The Ceruti Quartet
Friday, October 30, 8 p.m., Ingram Hall

The Blair String Quartet and guests the Ceruti Quartet bring together two fine ensembles to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Felix Mendelssohn.
Sponsored by Delphine and Kenneth L. Roberts in honor of Norma Gandy, Operations Officer, Blair School of Music

Vanderbilt Opera Theatre and Vanderbilt Orchestra present The Marriage Of Figaro
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Friday, November 13
6:45 p.m. pre-show talk
8 p.m. performance
Sunday, November 15
2 p.m matinee

All shows in Ingram Hall
Fully staged and costumed with Gayle Shay, director, and Robin Fountain, music director.
Friday’s performance features a pre-show talk with musicologist Melanie Lowe. Sung in English.
Sponsored by An Anonymous Friend of the Blair School

BLAIR PRESENTS SERIES

Music on Film
Introduced by John Kochanowski
Sunday, September 13, 4 p.m., Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall

Back for its second year, the Music on Film series presents large-format screenings of contemporary conductors filmed in live performance with 5.1 surround-sound technology.

John Kochanowski, violist for the Blair String Quartet and dynamic coordinator of the student chamber music program, leads the pre-film discussion that will introduce his selection for this fall’s presentation.

BLAIR NIGHTCAP SERIES

The Violin Now!
Guest Artist Peter Sheppard Skærved with composer and Blair faculty member Michael Alec Rose
Thursday, September 24
8 p.m. discussion
8:30 p.m. performance

Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall
Blair’s Nightcap format is the perfect vehicle for this evening’s guest artist, world-class violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved. He will explore in a lecture/demonstration style what it is to be a violinist today, drawing on his unique repertoire of rare works from the 18th and 19th centuries, and the many works written for him.
Sponsored by Nissan North America Inc.

Three by Three: Flute and Friends
Monday, November 2
8 p.m.  discussion
8:30 p.m. performance

Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall
Jane Kirchner and faculty friends Marian Shaffer, Cynthia Estill, Kathryn Plummer and Craig Nies, along with exceptional harp student Frances Cobb, team up to present a program of three charming, highly
varied works.
Sponsored by Nissan North America Inc.

Daniel Bernard Roumain, BMus'93, will be visiting associate professor of composition at Blair for the 2009-10 academic year.

“This is a signal event in the evolution of the Blair school, as an alumnus who has attained national renown as a performer and composer returns to teach another generation of classical music artists at Vanderbilt,” Dean Mark Wait said. “Our students are immensely fortunate that DBR is available for this teaching appointment. He will make extended residency visits to Blair two or three times each semester, and will work with student string quartets and teach extended techniques and performance art.”

DBR’s residency dates at the Blair school are scheduled for September 10–14; October 14–19; January 24–28; March 16–19; and April 19–22. The October residency will take place in connection with DBR’s performance for Vanderbilt’s Great Performances Series on Saturday, October 17, in Blair’s Ingram Hall. Blair students and faculty will perform with DBR on this concert. Ticket information for this concert is at www.vanderbilt.edu/greatperformances.

More information about master classes, performances, lectures and other activities will be released in connection with the residency period.

DBR melds his classical music roots with his own cultural references and vibrant musical imagination. In 2007, he premiered One Loss Plus, the first of three works commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) for their Next Wave Festival. His latest orchestral work and second BAM commission, Darwin’s Meditation for the People of Lincoln is a musical setting of a play by Daniel Beaty that explores an imagined conversation between Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln, and the political relationship between England, North America and Haiti. Following its New York premiere in October 2008, Darwin’s Meditation for the People of Lincoln moved to the University of Connecticut as a special celebratory concert on February 12, 2009—the icons’ shared bicentennial anniversary of their birth.

Other recent performances and commissions include: Five Chairs and One Table, a commissioned work for Imani Winds premiering at Carnegie Hall in 2009; WE MARCH!, a guitar concerto premiered by Eliot Fisk and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra; The Tuscaloosa Meditations, commissioned by the University of Alabama; Voodoo Violin Concerto, premiered by the Vermont Youth Orchestra; Double Quartet: The Kompa Variations, for the Providence String Quartet; a student quartet which premiered at the First Works Providence festival; and newly commissioned works for the Florida Youth Orchestra, Ahn Trio and Claremont Trio.

As bandleader of DBR and the Mission, he presents an electrifying show described as “an evening of chamber music with the accessible feel of a rock concert” (Albany Times-Union). Touring nationwide since 2004, DBR and the Mission made its international debut at Australia’s 2008 Adelaide Festival.

DBR serves as artist-in-residence of the Starbucks-sponsored Seattle Theatre Group and as music director of Seattle’s More Music @ The Moore program for the third consecutive year. A native of Margate, Fla., DBR completed his master’s and doctoral work at the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom.

Student volunteers Tiffany Tieu and Katherine Nagy from the Blair School of Music board the W.O. Smith Nashville Community Music School van. Blair students make up a large percentage of volunteer teachers at the W.O. Smith school.

For 25 years, the W.O. Smith Nash-ville Community Music School has provided music instruction to schoolchildren from low-income families for just 50 cents a lesson. These talented and dedicated students are often taught by other talented, dedicated students—Blair School of Music students, that is. Every week student volunteers from Blair conduct private lessons with children ages 9-18 in almost every major instrument.

This harmonious relationship benefits both the giver and receiver. “A great many Blair students go on to become teachers,” Dean Mark Wait says. “At W.O. Smith, our students hone their teaching skills and give back to their art.”

Blair students make up more than 20 percent of the W.O. Smith school’s 100-member faculty. Last year, more than 30 Blair students taught at the school. “We just couldn’t do it without them,” says Jonah Rabinowitz, executive director of the W.O. Smith school. “Blair is on the forefront of music education, and their students’ volunteer work here has helped us grow as an institution.”

That growth is evidenced in a modern new facility on Eighth Avenue South and an enrollment of 400 students who come from all parts of Nashville and Middle Tennessee. The school offers individual and group lessons in all band and orchestra instruments, as well as piano, guitar and voice. There are also classes in music fundamentals and theory, composition, music technology and recording. Three choirs, a string ensemble, wind band and other performing groups provide ensemble experience. The volunteer faculty also includes Blair faculty members, Music Row studio musicians, symphony players, public school teachers and church musicians—all donating one to four hours each week.

Blair student teachers are typically sophomores and upperclass students, recruited each fall by Rabinowitz, who visits the Blair campus and talks with the students about service opportunities. “It’s incumbent upon us as musicians to pass along our craft to the next generation,” he says. “There’s a wonderful continuity when we pass along how we play our instruments from person to person.”

Recent Blair graduate Julie Aiken passed along her craft at the W.O. Smith school for most of her college career. For the past three years, Aiken gave private instruction at the school to the same violin student. “Darold was my first student and had never had private lessons before,” Aiken recalls. Over the years Aiken saw her student grow from a shy sixth-grader who had never held a violin and hardly spoke during class to a versatile musician who also plays trombone in his school band and talks with his teacher about his life outside class. The teacher has perhaps grown even more than the student. “I’ve learned how important it is to break down problems into manageable steps and what to focus on,”Aiken says. “I’ve also learned how important it is to be faithful, each week, that what you’re doing can bring about change.”

Blair sophomore James Larson instructs David Horner on violin.

Sigma Alpha Iota music fraternity members Hannah Hickerson (rising senior, clarinet) and Lara Pitts (rising junior, trombone) are also volunteer teachers, and the entire SAI membership helps out at special events at the school. “The Smith school has a Halloween recital and last year our members baked treats, handed out goodie bags and had an arts and crafts activity for the kids,” says Shona Goldberg-Leopold, SAI president and musical arts/teacher education major at Blair. In March Goldberg-Leopold and her fellow SAI members organized a joint recital by members of the Blair and Belmont SAI chapters at the W.O. Smith school. Proceeds from a bake sale and door prizes at the recital were donated to the school.

Members of the men’s music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha volunteer at the school as well. “The birdhouse auction is our major fundraiser,” says Lynn Adelman, assistant director at the W.O. Smith school. “Phi Mu Alpha members help us with everything from setting up tables and hauling equipment to emptying ice chests and cleaning up after the auction.” The annual event features one-of-a-kind birdhouses created by local artists that are auctioned off to the highest bidder.

“Our students get a tremendous satisfaction and joy from their experiences at the Smith school,” says Pam Schneller, associate dean and liaison for Blair student volunteers with the school. “All of us at Blair feel privileged to be in music at Blair and at Vanderbilt. With that comes the responsibility to give back to others who don’t have those opportunities.”

In giving back through their art, Blair students find they also receive. “An hour a week is such a small part of my life,” Aiken says of her time commitment. “Yet teaching at the Smith school has helped me see my own playing—and my life—in a new way.”

Blair and Community Service

The W.O. Smith Nashville Community Music School is not the only institution to benefit from the Blair school’s talent and knowledge. As long as Blair has been in existence, the faculty and students have served Nashville and surrounding communities by offering free lectures, performing free concerts and volunteering to teach in a number of venues. For instance, faculty members in musicology have given free lectures at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville Public Library and at several Tennessee universities. Pre-college and undergraduate soloists and ensembles frequently perform, not only to entertain listeners at lunchtime concerts or art exhibit receptions, but also at area hospitals to give patients a musical respite during their stay. The following is a listing of places faculty and students from Blair have performed, lectured or taught as a community service during the last three years.

• The Blakeford at Burton Hills
• Fireside Reading Room in the Peabody Library
• Frist Center for the Visual Arts
• Health Center at Richland Place
• Leah Rose Residence for Senior Citizens
• McKendree Village retirement center
• Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools
• Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt
• Park Manor retirement center
• Parthenon Towers
• Psychiatric Hospital at Vanderbilt
• Richland Place Retirement Residence
• Rutherford County Schools
• Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
• Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital
• West End Home for Ladies
• Williamson County Schools
• Wilson County Schools

“I happened to get her CD out of the library,” Huebl says, remembering the stacks of CDs she worked her way through during the process. “Michael Jones, one of our librarians, said, ‘Oh, listen to this.’ I latched on to it pretty quickly. Her music for violin—it’s beautiful, with lyrical, singing lines. The colors feel new and unusual. They grab you. It’s not like what I’ve heard before.”

