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The Performing Arts
You’re in Music City, so we’ll start with
music. Vanderbilt is right next door to
Nashville’s famed Music Row, and you know
folks back home are going to ask if you went
to the Grand Ole Opry and tell you about the
time they saw Little Jimmy Dickens at Kroger.
But if you’re the type who never quite got Hank
Williams, and bluegrass music just reminds
you of the “Beverly Hillbillies,” Vanderbilt
has its own music scene. Besides the clubs around
Elliston Place and Hillsboro Village, there’s
plenty of music for your ears right on campus.
Music
on the
Mountain
Perched atop Nashville’s
highest hill, Vanderbilt’s
Dyer Observatory draws
school groups, stargazers
and music lovers. During the Blair
School’s “Music on the Mountain” series
of free outdoor concerts, you might hear
Appalachian music, jazz, big band,
Caribbean or classical. Concerts usually
begin in early evening—the better to catch
amazing sunsets. Catch the shuttle from
the parking area near the intersection of
Granny White Pike and Old Hickory Boulevard.
Pack a picnic, and bring your own
blankets or lawn chairs. Weather permitting,
the observatory’s Seyfert Telescope
is open following performances.
Thanks to Amy Kurland, owner of the
famed Bluebird Café in Green Hills, musical
offerings at Dyer Observatory also
include “Bluebird on the Mountain,” a
series featuring top Nashville songwriters.
The series debuted in May with rocker
Marshall Chapman, BA’71, with Danny
Flowers and Tom Kimmel, whose songs
have been covered by the likes of Emmylou
Harris, John Hiatt and Jimmy Buffett.
Tickets for Bluebird on the Mountain, which
continues monthly through October, are
sold through Ticketmaster. A special carload
ticket is available for those traveling
in one vehicle (no RVs).
Dyer Observatory,
1000 Oman Drive, Nashville
615/373-4897
www.dyer.vanderbilt.edu
Quintets, quartets,
solo instrumentalists
and vocalists,
large group ensembles,
lectures by famous
composers—whenever
you’re in town, chances
are good that something
worth hearing is
happening at the Blair
School of Music. Once
an academy that was
part of Peabody College,
Blair became the
University’s 10th school
in 1981. Blair counts a
stellar lineup of performing
artists among
its own faculty, or you
may have a chance to
hear Blair students at
the collegiate or precollege
level. Performances
take place in either Martha Rivers
Ingram Performance Hall, a soaring 618-seat
acoustic marvel completed in 2001, or the
Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall, which
provides an intimate space for solo and chamber
music. Besides the Blair Concert Series,
which annually showcases classical and contemporary
music, there is the Blair Conversations
Series, where music giants such as
Amy Grant, Marty Stuart, Joshua Bell, Awadagin
Pratt and Randy Newman have talked
about their work. And there are collaborations
with local arts groups, as when Blair
and Nashville Ballet join forces to present new
dance works by rising choreographers created
with Blair composers. Vanderbilt University
Opera Theatre also presents two
productions annually.
2400 Blakemore Ave.
615/322-6042
www.vanderbilt.edu/Blair
V a n d e r b i l t M a g a z i n e 47