Tucker Biddlecomb, Ph.D.
Tucker Biddlecombe (Ph.D.) is Professor of Choral Studies at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, where he conducts the Vanderbilt Sixteen and University Singers. In addition, Biddlecombe serves as the Billy Ray Hearn Chorus Director of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and is entering his tenth season as director of the Nashville Symphony Chorus.
Performance highlights at Blair have included Britten’s War Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem, and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. He has conducted honor choruses in a dozen states, two concerts at Carnegie Hall, and in 2022 conducted the UCTB honor choir for the Southern Region of the American Choral Directors Association. International engagements have included guest conducting throughout the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, and a residency with the Central Conservatory in Beijing. Biddlecombe also founded the Vanderbilt Choral Scholars, a bi-annual summer Immersion project immersing a cohort of students in cathedral choirs throughout the United Kingdom.
His work with the Nashville Symphony has included chorus preparation for many of the repertoire’s most revered masterworks. This season includes preparation for Maestro Leonard Slatkin on Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Brahms Requiem. Biddlecombe will conduct the orchestra and chorus in Handel’s Messiah, and a birthday concert of the works of Bach including Magnificat in D. He has prepared the chorus for multiple major world-premiere recordings including John Harbison’s Requiem, Gabriela Lena-Frank’s Conquest Requiem, and the upcoming release of Jonathan Leshnoff’s The Sacrifice of Isaac. The chorus recently recorded a live performance of Carol Barnett’s The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass for upcoming commercial release.
Dr. Biddlecome was recently appointed Senior Associate Provost for Residential Colleges and Residential Education for Vanderbilt University. A veteran teacher and leader in music education, he has served terms as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education at the Blair School of Music and as President of the Tennessee chapter of ACDA. He is a graduate of SUNY Potsdam and Florida State University, where he completed studies in choral conducting and music education with Daniel Gordon and André Thomas, respectively. He resides in Nashville with his wife Mary Biddlecombe, director of the Blair Academy at Vanderbilt, and Artistic Director of Vanderbilt Youth Choirs.