During the same period, Huebl, cellist Felix Wang and pianist Amy Dorfman were looking for a composer for the Blakemore Trio, which is one of the three Blair ensembles participating in the commissioning project, thanks to generous funding from the James Stephen Turner Family Foundation. The trio, whose recent performances in Florida were described in a review as precise and exciting with “expressive phrasing” and “a high quality of artistry,“ was developing a shortlist of composers. Huebl shared Botti’s music with Wang and Dorfman. They loved her work.

“Botti’s music is very imaginative,” Wang says. “The thing that draws me—there’s often a sense of drama. Even in the dissonances and timbres, there’s a sense of singing in her work. The kinds of sounds she gets are very emotional and surprising.”

Eventually Huebl and the trio decided to combine the two commissions to create a larger-scale piece that they could perhaps record in the future. Botti is now composing Gates of Silence, three connected but independent pieces that can be performed together as a cohesive program or individually.

For the trio, an important part of the selection process was getting a better sense of the most current developments in contemporary chamber music.

“If you program something written 10 years ago, that’s considered new,” Huebl says. “But 10 years ago was very long ago if you’re composing something now. There are so many wonderful composers out there, but you have to decide what you really value in new music. That it was innovative was important to me. I knew we would be surprised by what we got from Susan.”

“The selection process was exciting, but exhausting,” Wang says. “It’s one thing to play new musical works, but it’s different when commissioning premieres. People who do this a lot, it’s almost all they do. We haven’t been together very long. We really have to get out there, to hear what’s going on. But it’s something the trio loves to do. We love embracing contemporary music, and we want to be more active in getting new pieces written for us.”

Once the trio chose Botti as their composer in early 2006 the long wait set in. Like prospective parents, the trio members knew to temper their sense of great anticipation and excitement with patience.

“All of us knew that we weren’t going to get anything very soon,” Wang says. “We were selecting composers in demand.”

Felix Wang, cello; Amy Dorfman, piano; and Carolyn Huebl, violin, rehearse for the premiere of Gates of Silence, a work by Susan Botti created for the Blakemore Trio through funding by the James Stephen Turner Family Foundation.

So far, two of the Blair commissions have been completed. The first is the trio for horn, violin and piano that Lowell Liebermann composed for faculty member and horn player Leslie Norton through funding from the Office of the Dean. It premiered at Blair in April 2008. Peter Schickele’s A Year in the Catskills, commissioned for the Blair Woodwind Quintet through funding from the James Stephen Turner Family Foundation, premiered in March to great acclaim. Botti’s Gates of Silence will debut next.

The Botti work has three parts: “Lament: The Fallen City” for violin and piano; “The Journey without Her” for piano trio; and “Dido Refuses to Speak” for piano trio and soprano. Botti, widely acclaimed as both a soprano and a composer, will perform with the trio when Gates of Silence premieres in Nashville and New York City.

“I think that the biggest factor in being a singer—and bringing that into my composition—is that I have a strong sense of the music from a melodic standpoint,” Botti says. “There is a certain amount of line that I tend to use. But on the other hand, when I write for violin and piano, I’m not thinking of voice.”

In composing Gates of Silence, Botti was inspired by Virgil’s epic poem, The Aeneid, and the rhythms of loss, renewal, hope and continuation that she feels resonate powerfully today.

“I was reading the description of the fall of Troy, and then I’d pick up the newspaper and read about the destruction of Baghdad or the devastation of a small town in Oklahoma after a storm—this experience of your home and community being devastated through war or natural disaster, the emotion of that, and the question of how people continue on,” Botti says. “I read about the people in Greensburg, Kansas. It’s been two years since the terrible tornados that devastated the town. And they’re rebuilding—it’s going to be this incredible green city. It’s remarkable, people’s sense of hope. So the line of the piece is inspired by that in a way—that no matter what we lose, there’s a sense of hope and the ability to look forward. I find it very inspiring and beautiful.”

For “Dido Refuses to Speak,” Botti commissioned original poetry from Linda Gregerson, whom she met during her tenure on the composition faculty at the University of Michigan. She has used Gregerson’s poetry in her work before.
“Linda knows my music well. Her words are meant to be sung,” Botti says. “The more I work with them, the more I love them. Linda has a background in theater, so they have a sound world to them, because they were meant to be performed.”

The members of the Blakemore Trio are excited by the prospect of working so closely with a composer. They have commissioned pieces before, but their interaction with Botti has been much more extensive, especially since it culminates in a joint performance.

“Susan’s visited here,” pianist Amy Dorfman says. “She’s come to hear us play. She wants to meet with us individually.”

Botti says she loves to write with musicians, rather than just instruments, in mind.

“I’m writing for these players,” Botti says. “It’s very personal, but I don’t think that makes it so particular. I use the example of Handel. The arias are so powerful, and they’re such
great writing, and each time he had a production, he rewrote the aria for who was singing it.”

Like the members of the trio, Botti has high praise for Dean Wait, his approach to the commissioning project and the process he has created for his faculty.

“Mark Wait is a visionary,” Botti says. “He’s creatively looking at what is going to make his faculty and his school grow and empowering them. What greater gift to give them than to say, ‘Here is something to be created for you.’”

Wang, Dorfman and Huebl especially appreciated the autonomy they were given over their choice of composer and the process.

“It’s all centered on chamber music, which is really exciting,” Dorfman says. “That we can play in a major city—it benefits the school, it benefits the groups. It’s a far-reaching gift.”
The trio members also feel that the commissioning project gives them a new avenue to contribute to the musical community.

“We view our work with our students as having a long impact,” Huebl says. “And then there will be our impact through this. When we talk to our friends and tell them about this opportunity we have, they are floored.”

“It’s very important to me that there’s a certain level of risk and terror to the whole process.” Botti says of performance in general. “I love that moment in the theater when the lights come down, and you don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s a fragile, wonderful thing.”

The premiere of Susan Botti’s Gates of Silence will take place at Blair at 8 p.m. on February 19, 2010, in Ingram Hall. The New York City premiere will take place in Merkin Concert Hall on March 13, 2010.

Myra Jackson Blair Scholar Alec Holcomb

Alec Holcomb claims that he’s not very good at the popular video game “Guitar Hero.” That’s hard to believe, though. The 14-year-old is an accomplished guitarist who has already won two competitions.

“It just takes a lot of hard work to be great at an instrument,” Alec says. “You have to really focus on how you’re playing. You have to be scientific about it and make sure you can overcome each little obstacle.”

Alec is a Myra Jackson Blair Scholar at Blair, where he has been studying with Associate Professor John Johns for two years. He started playing when he was 7 and became serious about it at age 10.

“He’s a phenomenal talent because of his age,” Johns says. “He’s only 14, and he’s playing music that’s generally not played until you get much older. I have music majors who aren’t playing some of Alec’s repertoire.”

The Myra Jackson Blair Senior Scholarships nurture young talent like Alec. The funds are awarded to pre-college students in grades 7–12 on the basis of their talent and ability. Each scholarship recipient receives private lessons. They also take a music theory course and a music history course—all at no charge. Roland Schneller, Chancellor’s Professor of Piano, oversees the program which currently funds about 40 students. The value of each scholarship is $2,500 to $3,000.

“You would be amazed at the level of some of our junior and senior high students,” Schneller says. “And at our last auditions, there were half a dozen students that just blew us away. The maturity level of some of these teenagers is incredible. I never played at that level at that age.”

Blair also offers need-based pre-college scholarships to students in grades 3–12, namely the Valere Blair Potter Scholarships. In all, close to 200 Blair pre-college students are on scholarship.

“We try to attract kids who can’t afford to come to Blair,” Schneller says. “We have kids who come from schools where music isn’t cool. Then they come to Blair and see all the other kids playing the piano and carrying their instruments, and they feel like they’re part of something.”

The sense of belonging is something that Alec has noticed about Blair as well.

“It’s really nice being here because there are other people in the same boat as you,” he says. “They understand what it is to work at an instrument. It’s just fun to walk down the hallways and hear and see all the different instruments playing.”

Many of Blair’s pre-college scholarship students have gone on to careers in music, whether it be playing or teaching. However, a musical career is not necessarily the goal, according to Schneller.

“If a student can feel the excitement of what it is to make beautiful music, that’s a success story,”
he says.

Like all teenagers, Alec isn’t sure what the future holds.

“I don’t know yet where the guitar will take me,” he says. “But I know that if I keep working at it, it will take me pretty far.”

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)

The Blair Quarter Note, Vol. 33, No. 1, Spring 2009. © 2009 by Vanderbilt University. All rights reserved.

Editor, Bonnie Arant Ertelt

Art Director, Donna DeVore Pritchett

Designer, Chris Collins

Contributors, Angela Fox, Tim Ghianni, Jonathan Marx, Missy Pankake and Jim Patterson

Web Design and Development, Lacy Tite

Associate Dean for Development and Alumni Relations, Virginia Payne

Director of External Affairs, Cindy Steine

Precollege, adult and undergraduate alumni are encouraged to send their professional or personal news to:

The BLAIR QUARTER NOTE
2400 Blakemore Avenue
Nashville, TN 37212-3499

Or by e-mail to: quarternote@vanderbilt.edu

Undergraduate alumni news now appears in both Vanderbilt Magazine’s class notes section and in The BLAIR QUARTER NOTE. Any news sent by undergraduate alumni is forwarded to Vanderbilt Magazine.

Visit us on the Web at www.vanderbilt.edu/Blair/ 

Vanderbilt University is committed to principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action. ]]> http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/quarternote/2009/03/quarter-note-staff-spring2009/feed/ 0 http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/quarternote/2009/03/mandolin-professor-butch-baldassari-dies/ http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/quarternote/2009/03/mandolin-professor-butch-baldassari-dies/#comments Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:58:04 +0000 admin http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/quarternote/?p=147 Butch Baldassari, a Blair School of Music professor who created a cottage industry around his love of mandolin music, died January 10 at a Nashville hospice. He was 56. 

“Butch Baldassari was a wonderful artist, a warm and generous teacher and a great colleague and friend,” said Mark Wait, dean of the Blair School. “We were extremely fortunate to enjoy his affiliation with the Blair School and to learn from this remarkable man.

“Butch’s passing is a huge loss to the Blair School, to Vanderbilt and to the musical community.”

Baldassari was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor nearly two years ago. In 2007, some of his friends including musicians Ricky Skaggs, Bela Fleck, Mark O’Connor and Dierks Bentley participated in a benefit concert at Blair to help defray his medical expenses.

