Chorus Director

Appointed as director of the Nashville Symphony Chorus in 2016, Dr. Tucker Biddlecombe has raised the bar of excellence for Nashville’s premier choral ensemble through intense musical preparation, diverse programming, and community-building. He also serves as Associate Professor and Director of Choral Studies at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, where he directs the Vanderbilt Chorale, the Vanderbilt Glee Club, and teaches courses in choral conducting and music education.

His work with the Nashville Symphony has included chorus preparation for many of the repertoire’s most revered masterworks. Notable performances have included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Bernstein’s “Kaddish” Symphony No. 3, Haydn’s Creation, Requiems by Mozart and Verdi, and Mahler Symphony No. 2. During his tenure, the all-volunteer Nashville Symphony Chorus has toured the Czech Republic in 2019 performing Orff’s Carmina Burana at Smetana Hall in Prague. He has prepared the chorus for two major world-premiere recordings, John Harbison’s Requiem (rel. 2018, Naxos) as well as the upcoming release of Gabriela Lena-Frank’s Conquest Requiem and Antonio Estevez’s Cantata Criolla.

A passionate advocate of music education and a veteran teacher, Dr. Biddlecombe has served as President of the Tennessee Chapter of the American Choral Director’s Association (ACDA) and is in demand as a conductor and clinician throughout the United States. International engagements include regular conducting in the United Kingdom, as well as a 2019 residency with the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China. Biddlecombe made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2019 conducting Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna and will return to conduct Carol Barnett’s The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass in February 2024.

A native of Buffalo, New York, Biddlecombe is a graduate of SUNY Potsdam and Florida State University, where he completed doctoral studies in choral conducting and music education with Daniel Gordon and André Thomas, respectively. He resides in Nashville with his wife Mary Biddlecombe, Artistic Director of Vanderbilt Youth Choirs.