The Blair School of Music provides undergraduate

Undergraduate education

Undergraduate education is an education level taken prior to gaining a first degree . Hence, in many subjects in many educational systems, undergraduate education is post-secondary education up to the level of a bachelor's degree, such as in the United States, where a university entry level is...

 conservatory-style education in music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 performance

Performance

A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...

, theory

Music theory

Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...

, and history

Music history

Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is the highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies the composition, performance, reception, and criticism of music over time...

 at Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...

, a major research university located in Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

, Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

. Blair is the youngest and smallest of Vanderbilt's ten constituent schools and colleges.

History

While established in 1964, Blair did not initially offer undergraduate-level courses, instead focusing on pre-college music education as part of the then-independent Peabody College

Peabody College

Peabody College of Education and Human Development was founded in 1875 when the University of Nashville, located in Nashville, Tennessee, split into two separate educational institutions...

 (Peabody is itself now part of Vanderbilt). Through the initiative of Chancellor Alexander Heard

G. Alexander Heard

George Alexander Heard was chancellor of Vanderbilt University from 1963 to 1982. He was also a political scientist and adviser to U.S...

 in 1981, Vanderbilt began offering undergraduate programs at Blair as part of a wider liberal arts

Liberal arts

The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...

 curriculum. In 1986, Blair began awarding its own bachelor's degree

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

s.

Degree programs

The Blair School of Music confers the bachelor of music

Bachelor of Music

Bachelor of Music is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree; the majority of work consists of prescribed music courses and study in applied music, usually requiring a...

 degree in music performance, in composition

Musical composition

Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...

 and theory, and in musical arts

Musicology

Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...

. Unique among Vanderbilt's four undergraduate schools, Blair has no graduate students. However, in conjunction with Peabody College, Blair offers a five-year bachelor of music/master of education

Master of Education

The Master of Education is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in a large number of countries. This degree in education often includes the following majors: curriculum and instruction, counseling, and administration. It is often conferred for educators advancing in...

 program in musical arts and teacher education

Teacher education

Teacher education refers to the policies and procedures designed to equip prospective teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and skills they require to perform their tasks effectively in the classroom, school and wider community....

. The Blair School of Music is set apart from other similar undergraduate music programs, like those at Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

, Rice University

Rice University

William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...

, and Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....

 by offering degrees only to undergraduates, giving them the sole focus of the faculty.

Facilities

The Blair School of Music is a state-of-the-art, modern building. It houses three main concert halls, including the Turner Recital Hall, the Choral Recital Hall, and the Ingram Center for the Performing Arts. The Ingram Center is a 618-seat performance hall with full staging capability including orchestra pit

Orchestra pit

An orchestra pit is the area in a theater in which musicians perform. Orchestral pits are utilized in forms of theatre that require music or in cases when incidental music is required...

, opera scene shop, loading dock, dressing rooms and green room

Green room

In British English and American English show business lexicon, the green room is that space in a theatre, a studio, or a similar venue, which accommodates performers or speakers not yet required on stage...

, set against a modern lobby with soaring ceilings and light-flooded floor-to-ceiling windows. The School of Music has private studios for the faculty members, numerous practice rooms with pianos

Pianos

Pianos is a two-story bar/restaurant/live music venue in the Lower East Side section of Manhattan at 158 Ludlow Street.Its stage attracts local and national alternative rock groups as well as DJs, though a more typical performance consists of smaller name local and touring acts...

 for student use, and fully automated classrooms. There is a piano lab, keyboard computer lab, two SmartMusic rooms, a high-tech NightPro audio recording and an additional computer lab in the library. Finally, students can enjoy full use of a student lounge with a "Suzie's" Cafe, serving pastries, cereal, sandwiches, wraps, coffee, tea, salads, fruits and beverages.