A native of Scranton, Pa., Baldassari worked in Las Vegas as a craps table croupier before turning to music full time. He moved to Nashville in 1989 to record with the band Weary Hearts. His mandolin work is featured on recordings by Alison Krauss, Elek Bacsik, David Schnauffer, Nashville Bluegrass Band and others. In addition to Weary Hearts, Baldassari was a member of the bands Lonesome Standard Time, The Grass is Greener, and he was founder and leader of the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble.

Baldassari founded the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble after learning about mandolin orchestras popular in America at the turn of the century. The ensemble, consisting of mandolins, mandola, mandocello, guitar and bass, was a popular group in Nashville.

“We surprise our audiences every time we play,” Baldassari said. “Our repertoire includes Bill Monroe’s bluegrass as well as the music of O’Carolan and Vivaldi.”

Baldassari recorded dozens of albums sold through his own company, Sound Art Recordings (http://www. soundartrecordings.com/index. shtml). They include collections of Christmas, jazz, bluegrass and classical music. He frequently explored the frontiers and relationships between different varieties of music. For example, his album Travelers mixed traditional Irish, American and Latin dance music with an instrumental lineup of two mandolins, bouzouki and guitar. 

Baldassari was adjunct professor of mandolin at Blair since 1996. Survivors include his wife, Sinclair Baldassari, and son, Blake Baldassari.

There is another element to music, however—its actual creation. Of course, the Blair School, like most schools of music, has several wonderful composers on its faculty, and we take great pride in their work. Three years ago, however, we decided to commission works for three of our finest ensembles—the Blair String Quartet, the Blair Woodwind Quintet, and the Blakemore Trio—from nationally and internationally renowned composers. With funding from the James S. Turner Family Foundation, these commissions are becoming a reality. In addition, the Dean’s Office is funding commissions of solo works for several of our individual faculty members at Blair.

These commissions are vitally important for several reasons. First, of course, they culminate in the creation of musical works that expand and enrich the repertoire. Too often, we concentrate on music of the past while ignoring the fact that engaging new works is part of our work as artists and musicians. Secondly, these new works will bring attention to the Blair School and its excellent performing faculty, who will become the proponents of these works. All of these works will be performed not only at Vanderbilt University, but at important musical centers elsewhere. Finally, by making possible the actual creation and performance of these new works, we are reminded of the importance of music as a means of expression, as an art form in itself. And that, ultimately, is the very reason we exist as artists and as a school of music.

Dean Mark Wait

Blair musicologists Joy Calico and Jim Lovensheimer

With politics at the forefront of the news cycle, particularly given the past election year, it’s easy to assess the impact of today’s constant barrage of instantaneous news on the artists of our time. Tune in any radio—or perhaps more accurately, access YouTube—and you can hear the latest lullaby, parody or pop tune geared to a particular political viewpoint.

This is no less true for composers working in classical music or musical theatre, nor is it limited to those working in the present day. Cultural context, including the role of politics, has always shaped how music is composed and performed, and Blair School of Music professors Joy Calico and Jim Lovensheimer feel that as musicologists they are charged with helping students to understand music within the cultural context of its creation. Both will tell you, however, that this context is perpetually shifting, subject to the vagaries of history and society. Through their own scholarly pursuits, Calico and Lovensheimer come a little closer to grasping the profound complexities of music as it is experienced in the real world.

“I try to discourage my students from thinking of music only as entertainment,” Calico says. “Composers don’t live in a vacuum. We have this idea that they operate in a parallel universe where outside forces don’t affect them, but politics—on any number of fronts, and interpreted any number of ways—affects what they do.”

This idea is at the core of Calico’s latest research-in-progress, Musical Remigration: Schoenberg’s “A Survivor from Warsaw” in Postwar Europe, a study of the celebrated modernist’s 1947 choral work, which gives powerful expression to the experiences of Polish Jews during the Holocaust. The composer died in 1951, leaving behind A Survivor in Warsaw as a kind of thorny posthumous legacy.

“The piece is a lens through which to view what was happening in postwar Europe,” Calico explains, “so I’m looking at how the piece was received in seven different countries on both sides of the East/West divide. It managed to hit every exposed nerve of the European psyche at the time. It was written by a Jew; it’s about the Holocaust; it makes the Germans look like fiends and the Jews look heroic; it’s a 12-tone composition; and though Schoenberg (who moved to the United States in 1934) never returned to his home in Austria, this piece serves as a kind of symbolic remigration.

“The buttons it pushes are the same everywhere, but the specific contexts that emerge are interesting.”

As a case in point, Calico cites the piece’s mixed reception in West Germany during the 1950s. “We have this image of West Germany in the 1950s as a nirvana for modern music, but that’s not entirely true. My research shows that there was an anti-Semitic sentiment running through the country at the time, and that influenced the reception of Survivor. The American version of West German history isn’t an accident—in this case, history was quite literally written by the victors.”

Calico will continue to work on the book during the next academic year, thanks to having received a highly competitive ACLS Frederick Burkhardt Fellowship for Recently Tenured Scholars, which will allow her to spend 2009-10 as a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. Her archival research thus far in Warsaw, Oslo and Paris has been funded by a Vanderbilt University Research Scholars Grant and a Howard Fellowship from the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation; the latter will fund Calico’s additional archive work in Prague, Vienna and Leipzig this summer.

“There’s a huge body of literature on Holocaust studies that I’m just now getting into,” Calico says, “and I have no doubt that this scholarship will affect the way I’m handling this project.”

Lovensheimer has encountered his own share of revelations about the postwar era in his latest research project, South Pacific: Paradise Rewritten, due to be published by Oxford University Press later this year. Though Rodgers and Hammerstein’s hugely popular musical would seem to have little in common with Schoenberg’s jarring piece, the two works premiered within a year of each other. And, like A Survivor in Warsaw, South Pacific has a lot to tell us about the mid-20th-century mindset.  

“When I was doing some research at the Library of Congress in the Oscar Hammerstein II Collection, I discovered that the show started out much more political than it ended up being,” Lovensheimer says. “At the same time, it does have a message of racial tolerance. So the playwrights had to find this fine line between edifying and entertaining their audiences. My work at large is about looking at issues of gender, race, colonialism and the new corporate system, and demonstrating how South Pacific deals with those issues.”

In the field of musicology, American musical theater remains a relatively unexplored topic of discussion. This is, Lovens-heimer says, because it’s a popular genre. “Classical music critics don’t take it seriously because they think it’s middlebrow, and theater people don’t take it seriously because they think it’s not legitimate theater,” he says. “This is starting to change, though, and I’m hoping that this book will be a part of creating that change. Within this genre, there are some powerful cultural texts that tell us about who we are: Showboat addresses the issue of race, for instance, and Oklahoma is all about being an American in a time of war.”

Lovensheimer routinely brings his irrepressible enthusiasm for research into the classroom, where he urges students to open their minds to new ways of thinking. It’s for this reason, among others, that he was named not only the 2008 winner of the Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching at Vanderbilt, but also the recipient of the Chancellor’s Cup, given annually to a faculty member whose dedication to teaching spills out of the classroom and into student life (see below). For Lovensheimer, it’s all a part of getting people to understand the fundamental vitality of the culture that surrounds us every day.

“My goal is to make people aware of the vast body of music that’s out there to be experienced,” he says. “One of the few soapboxes I get on is to instill in my students the idea that American music is not inferior to European music. It’s an intersection of cultures and people and ideas and traditions that most of us don’t think go together. And yet they’re always bumping together and creating something new, and that’s what makes American music so exciting.”

And that’s a good thing, because in this case, the octogenarian-plus is string master Robert Mann, who founded the Juilliard String Quartet in 1946 and remained first violinist until “retiring” in 1997.

“Bobby is a joy,” says Dean Mark Wait, marveling at the October visit during which Mann played second viola with the Blair String Quartet and gave master classes.

A violin master class with Grammy-nominated guest virtuoso Andres Cardenes was held this fall in Blair's Turner Hall. Here Cardenes works with Blair freshman Caroline Hart.

Mann’s visit set a vigorous tone for the school. “It’s a good year for us,” Wait says. This “good year” also included the visit to Blair by world-class musicians who recreated iconic composer Elliott Carter’s textured, challenging work as part of a worldwide observance of his 100th birthday. And it includes Renée Fleming—“the best soprano in the world,” according to Wait—who is setting aside her usual requirement for 1,000-plus-seating to perform in the 618-seat Ingram Hall. Additionally, the Blair String Quartet presented the local premiere of Triptych, esteemed New York composer Robert Sirota’s rumination on 9/11. The composer, who is president of the Manhattan School of Music, attended the performance, which he regaled as “transcendent” in a congratulatory note to the quartet.  

Those may seem highlights enough for one year, but it shouldn’t be overlooked that the generosity of benefactors allowed Blair to push forward by commissioning works by great composers for performance by the faculty of musical virtuosos.

Deserved pride lights Wait’s face as he reviews these accomplishments. “The Blair School is relatively young. We’ve only had a collegiate program since 1986. And the trajectory is definitely upward,” he says. “Just the fact that we can bring in great artists for the students and the faculty is a great pleasure,” he says. 

Equally excited by the year—most especially by the Mann visit—are members of the Blair String Quartet. 

First violinist Chris Teal, a 35-year member of the BSQ, recalls it as “unforgettable.” Mann “gave a wonderful master class,” he says. “And even though he’s known as a great, great violinist, he also played viola.” In fact, Mann, the Juilliard String Quartet founder—whose biography includes a 1952 visit to Albert Einstein’s house during which the scientist joined in on violin—played the second viola part in the Blair group’s performance of Mozart’s Quintet in C-Major for String Quartet and Viola.

Mann “has been an incredible force in chamber music in America,” says Teal. “He’s a living legend …. His commitment and passion and his vision of the vitality of chamber music has inspired a lot of players.”

One who speaks to that inspiration is BSQ violist John Kochanowski, who has known Mann for 37 years. “I was a student at Juilliard, and he was my teacher,” he says. “I’ve been at Vanderbilt 21 years. Before that I was the violist and founding member of the Concord String Quartet, which Bobby Mann put together. [He] was my mentor.”

Kochanowski says the visit was “one of those great, once-in-a-lifetime things. To have him sit next to me and make music is the great thrill of my life.”

The performance aside, Mann’s visit also was reaffirming to these musicians and students. 

“What was so profoundly moving to me: That (master) class he gave so beautifully explained why music is important to everyone,” Kochanowski says. “He showed our students a level of intensity that is hopefully going to run through their lives.”

Robert Mann (center), founder of the Juilliard String Quartet, presented a master class at Blair during the fall semester. He and Blair’s John Kochanowski (right) work with Ben Hart.

Voice students will seek similar inspiration in the April appearance by Metropolitan Opera star Fleming, who only agreed to perform in Ingram Hall after hearing raves by fellow soprano Dawn Upshaw, who has sung at Blair twice. The sopranos share the same agent, and word of the gem that is Ingram convinced Fleming to appear at Blair, according to Wait. Both sopranos’ visits were made possible through a fund endowed by the late Mary Ragland, an accomplished soprano who settled in Nashville and became a patron of the arts. 

The November “Music for 100 Years—The Elliott Carter Centenary Concert” was another peak. Carter’s 100th birthday was celebrated throughout the classical world, as ensembles explored the works of the composer who consistently challenges textural, tonal boundaries.

“There might be some long, lyrical line contrasted with a skitting, jittery musical figure,” Wait explains. “The interest in his music exists in how these lines of music intersect.”

The visiting artists in Blair’s salute included Tara O’Connor, flute; Charles Neidich, clarinet; Rolf Schulte, violin; Fred Sherry, cello; and Steve Gosling, piano.

“These are some of the best musicians in the world,” says Wait. 

O’Connor, New York-based music educator and flute player, notes that “there are only two places you can hear this program with these players: the Blair School and Carnegie Hall.

“It’s quite something the Blair School is on board,” O’Connor says. “[It shows a] commitment to the music of the future.”

“We are not principally a presenting organization,” Wait says, emphasizing how special the opportunities and circumstances were that brought these acclaimed artists to perform at the Blair School. “This year we were especially fortunate to get some of the great artists in the musical world.” 

“Every year the Blair School has very good artists come visit: This just happened to be a great year.”

Tim Ghianni, a veteran journalist who lives in Nashville, is serving this year as Journalist-in-Residence for Vanderbilt Student Communications.

Cornelia Heard, professor of music and chair of the strings department of the Blair School of Music, has been named the holder of the newly created Valere Blair Potter Chair.

The chair is endowed through a gift to the university by the grandchildren of Valere Blair Potter.

“We are very excited to receive this endowed chair, and most proud of this recognition by the Potter family of Connie’s accomplishments as a performer and teaching artist,” said Mark Wait, Blair School dean. “This rare and valued endowment is an example of the generosity of the descendants of Valere Blair Potter to Vanderbilt University and the Blair School in particular through the generations, and it is most fitting that Connie Heard be named the recipient of this honor.”

In addition to being a much sought- after teacher in both the university and precollege schools at Blair since 1982, Heard is a violinist for the Blair String Quartet, the school’s most celebrated performing ensemble.  She has performed as soloist with the North Carolina Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Vanderbilt Orchestra, Municipal Chamber Orchestra in New York, and Aspen Brandenburg Ensemble. Her students have won and been prize winners in such competitions as Music Teachers National Association National Competition, Corpus Christi International Competition, Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, Montgomery and LaGrange Symphony Concerto Competitions, Curb Records/Nashville Symphony Competition, as well as local and summer festival concerto competitions. She has served as a member of the performance faculty at the Sewanee Festival, 1985-99; Killington Music Festival 2002-04; and the Aspen Music Festival 2005-07.

Valere Blair Potter, a beloved Nashville community philanthropist and volunteer, along with her daughter, Anne, and son-in-law, David K.Wilson, founded the Peabody Preparatory School of Musical Arts in 1964, under the auspices of the Potter Foundation.  This well-known music academy later became the Blair School of Music, and joined Vanderbilt University in 1981. Valere Potter’s grandchildren, members of the Potter and Wilson families of Nashville and California, are the donors of the chair at the Blair School.

Other quartet concerts this fall included return engagements to Music Mountain in Connecticut, Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., University of Georgia in Athens and Southwestern Georgia University in Americus. The quartet also appeared at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., performing with former Blair faculty member Ron Shinn and presenting master classes. 

The Blakemore Trio’s busy fall schedule included a concert on the prestigious “Artist Series” in Tallahassee, Fla. The trio also performed at the University of North Florida and Western Kentucky University, as well as on chamber music series in Memphis and Huntsville. 

Mat Britain, adjunct instructor of music, was invited to teach steel drums at the Taipei International Percussion Summer Camp at the National Taipei University School of the Arts in July. The camp, sponsored by the Ju Percussion Foundation, featured a concert presented by the students at the end of the camp. Britain was also percussionist for country music star Louise Mandrell’s “Joy To The World” Christmas Dinner and Show at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in December.

Joy Calico, associate professor of musicology, presented papers at the national meeting of the German Studies Association and at a symposium on German culture at Iowa State University in October. In November she gave invited colloquia in the musicology departments at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Stanford University.

David Childs, associate professor of choral studies, served as conductor/clinician for the Texas All-Region XX Honor Choir in Dallas, the Tennessee All Mid-State Women’s Choir, the Mississippi All-State SATB Honor Choir, and the Lake Charles SATB Honor Choir. He tutored and lectured at the International Summer School of Choral Conducting in Hamilton, New Zealand, and saw world premieres of newly commissioned works in Eugene, Ore., and in Oklahoma City by the National SATB Honor Choir at the National American Choral Directors Association Conference. He published the article “Weep No More” in GIA Music Series Teaching Music through Performance, Volume III.

Amy Dorfman, associate professor of piano, teamed up with violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley in September to present a benefit recital for the Asheville Symphony at the Diana Wortham Theater.

Elizabeth Eckert, adjunct artist teacher of piano, performed in Washington, D.C.‘s Hall of Nations at the Levine School of Music’s gala event. She also attended the Music Mind Games Unit 2 Teacher Training Class in Kensington, Md., last summer.  

Connie Heard, professor of violin, returned to the artist faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School last summer where she taught, coached chamber music, and performed on the faculty chamber music series. She performed on German violinist Julia Fischer’s recital, along with David Halen, concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony; Alan Gilbert, violist and conductor of the New York Philharmonic; and Eric Kim, principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony.

Carolyn Huebl, assistant professor of violin, taught at the Intermountain Suzuki Institute in Utah in June and then spent the summer at the Brevard Music Center, where she served as principal second violin, taught a full class of collegiate and precollegiate students and performed chamber music. This fall she presented a recital at Blair with Dean Mark Wait. In October, she presented a master class at University of North Florida while on tour with the Blakemore Trio.

Amy Jarman, senior lecturer in voice, presented recitals of American music in Sofia, Bulgaria, as a part of the AmBul 2008 Festival of American and Bulgarian music, and in Bristol, England, as a featured performer on the Bristol Cathedral recital series. In addition, she gave lecture/recitals and taught master classes in American art song at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England.

John Johns, associate professor of guitar, recently performed a solo recital for the Tennessee Guitar Festival at Middle Tennessee State University. In the fall he presented “John Johns and His Lady Friends, Part Deux,” with “lady friends” Carolyn Huebl, violin, Jane Kirchner, flute, and Kathryn Plummer, viola, at First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, Tenn., for its Fall Chamber Music Series; on The Blair School Signature Series; and at Richland Place. In November, Johns gave six concerts with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra on the Young People’s Concerts series, performing works by Vivaldi and Rodrigo at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center and at Austin Peay State University. He also performed solo recitals on “Live in Studio C” on WPLN-FM celebrating its 10th anniversary and at Park Manor.

Karen Ann Krieger, associate professor of piano and piano pedagogy, gave a presentation, “Teaching Technique and Musicality,” to the Southern Indiana Area Music Teachers in Evansville in October. She also judged the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music’s Concerto Competition.

Michael Kurek, associate professor of composition, had his Concertino for Celesta and Orchestra performed in January by the Orchestra of the Theater Lüneburg near Hamburg, Germany. His Sonata for Viola and Piano was performed in January by the distinguished soloist Sylvia Ahramjian and pianist Carl Cranmer in Philadelphia. Concurrent with the Philadelphia performance, Kurek was guest composer at West Chester University. 

Virginia Lamothe, adjunct professor of dance history and music history, recently published an article in the journal Early Music on dance and performance practice issues in Claudio Monteverdi’s Orfeo.

Joe Rea Phillips, senior artist teacher of guitar, taught tai chi in The Commons last summer for six weeks as part of the Vanderbilt Summer Academy, a program that attracts gifted and talented middle and high school students from many states. 

Kathryn Plummer, professor of viola, taught at the Viola Workout Camp in Crested Butte, Colo., in June. Also in June, she and Michael Alec Rose presented a lecture/recital at the International Viola Congress in Tempe, Ariz. She performed at the Festival der Zukunft in Ernen, Switzerland, in August and performed and taught at the Second Annual Viola Celebration in Knoxville in September. She was recently elected to serve on the National Board of the American Viola Society.

Jonathan Retzlaff, associate professor of voice, taught on the faculty of AIMS Festival in Graz, Austria, in July and August. He appeared with the AIMS Festival Orchestra singing selections from Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music at the Schlossenberg in Graz and in Weiz, Austria. Last April Retzlaff was soloist in Johannes Brahms’ Requiem with conductor Jamie Kirsch and the Blair choirs in a benefit concert for The Shade Tree Family Clinic in Nashville and the Lawala Community Clinic in Kenya.

Melissa Rose, associate professor of piano, gave a workshop on “Playing Orchestral Reductions:  A Guide for the Perplexed Pianist” for the state convention of the Tennessee Music Teachers Association. In June, she was also the pianist for the Sherrill Milnes and Dawn Upshaw master classes at the national conference of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. In July, she served as an official pianist for ClarinetFest 2008, the annual conference of the International Clarinet Association, performing seven recitals with professional clarinetists from the world’s leading orchestras and universities. Following the conference in Kansas City, she remained for her 15th season as pianist for the Summerfest Chamber Music Series. In October she performed with Nashville’s Alias Chamber Ensemble.

Michael Alec Rose, associate professor of composition, was guest speaker for the music library’s “faculty tune-up” series in November, speaking on the sources and collaborative process leading to his Pastoral Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. This composition is dedicated to Peter Sheppard Skaerved, who served as violin soloist for the premiere of the work with the Vanderbilt Orchestra in November.