Anne Potter Wilson Music Library

The Anne Potter Wilson Music Library is a division of the Jean and Alexander Heard Library system located in Blair. The collection, begun in 1947, was moved from Peabody College to its new and permanent home at Blair in the summer of 1985. Named to honor Anne Potter Wilson by the Vanderbilt Board of Trust in 1987, the 8000 square feet (743.2 m²) library holds more than 70,000 books, scores, sound and video recordings, and subscriptions to more than 150 journals. It is equipped with a seminar room, exceptional listening and viewing stations, and study facilities.

BMI Composer-in-Residence Program

The BMI Composer-in-Residence program, sponsored by Broadcast Music Inc., brings two visiting composers to Vanderbilt's campus
every year. Each composer’s three to seven day residency includes lectures, performances of the composer’s works, and opportunities for interaction with students. Previous BMI composersin-residence include Robert Beaser

Robert Beaser

Robert Beaser is an American composer.-Biography:Beaser was brought up in a non-musical family. His father was a physician and mother was a chemist. He grew up in Newton, Massachusetts where he distinguished himself at a young age as a percussionist, composer and conductor...

, George Crumb

George Crumb

George Crumb is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques. Examples include seagull effect for the cello , metallic vibrato for the piano George Crumb (born...

, Michael Daugherty

Michael Daugherty

Michael Kevin Daugherty is an American composer, pianist, and teacher. Influenced by popular culture, Romanticism, and Postmodernism, Daugherty is one of the most colorful and widely performed American concert music composers of his generation...

, Mario Davidovsky

Mario Davidovsky

Mario Davidovsky is an Argentine-American composer. Born in Argentina, he emigrated in 1960 to the US, where he lives today...

, Richard Danielpour

Richard Danielpour

Richard Danielpour is an American composer.-Biography:Danielpour is born of Persian/Jewish descent. He studied at Oberlin College and the New England Conservatory of Music, and later at the Juilliard School of Music, where he received a DMA in composition in 1986...

, Lukas Foss

Lukas Foss

Lukas Foss was a German-born American composer, conductor, and pianist.-Music career:He was born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922. His father was the philosopher and scholar Martin Fuchs...

, John Harbison

John Harbison

John Harris Harbison is an American composer, best known for his operas and large choral works.-Life:...

, Karel Husa

Karel Husa

Karel Husa is a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition...

, Steven Mackey

Steven Mackey

Steven Mackey is an American composer, guitarist, and music educator.-Life:As a musician growing up listening to and performing vernacular American musics as well as classical music, Mackey's compositions are informed by rock and jazz, though in an avant-garde vein...

, Donald Martino

Donald Martino

Donald Martino was a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer.Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Martino studied composition with Ernst Bacon, Roger Sessions, Milton Babbitt, and Luigi Dallapiccola...

, Cindy McTee

Cindy McTee

Cindy McTee is an American composer and educator.-Education:Cindy McTee studied at Pacific Lutheran University, the Academy of Music in Kraków, Yale University, and the University of Iowa...

, Bernard Rands

Bernard Rands

Bernard Rands is a composer of contemporary classical music.Rands studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna in Darmstadt, Germany, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan, Italy.He held residencies...

, Christopher Rouse

Christopher Rouse

Christopher Rouse is an American composer.-Biography:Rouse studied with Richard Hoffmann at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, graduating in 1971, and later completed graduate degrees under Karel Husa at Cornell University in 1977. In between, Rouse studied privately with George Crumb...

, Joseph Schwantner

Joseph Schwantner

Joseph C. Schwantner is a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer and educator and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was awarded the 1970 Charles Ives Prize....

, Michael Torke

Michael Torke

Michael Torke is an American composer who writes music influenced by jazz and minimalism. Sometimes described as a post-minimalist, his most postminimal piece is Four Proverbs, in which the syllable for each pitch is fixed and variations in the melody produce streams of nonsense words. Other works...

, and Joan Tower

Joan Tower

Joan Tower is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by the New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world...

.

External links

• Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music website
• Blair School of Music digital archive
• Quarter Note, the Blair School of Music newsletter