Helena Simonett, assistant professor of Latin American studies and adjunct assistant professor of music history and literature, presented papers on her current research on indigenous ceremonial music at the Annual Conference on Rituals, Holidays, Festivals at Bowling Green State University and at the Society for Ethnomusicology Conference at Wesleyan University. Her essay “Quest for the Local: Building Musical Ties between Mexico and the United States” was published in Postnational Musical Identities: Cultural Production, Distribution and Consumption in a Globalized Scenario. She is currently editing a book on accordion traditions in the Americas.

Carol Smith, senior artist teacher of violin, was a clinician and teacher trainer at Suzuki Music, Columbus Summer Institute, held at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, in June, and a clinician at Ithaca College Suzuki Institute, Ithaca, N.Y., in July. 

Celeste Halbrook Tuten, artist teacher of Suzuki violin, served as accompanist for the Middle Tennessee Suzuki Association at its annual fall workshop at St. Cecilia Academy.

Agnes Wan, adjunct artist teacher of piano, gave a solo recital at the American  Cathedral in Paris in December. In April, she will give a solo recital at the Sherwood Conservatory in Chicago to be broadcast live on WFMT (98.7 FM). She has solo recitals scheduled in Chattanooga and Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Lexington, Ky.; and Cincinnati, Ohio. Her book, Physical and Mental Issues in Piano Performance: The Interrelationships between Physical Tension, Performance Anxiety, and Memorization Strategies, was recently published by VDM-Verlag. She served as adjudicator for the Blount County Keyboard Competition in November and will also adjudicate for the Knoxville Music Club’s auditions in March.

Felix Wang, associate professor of cello, performed and taught in several places in addition to his duties in the Blair String Quartet and Blakemore Trio. He had solo appearances in East Lansing, Mich., and at Christ Church Cathedral in Nashville and gave a master class at Florida State University. He spent the summer on the faculty of the Brevard Music Center, where he taught, performed chamber music, and played in the festival orchestra. 

Staff

The Blair School has reassigned two staff members at the Anne Potter Wilson Music Library. Michael Jones is circulation coordinator and responsible for all circulation services including course reserves. Sara Manus is now education and outreach librarian. In March, Jacob Schaub joined these colleagues as the new cataloguer at the Wilson Music Library. Schaub received his Master’s in Library and Information Science in August 2008 from Kent State University and is currently working on his master’s degree in music from Ohio University, which he hopes to complete in May of this year. Most recently, he catalogued sound recordings and music scores at Kent State University Libraries and Media Services.

Adam Michael has joined the Blair Development Office as assistant director. Most recently, Adam was associate director of the Homework Hotline. Prior to that, he served as a public defender in the 18th Judicial District and as a teacher of American history at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville. He is a 2000 graduate of Duke University and a 2004 graduate of Vanderbilt Law School.

Judge Helen Gleason with Grades K-3 winners of Blair’s first Precollege Piano Competition. From left, Christine Li, Kaitlyn Mi, Dong Zhao and Gitae Park.

Blair’s first annual Precollege Piano Competition took place Nov. 16. Organized and led by Jama Reagan, Elizabeth Eckert and the rest of the Blair piano faculty, it included guest lecturer Melanie Lowe, a member of Blair’s musicology faculty. 

Grades K & 1: Gitae Park, winner

Grades 2 & 3: Dong Zhao, winner; Christine Li and Kaitlyn Mi, honorable mention;

Grades 4 & 5: Tony Ding, winner, Lindsey Tucker, honorable mention;

Grades 6 & 7: Jenny Sai and Joyce Kang, winners 

The winners studied with precollege piano faculty Elizabeth Eckert, Chi Hee Hwang, Valerie Middleton and Roland Schneller

The Nashville Boychoir at Blair performed with the Cathedral Choir of Ely Cathedral (in red) at Nashville’s St. George Episcopal Church last fall.

Under the direction of Paul Trepte, organist and director of music at Ely Cathedral, the combined boychoirs sang four songs by English composer Richard Rodney Bennett. An hour-and-a-half long workshop was preceded by a vigorous dodge-ball game between the two choirs (a great hit with the boys). Also that evening, Peter North, music director of the King’s School, Ely, conducted a workshop for the Young Men’s Chorus, leading to their singing alongside the professional lay clerks (men singers) of the Ely Cathedral Choir.

Both groups combined in concert at Nashville’s St. George Episcopal Church the next afternoon. Both Trepte and the head chorister of the choir praised the Nashville group for their professionalism and sound.

Ty Jackson (right) with John Corigliano

Ty Jackson, a member of the Nashville Boychoir at Blair, is the treble soloist in the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and Chorus recording of John Corigliano’s A Dylan Thomas Trilogy, released in the fall on the Naxos label. The work was conducted by Leonard Slatkin and recorded in December 2007 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. Joining Jackson as soloists for the piece were Sir Thomas Allen and John Tessier. 

Jackson’s solo on “Fern Hill” was originally scored for mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra, but was changed in its final form for boy-soprano. In its review of the piece on ClassicalSource.com, Jackson was praised for his “marvelous voice, and it’s clear he understands the text, too.”

Boychoir member Jake Moor shared the treble solo with Jackson during performances of the Corigliano piece with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and Chorus during its 2007-08 season, singing the part at the Saturday performance. Moor has sung numerous solos with various groups, including Nashville Opera’s Amahl and the Night Visitors in December.

The British and Nashville choirs participated in a joint workshop prior to their performance at St. George’s.

Parker Ramsay

Parker Ramsay, former member of the Nashville Boychoir at Blair, has accepted the prestigious position of Organ Scholar at King’s College, Cambridge University, England. He will be the first American to hold this position and will begin his studies there in the fall of 2010. The Organ Scholarship at King’s College is one of the premier positions in the world for training young organists. Previous holders include Simon Preston, later organist of Westminster Abbey, and Sir Andrew Davis, later conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. 

During his three-year course of study, Ramsay will accompany the world-famous King’s College Choir for services, concerts, tours, recordings and broadcasts, including the annual worldwide live BBC radio broadcast of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve. 

Ramsay has distinguished himself as a performer on both organ and harp and as a composer, earning diplomas in both harp and organ performance from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) in 2006. He was twice awarded first prize in the Music Teachers National Association National Composition Competition, was a national prize winner in the American Harp Society National Competition, and was awarded the ABRSM Hedy King Robinson Award for music theory in 2008. 

In addition to being a member of the Nashville Boychoir at Blair, he served as principal harpist of the Curb Youth Symphony, under the direction of Carol Nies. He played continuo for Belle Meade Baroque under the direction of Murray Somerville, and studied harp with Carol McClure, artistic director of The Harp School Inc. He studied organ with Wilma Jensen, music director, emerita, of St. George’s Episcopal Church, Nashville, and piano with Robert Marler of Belmont University. He was supervised in his theory and composition work by Wes Ramsay. 

He is currently a student at the King’s School, Ely, U.K., where he serves as Sixth Form Organ Scholar for Ely Cathedral, studying with organist Paul Trepte and regularly performing and conducting in the weekly schedule of services in the cathedral. During his time in Ely, Ramsay has continued to distinguish himself, winning the Composer of the Year award offered by the Cambridge Young Musicians Trust. A member of the Nashville Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, the American Choral Directors Association and the American Harp Society, Ramsay participated in the Cathedral Choir of Ely Cathedral tour, including its stop in Nashville, which reunited him briefly with the Nashville Boychoir at Blair.

The Chancellor’s Cup is given annually for “the greatest contribution outside the classroom to undergraduate student-faculty relationships in the recent past.” The faculty member’s contribution “shall be one of educational importance, relevant to the central purpose of the University.”

Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos presents professor of musicology Jim Lovensheimer (center) with the Chancellor's Cup as Thomas Connor (left) of the Alumni Association looks on.

 After receiving his Ph.D. from the Ohio State University, Lovensheimer joined the Blair School of Music faculty in 2002. 

“Jim is very generous with students both individually and collectively, both with classes at Blair and classes outside Blair,” Blair Dean Mark Wait said. “He offers a scintillating class for non-majors and yet creates very sophisticated and elegant classes for music majors.

“He’s terrific,” Wait says. “Blair and Vanderbilt are lucky to have him.”

“[The chancellor] stood there for a long time saying wonderful things, none of which I remember because I was stunned,” Lovensheimer says. “I still don’t think of what I do for students as being outside the parameters of my work. It is a vital part of that work. If the students knew how much I learn from them each semester, and how much I treasure that learning, it might reinvent the student-professor relationship.”

Schickele

“When we received word of the James Stephen Turner Family Foundation funding of the Blair Commissioning Project in 2006, I let the ensembles pick the composer they wanted,” Dean Mark Wait says. The Blakemore Trio selected composer Susan Botti, whose new work is set for its world premiere with the trio in New York City in spring 2010, while Blair String Quartet chose Gyorgy Kurtag.

After reviewing the works of dozens of composers, the Blair Woodwind Quintet picked Schickele, perhaps best known for his satirical/musical alter-ego P.D.Q. Bach, but also an outstanding musician and composer in his own right. “The woodwind quintet is a strange animal,” says Jane Kirchner, quintet charter member since 1971. “It’s unlike a string or brass quintet, in which the instruments’ sounds are produced in basically the same way and the timbre of the group is homogenous.” The Blair ensemble consists of Kirchner, flute; Jared Hauser, oboe; Cassandra Lee, clarinet; Cynthia Estill, bassoon; and Leslie Norton, horn. “We felt we needed a composer who understands these instruments—and Schickele is a bassoonist as well as an incredible composer,” Kirchner says. “We also love this man’s humor, because, even though we take music seriously, we find much joy in our work, too.”

Schickele has been finding joy in music since childhood. Born into a musical family in Iowa, Schickele grew up in Washington, D.C., and Fargo, N.D., where he studied composition with Sigvald Thompson. “We used to have lots of chamber music in the home,” Schickele recalls. “My brother played the viola and was always getting people together to play chamber music, so I was around string quartet music a lot.”

Schickele himself gravitated to the woodwinds as a young boy—and laid claim to being the only bassoonist in Fargo at the time. By the time he graduated from Swarthmore in 1957, he had already composed and conducted orchestral works, chamber music and a number of songs. He went on to study composition with Roy Harris and Darius Milhaud, and with Vincent Persichetti and William Bergsma at the Juilliard School of Music, where he returned to teach in 1961.

Schickele gave up teaching four years later to pursue a career as a freelance composer/performer and gained international acclaim when he “discovered” the works—and indeed the very existence—of P.D.Q. Bach, the great composer’s long-lost (yes, some would say fictional) offspring. While he still has a warm and fruitful working relationship with this branch of the Bach dynasty, Schickele has earned as much if not more acclaim in recent years composing for symphony orchestras, choral groups and chamber ensembles. A short sample of recent Schickele premieres includes: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, with Danielle Farina and the Pasadena Symphony under Jorge Mester; Symphony No. 2 The Sweet Season, premiered by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra under Stefan Sanderling; New Goldberg Variations for cello and piano, performed by Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax; Symphony No. 1 Songlines, premiered by the National Symphony under Leonard Slatkin and performed by such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra; and Blue Set No. 1, a jazz string quartet commissioned by the Greene Quartet and recorded on the Virgin label.

Schickele has also created music for feature films, documentaries, television commercials and several Sesame Street episodes. He was one of the composer/lyricists for Oh! Calcutta!, and his weekly syndicated radio program, Schickele Mix, has been heard nationwide over Public Radio International since 1992. Then there are his orchestral programs P.D.Q. Bach: The Vegas Years and P.D.Q. Bach Strikes Back, as well as his chamber program, P.D.Q. Bach and Peter Schickele: The Jekyll and Hyde Tour, that continue to explore his musical satirist persona. 

“He is truly a multifaceted composer,” Wait says. “He has an incredible catalog of compositions and has written for every medium. So one thing I know about his Blair commission is that it will be very well-crafted.”

The Blair Woodwind Quintet is, from left, Leslie Norton, horn; Cynthia Estill, bassoon; Cassandra Lee, clarinet; Jane Kirchner, flute; and Jared Hauser, oboe.

Part of the fun of this particular commission for Schickele is the challenge presented by writing for woodwinds. “I’ve written several pieces for string quartets, but with strings, the instruments are similar and inherently have a strong blend,” he notes. “With woodwinds, each instrument is so different. The flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, though all winds, are all different sounds, and the French horn, well, that isn’t even a woodwind and so it can really stick out. The blending is tricky—so while I want to take advantage of the variety, I also want to explore the blending.” 

Schickele’s new work explores variety and blending in five movements. The first movement, called “Fantasy,” showcases the virtuosity of the five instruments and is “hefty and involved,” according to the composer. The second movement, called “Imitations,” is a series of canons where the instruments mimic each other for what Schickele calls a “hypnotic, trance like effect.”

The third movement is inspired by the bass line from Bach’s Goldberg Variations, a rich musical vein Schickele has mined in the past, resulting in several other compositions. “I still had sketches on the bass line that I had never used and had never even decided which instruments they were suited for,” Schickele says. “When I began working on this commission, I realized these sketches were perfect for a woodwind quintet.”

The fourth movement features a prominent oboe solo and a clarinet solo—and invites audience reflection. “It’s slow and still,” Schickele says.  “I don’t like to use words like ‘sad’ because it’s like telling the audience what to feel.” The fifth movement, while not overtly humorous, certainly sounds like it may leave audiences smiling. “The final movement is a bebop jazz kind of thing,” says Schickele. 

If composing for woodwinds poses a challenge, tackling a new work also tests the musicians debuting the work. “You practice even harder and study the score more closely because you don’t have previous recordings to listen to,” Kirchner says. “You have to determine the character of the music, have colleagues coach and counsel you, and tape yourselves playing the piece to listen, critique and learn more.”

Despite the extra attention a new work requires, it is perhaps the most exciting kind of music to perform. “New works offer a great opportunity to grow and learn,” Kirchner says. “And we especially need new music because the woodwind quintet doesn’t have as extensive a repertoire as the strings or brass, whose music goes back centuries. A lot of what woodwind quintets play is 20th century music. We hope Schickele’s work will be a new classic of this century.”

“We need original music,” agrees Jared Hauser, the newest member of the Blair Woodwind Quintet. “This is my first season with the quintet and one of the things that really excited me about joining the ensemble was the commissioning project. This whole series of commissioned pieces is really rare and is a big feather in the cap of the school.” 

“Not many schools of music do this,” Wait concurs. “We teach our students to play the music of the past, but it is equally important to support and nurture and present the music of the future.”

The BLAIR QUARTER NOTE,Volume 32, Number 2, Fall 2008 © 2008 by Vanderbilt University. All rights reserved.

Editor, Bonnie Arant Ertelt

Art Director, Donna DeVore Pritchett

Designer, Chris Collins

Contributors, Jim Patterson, Kami Rice, and Holling Smith-Borne

Web Design and Development, Lacy Tite

Associate Dean for Development and Alimni Relations, Virginia Payne

Director of External Affairs, Cindy Steine

Precollege, adult and undergraduate alumni are encouraged to send their professional or personal news to:

The BLAIR QUARTER NOTE
2400 Blakemore Avenue
Nashville, TN 37212-3499

Or by e-mail to: quarternote@vanderbilt.edu

Undergraduate alumni news now appears in both Vanderbilt Magazine’s class notes section and in The BLAIR QUARTER NOTE. Any news sent by undergraduate alumni is forwarded to Vanderbilt Magazine.

Visit us on the Web at www.vanderbilt.edu/Blair/ 

Vanderbilt University is committed to principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action.

The Chancellor’s Council ($10,000+)

BMI 
House of Bryant Publications LLC
Mr. and Mrs. Andrew W. Byrd
Gaylord Entertainment
Mr. and Mrs. Frank E. Genovese
Mrs. Landis Bass Gullett
Ms. Louise Heinz
The Sartain Lanier Family Foundation Inc.
The Martin Foundation
Nissan North America Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth L. Roberts
Mrs. Wilma Ward*
Mr. and Mrs. Blair J. Wilson
Anonymous
Anonymous

The Dean’s List ($5,000-$9,999)

Mr. and Mrs. James E. Carlson
In memory of Robert Edwards
Mr. and Mrs. William G. Christie
Mr. Frederick J. Dawson
In memory of Boots Randolph
Mr. and Mrs. Peter M. Fyfe
Mr. and Mrs. J. Michael Hayes
Mrs. Martha Rivers Ingram
Mr. and Mrs. William B. King Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. John C. Kornblum
Mr. and Mrs. Roland Schneller
Mrs. Linda L. Sinsar
Mr. and Mrs. Murray F. Somerville
Mr. and Mrs. Steve Turner
Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos and Ms. Lydia A. Howarth

Benefactors ($2,500-$4,999)

American Constructors Inc.
Mrs. Katrin T. Bean
Dr. and Mrs. Steven Eskind
Mr. Gordon R. Galloway
The Rev. Dick Game and Mrs. Anne Zipp Game
Mr. and Mrs. William M. Gandy
Ms. Jennie Smith and Mr. James C. Gooch
Page and Bzur Haun
Mrs. Lavelle T. Jones
Mrs. Alyne Queener Massey
Martha McCrory Foundation Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. John W. Poindexter
Mr. and Mrs. John W. Rich
Dr. and Mrs. Eugene B. Shanks Jr.
Dr. Mildred T. Stahlman
Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Street
Sweetwater Sound Inc.
In memory of Boots Randolph
Mr. and Mrs. James L. Turner

Directors ($1,500-$2,499)

Mr. and Mrs. Lang Aston
Mr. and Mrs. Arthur H. Buhl III
Mr. and Mrs. Del Bryant
Dr. and Mrs. Eric Chazen
The Rev. Kim Maphis Early and Mr. Robert L. Early
Mr. James H. Harris III and Ms.Leslie R. Boone
Dr. H. Carl Haywood
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel C. Loventhal
Mr. and Mrs. Kevin P. McDermott
In memory of David K.Wilson
Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Moses
Mr. and Mrs. Frank I. Nebhut Jr.
Ms. Virginia F. Payne
Dr. and Mrs. W. Faxon Payne
Mrs. Jean Richardson
Dr. and Mrs. Charles E. Roos
Mr. and Mrs. John C. Schroeder
The Songwriters Guild Foundation
Ms. Joanne Bell and Mr. Steven A. Steigerwald
Dean and Mrs. Mark Wait
The Washington Foundation
Dr. Barbara Engelhardt and Mr. Justin P. Wilson
Ms. Georgianna W. Russell and Mr. Eric V. Youngquist

Patrons ($1,000-$1,499)

Beegie and Billy Adair
Ms. Marcelle Guilbeau and Mr. David J. Baird
Mr. and Mrs. John S. Beasley II
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Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Borden
Mr. and Mrs. Martin S. Brown
Mr.* and Mrs. Monroe J. Carell Jr.
Dr. and Mrs. Robert Chalfant
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas G. Cigarran
Drs. Ann N. and James H. Clarke
Mr. and Mrs. John W. Clay
Mr. and Mrs. G. William Coble
Ms. Karin Dale Coble
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Cone Sr.
Mrs. Elizabeth Cormier
Mrs. Walter R. Courtenay
Mr. and Mrs. Brownlee O. Currey Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. J. Bradford Currie
Mr. and Mrs. Marty G. Dickens
Anna and Walter Durham
The Earthman Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Mark F. Eberle
Mr. Michael K. Eldred and
Mr. Thompson B. Patterson Sr.
Dr. Darrel L. Ellis
In memory of David Schnaufer
Mrs. Annette S. Eskind
Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey B. Eskind
Mr. and Mrs. William W. Featheringill
Mr. and Mrs. Jim Foglesong
Susan and Joel Fuller
Dr. Susan Gray and Mr. J. Dawson F. Gray
Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Hanselman
The Honorable Stella L. Hargrove
and Dr. Joel T. Hargrove
Mr. and Mrs. Wayne L. Harman
Mr. and Mrs. H. Rodes Hart
Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Heard
Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Houghland
The Hudson Family Charitable
Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. John R. Ingram
Mr. and Mrs. James L. Johnson
Dr. and Mrs. Martin Katahn
Mr. and Mrs. Fred W. Lazenby
Dr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Lefkowitz Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Peter B. Lijoi
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph L. May
Mr. William McInnes
Dr. and Mrs. Alexander C. McLeod
Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. McNeilly Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth E. Mifflin
Mr. and Mrs. Ross Clayton Mulford
Drs. Jane H. Park and Charles R. Park
Mr. Jack B. Piatt
In memory of Boots Randolph
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Pryor
Drs. Nancy and Harry Ransom
Mrs. Sara W. Robertson
Mrs. Roscoe R. Robinson
Dr. and Mrs. John S. Sergent
Drs. Margaret and Charles B. Rush
Mrs. Ada Smith
Mr. and Mrs. Lester D. Speyer
Street Dixon Rick PLC
Ms. Natilee Duning and Mr. Ernest Frank Sutherland Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Earl S. Swensson
The T & T Family Foundation
Mr. Christian Teal Jr.
The Rev. and Mrs. Timus G. Taylor Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Hall W. Thompson
Professor Cecelia Tichi and Mr. William J. Tichi
Dr. and Mrs. Alexander S. Townes
Mr. and Mrs. Cal Turner Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Eugene H. Vaughan Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. James A. Webb Jr.
Mrs. Ann Harwell Wells
Mr. and Mrs. W. Ridley Wills II
Mr. and Mrs. William M. Wilson
Mr. and Mrs. Richard H. Wylly
Anonymous
The Blair KeyBoard
Martha Rivers Ingram, Chairman
Mark Wait, Dean
Del Bryant
Marianne Byrd
Ann and Jim Clarke
Karin Dale Coble
Emily Eberle
Marty Dickens
James S. Foglesong
Jennie Smith and James Gooch
Jim Harris
Patricia I. Hart
Bzur Haun
Samuel Loventhal
Kevin P. McDermott
Robert M. Moses
Georgianna Paul
Ellen Jones Pryor
Michael B. Reid
Norma Rich
Kenneth L. Roberts
Dominique Thormann
Judy Turner
Blair J. Wilson
Special Committee
Brownlee O. Currey Jr.
Stella and Joel Hargrove
Jean and Alexander Heard
Jim Ed Norman
Justin P. Wilson

*deceased

For information about giving to the Blair School, please contact the Blair Development Office at (615) 322-7650 or email virginia.payne@vanderbilt.edu.

From left, Leslie Norton, Dean Mark Wait and Carlyn Huebl premiered Lowell Liebermann’s Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano, composed for Norton, in April at the Blair School.

The evening of April 14 saw the world premiere of a new work for horn trio by American composer Lowell Liebermann written expressly for Leslie Norton, assistant professor of horn.

Along with Carolyn Huebl on violin and Dean Mark Wait on piano, the piece was performed in the Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall, the first commissioned piece presented as part of The Blair Commissions,NewMusic for the 21st Century,made possible by support fromthe Blair Dean’sOffice and funded by a gift from the James Stephen Turner Family Foundation.

Composer Liebermann has seen his works performed internationally by orchestras such as the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony, the Cincinnati Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony among others. Artists who have performed his works include James Galway, Mstislav Rostropovich, James Levine, Leonard Slatkin, Kenneth Schermerhorn and Joshua Bell.His Second Piano Concerto was premiered by the National Symphony with Stephen Hough, and his Flute Concerto was commissioned by James Galway and premiered by him with the St. Louis Symphony and Leonard Slatkin.

Wilma Ward

Wilma Tribble Ward, long a friend and generous supporter of the Blair School, died at her home in Nashville, July 23, 2008. A native of Bedford County, she had resided in Nashville since 1942 and worked as executive assistant to David K. Wilson for 49 years until her retirement in 2003. She provided scholarships for eight students who completed their degrees at Blair. They refer to her fondly as “Grandmother Ward.” In honor of her gifts to Blair, a courtyard was dedicated to her in 2003, and her portrait, painted by Anne Street and donated by David K. Wilson, hangs near the entry to the courtyard. A memorial service was held at the Blair School on Sunday, July 27, 2008, inTurner Recital Hall.A reception followed in the Ingram Lobby.

Scholarship recipient Joseph Sifferd, BMus’99, Law’02, sang, and Betty- Ashton Mayo, BMus’01, also a scholarship recipient, played the harp. Colin Jones, BMus’02, another scholarship recipient, attended. Scholarship recipient Lauren Denney Wright, BMus’00, wrote to say, “I was deeply saddened by the news [of Mrs.Ward’s death]. I know that Mrs. Ward knew how much I loved her and appreciated everything she did for me.”

Mrs. Ward’s body was donated to Vanderbilt Medical School. Memorial contributions may be made to Blair School of Music, 2400 Blakemore Avenue, Nashville,TN 37212.

Gregory Barz, associate professor of musicology (ethnomusicology), produced a CD for Lime Pulp Records (Nashville) titled God in Music City: Sounds of Religion in Nashville. The second edition of his co-edited volume of essays, Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology will be published by Oxford University Press this fall.

Mat Britain, adjunct instructor of music, can be heard playing steel drums and percussion on superstar Kenny Chesney’s latest release, Just Who I Am; Poets and Pirates. The album was number one on the Billboard Country Albums chart for a number of weeks, and the Calypso inspired song “Shiftwork” reached number 2 on the Billboard Country Singles chart. This is his fourth multi-platinum recording with Chesney, adding an island flair to hits such as “When The Sun Goes Down,” “Guitars and Tiki Bars,” and “Key Lime Pie.”

Joy Calico, associate professor of musicology, received two major fellowships for her monograph project Musical Remigration: Schoenberg’s ‘Survivor From Warsaw‘ in Postwar Europe. She will use a Howard Fellowship to fund archive research in Warsaw, Oslo, Prague, Paris and Vienna in summers 2008 and 2009. Thanks to an ACLS Burkhardt Residential Fellowship for Newly Tenured Scholars, she will be in residence at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in academic year 2009-10, during which time she will devote her time to writing the book. This spring she published an article in Opera Quarterly and a book review in Modern Drama. She also presented papers at national meetings of the American Historical Association and the Modern Languages Association.

Allan Cox, professor of trumpet, and Lawrence Borden, associate professor of trombone, performed with Sonus Brass on the First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, Tenn., Concert Series in early March. Last summer Sonus finished recording its second CD, Naked Thunder, which is expected to be released prior to a featured performance by Sonus on the Second International Brass Chamber Music Festival in October, 2008, at the University of Louisville. Cox spent a week in mid-March at the University of Maine, where he performed a solo recital and two solo performances with the University of Maine Singers that included the world premier of Bess Wisemann’s On Time for flute, trumpet, piano and choir. He performed this and other works with the Maine Singers during a May tour to Sicily and Italy. In June, he attended the International Trumpet Guild Conference in Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Amy Dorfman, associate professor of piano, joined Edgar Meyer, adjunct associate professor of bass, in recitals at the Oberlin School of Music, the Southern Theater in Columbus, Ohio, at Florida State University College of Music in Tallahassee, and at the College of St. Benedict Fine Arts Series in Minnesota.

Jen Gunderman, senior lecturer in music history and literature, performed regularly this spring, including several shows with Peter Cooper, senior lecturer in music history and literature, in Washington, D.C., opening for Nanci Griffith. Guest lecturers in her History of Rock Music class this semester included rockabilly legend W.S. “Fluke” Holland, Johnny Cash’s only drummer and the man who played on Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes” and the Sun Records “Million Dollar Quartet” recording session, which featured Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash.

Charlene Harb, senior lecturer in music theory, performed as pianist for the Classical Singer National Conference in New York in May. She will also perform as principal keyboardist with the Graz Festival Orchestra in Austria. where she also serves as coordinator of the piano faculty.

Carolyn Huebl, assistant professor of violin, in addition to her performances with the Blakemore Trio, gave the world premiere of Lowell Liebermann’s Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano at the Blair School in April, along with Dean Mark Wait, piano, and Leslie Norton, horn. This summer she returned to the faculty of the Intermountain Suzuki Institute in Utah. She has also been appointed to the faculty of the Brevard Music Center as principal second violin.

Karen Ann Krieger, associate professor of piano and piano pedagogy, performed Rhapsody in Blue in March with the Huntsville Youth Orchestra. It was conducted by Joseph Lee, BMus’98.

Stan Link, associate professor of the philosophy and analysis of music, and Gayle Shay, associate professor of voice, appeared in a June concert at the Vancouver (Canada) International Song Institute performing Link’s composition, Groundswell. This piece for soprano, speaker and computer generated accompaniment features the texts of poet and Vanderbilt English professor Mark Jarman.

Jim Lovensheimer, assistant professor of musicology, was named the 2008 Winner of the Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching at Vanderbilt.

Bradley Mansell, adjunct artist teacher of cello, served as a judge for the Young Texas Artists Competition in Conroe, Texas, in March.

Joshua McGuire, lecturer in aural studies, presented guitar recitals at Georgia College & State University and on the Sundays at Johns Concert Series (Charleston, S.C.) in February. In March, he read his paper, “Backwards & Forwards: Re-reading and Hearing Form in Late Villa-Lobos” at the Experiencing Villa-Lobos International Festival at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Carol Nies, adjunct senior artist teacher of conducting, conducted performances of Puccini’s La Boheme and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Rome Opera Festival in July in Italy. She also served as guest conductor for the Rome Festival Orchestra concert series in July and August.

Joe Rea Phillips, senior artist teacher of guitar, was a guest performer at the Tennessee Educators Association Convention as he appeared in a concert with the Tennessee All-State Women’s Chorale in Turner Hall of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in April.

Michael Slayton, assistant professor of music theory, had his piece Sonate “Droyßig” premiered in March at the Historic “Castle Droyßig” in Droyßig, Germany, by Ulrich Urban, distinguished professor of piano, at the Leipzig Conservatory. In June his work Le Soir Tombe was performed in Tours, France. In October the premiere performance of Sechs Miniaturen für Gitarre und Klavier will be performed in the Schumann Haus in Leipzig, Germany, by the German duo Soundways.

Deanna Walker, adjunct artist teacher of piano, had her song, “She’ll Believe You” recorded by Kenny Rogers for his upcoming greatest hits collection. Her song cycle for soprano and piano, Love Poems from God (text from Islamic saint Rabia of Basra), was performed at the UNK New Music Festival (a juried festival) at Kearney, Neb., in April.

Felix Wang, associate professor of cello, performed in several venues in addition to his duties in the Blair String Quartet and Blakemore Trio. In March he performed at the Governor’s Mansion in Little Rock with pianist Victor Asuncion, from the University of Memphis, and Dale Barltrop, principal second violinist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. In April he performed at the University of Louisville, playing in the premier of Aaron Jay Kernis’ Ballad for 8 Cellos. Performers included Paul York, professor of cello at Louisville, and Keith Robinson, cellist of the Miami Quartet. The piece was recorded the next day for release on Centaur Records. He also performed as principal cellist of the Iris Chamber Orchestra in Memphis, and with the Nashville Ballet Emergence series.

Bobby Taylor - left

Taylor, Harb Retire

Bobby Taylor (left) enjoys his April retirement reception with Zaak Mostov, Leo Lichtman and Britt Coley. Taylor had been at the Blair School since 1969.

Charlene Harb - center

Charlene Harb (middle) at her retirement reception with Jessie Noble (left) and Sara Beutter Manus.

Thormann

Dominique Thormann, senior vice president of administration and finance for Nissan North America, Inc., has joined the Blair KeyBoard.Thormann joined Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., in Tokyo in 1999 as deputy general manager. Before coming to Nashville, he was senior vice president of administration and finance for Nissan Europe.

Prior to joining Nissan, he worked for Renault in SouthAfrica and The ChaseManhattan Bank for 10 years, working in New York, Rome, Milan and Paris.

Thormann holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., and a master’s degree in international relations from the Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies inWashington, DC. He and his wife Francoise, who is an anesthesiologist, have three children.

Aix-en-Provence

A new interdisciplinary music and French residency offered jointly by the Blair School and the Vanderbilt-in-France program took flight this summer. Located in Aix-en-Provence, the new venture, called the Vanderbilt Music Académie, is centered around the weeks of the Festival d’Aix (June 25 through July 12) and included a variety of master classes with open rehearsals and a concert performance at the end of each week. According to Thomas Verrier, artistic director of the program and associate professor and director of wind studies at Blair, “the goal is to empower students to experience music from the inside out, nurturing the creativity and inspiration of each participant’s ‘inner artist’ alongside the skill development of his or her ‘performer shell.’ Our focus is on developing each, all the while strengthening the bond between them.”

The Vanderbilt Music Académie was offered along with other summer programs in conjunction with theVanderbiltin- France Center inAix-en-Provence. In addition to themusical experiences, participants were offered French classes, organized excursions and activities to explore the natural beauty of Provence.

The Blair School sent a string quartet and a woodwind quintet toAix-en-Provence for the inaugural residency.The string quartet included: Ben Hart, first violin; EstherMcMahon, second violin;DeanWhiteside, viola; andGareth Briscoe, cello. The woodwind quintet included: Jamie Kellndorfer, flute; Brittany Croley, oboe; Lauren Henry, clarinet;Daniel Ibarra-Scurr, bassoon; and Devri DePriest, horn.Along with Prof.Verrier as artistic director,MaitéMonchal, director of Vanderbilt-in-France since 2003, served as executive director of the académie.

Below is a brief listing of a few of the featured events and favorite concerts. For more information about these and more concerts, lectures, master classes and special programs, visit the Web site Calendar of Events at www.vanderbilt.edu/blair

BLAIR SIGNATURE SERIES

John Johns and His Lady Friends, Part Deux
Friday, September 26, 8:00 p.m., Ingram Hall
Guitarist John Johns performs with Carolyn Huebl, violin; Jane Kirchner, flute; and Kathryn Plummer, viola. Selections include works by Marais, Haydn, Paganini and Matiegka.

Craig Nies, Piano Series – The Complete 48 Preludes and Fugues: The Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach
Friday, October 10, 8 p.m., Ingram Hall
Pianist Nies continues with performance No. 4 begun in 2007 of an eight-concert series celebrating the famous works.

The Blair String Quartet
Friday, November 7, 8 p.m., Ingram Hall
With Christian Teal, violin; Cornelia Heard, violin; John Kochanowski, viola; Felix Wang, cello
Sponsored by Wilma Ward in memory of Anne Potter Wilson and David K. Wilson

Vanderbilt Opera Theatre and Vanderbilt University Orchestra present Kurt Weill’s Street Scene
Friday, November 14, 8 p.m.
Saturday, November 15, 8 p.m.
Sunday, November 16, 2 p.m.
all shows in Ingram Hall
Fully-staged with orchestra; Gayle Shay, Stage Director; Robin Fountain, Music Director. Friday’s performance features a pre-show talk by musicologist Joy Calico. Sponsored by an anonymous friend of the Blair School

The Blair Brass Quintet
Monday, November 17, 8 p.m., Ingram Hall
With Allan Cox, trumpet; Pat Kunkee, trumpet; Leslie Norton, horn; Lawrence Borden, trombone; Gilbert Long, tuba

BLAIR PRESENTS SERIES

Christian Teal – Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by J.S. Bach
Friday, September 19, 7:30 p.m.,
Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville
This second in a series of two very special concerts is the completion of Christian Teal’s virtuoso performance cycle for the “Sacred Space for the City Arts” series co-sponsored by Blair School and Christ Church Cathedral. THIS IS A TICKET EVENT. To purchase tickets, contact www.christcathedral.org or call 615-255-7729.

Three Times Slow – Plus the Blair String Quartet
Saturday, October 4, 8 p.m.,
Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall
Guest Artist Robert Mann, composer, founder and first violist with the Juilliard String Quartet, joins the Blair String Quartet for an evening of his music and the music of Mozart.

100 years of Elliott Carter
Tuesday, November 18, 8 p.m.,
Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall
Blair proudly presents a concert celebrating the 100th birthday of Elliott Carter, in an all-Carter program that will also include excerpts from films by Frank Sheffer. This extraordinary guest artist concert features some of the finest performers in contemporary music: flutist Tara O’Connor, clarinetist Charles Neidich, violinist Rolf Schulte, cellist Fred Sherry and pianist Steve Gosling.

NEW FOR 2008-09

Music on Film
Sunday, January 18, 4 – 6:30 p.m., Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall
A concert each semester featuring specially selected composers captured in action on a large screen format with 5.1 surround sound technology. Introductions and discussions by Vanderbilt University Orchestra conductor Robin Fountain. Presented free of charge and open to all. The first presentation was in September.

FAVORITE SERIES OFFERINGS

Presented free and open to all, except where noted

BLAIR NIGHTCAP SERIES

This popular series returns with offerings of informal talks by favorite faculty musicologists, followed by one-hour concerts by faculty performers, plus coffee and dessert treats. New this year an earlier performance time! All Nightcap Events are sponsored by Nissan North America Inc.

Monday evenings:
7 p.m., Coffee and Dessert in Turner Lobby
8 p.m., Lecture
8:30 p.m., Performance in Steve and Judy

Turner Recital Hall

October 13 – Kathryn Plummer, viola, and Mark Wait, piano, perform two rarely heard gems of the repertoire: Mendelssohn’s Sonata for Viola and Piano in C Minor and Rochberg’s Sonata for Viola and Piano. Michael Alex Rose leads the pre-concert talk.

November 10 – Winds at Play allows the Blair Woodwind Quintet solo spots away from their colleagues. Cynthia Estill, Jane Kirchner and Cassandra Lee present sonatas for bassoon, flute and clarinet, and the Blair School is pleased to introduce its newest faculty member, oboist Jared Hauser. Collaborative pianists include Charlene Harb, Jama Reagan and Melissa Rose present composers Saint-Saens, Etler, Muczynski and Poulenc in music woodwinds play for their own pleasure and yours! Jim Lovensheimer leads the pre-concert talk.

2008 Fall Concert Season

The Blair Fall Concert Series promises to be a season of superb music from a variety of faculty, student and acclaimed guest artists. Below is a brief listing of a few of the featured events and favorite concerts. For more information about these and more concerts, lectures, master classes and special programs, visit the Web site Calendar of Events at www.vanderbilt.edu/blair.

Dean Mark Wait awards this year’s

Founder’s Medal: Robert Patrick Tiedemann

Banner Bearer: Daniel Paul Jansen

Student Marshals: Rachel Elizabeth Mondl and Stuart Chapman Hill

AWARDS Jean Keller Heard Prize for excellence in strings: Sophia Lim Arriaga (violin), Jennifer Rachel Estrin (violin), Andrew Joseph Braddock (viola), Roberto Paolo Papi (viola), Anne Louise Suda (cello)

David Rabin Prize for excellence in musical performance: Jennifer Rachel Estrin, violin

Presser Scholarship to a junior excelling in both performance and scholarship: Kathryn Tierney Moreadith, composition/theory

Sue Brewer Award for excellence in guitar or composition/theory: Molly Anne Jewell, composition/theory

Margaret Branscomb Prize to the freshman who best exemplifies the spirit and standards of the Blair School: Madeline Sarah Myers, composition/ theory

Martin Williams Award for most outstanding paper: Lindsay Alexandra Cunningham, voice

Robin Nell Dickerson Award to an outstanding voice major, for excellence in performance and scholarship: Suranjan Matthew Sen,musical arts/voice

Delene Laubenheim McClure Memorial Prize in Opera: Preston Collier Orr, voice

L. Howard “Zeke” Nicar Award for most outstanding woodwind or brass student: Jamie Kellndorfer, flute

Blair School graduates process behind the pink banner carried by Daniel Paul Jansen.

Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Student Achievement Recognition Award: Stuart Chapman Hill, musical arts/teacher education, vocal-general

Elliott and Ailsa Newman Prize to a clarinet student for excellence in performance: Emily Morell Kubitskey, musical arts/teacher education, instrumental

Blair Composition Competition Prize:  Christopher Daniel Lyon, musical arts/teacher education, instrumental

Richard C. Cooper Award for campuswide leadership in music: Benjamin Paul May, composition/theory; and Robert Patrick Tiedemann, musical arts/ teacher education, instrumental

Confroy-Lijoi Award for excellence in jazz performance:  Kenneth Charles Hildebrandt, percussion; and  Robert Patrick Tiedemann, musical arts/teacher education, instrumental

Sigma Alpha Iota Collegiate Honor Award: Devri Ann DePriest, musical arts/teacher education, instrumental

Sigma Alpha Iota Scholastic Award: Jamie Kellndorfer, flute

Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society 
Class of 2008: Andrew Joseph Braddock, Louis Gerrod Bede, Stuart C. Hill, Daniel Paul Jansen, Rachel Elizabeth Mondl, Timothy John Strang, Robert Patrick Tiedemann
Class of 2009: Julie Christine Aiken, Kathryn Tierney Moreadith, Christine Marie Smith