Welcome to the Wilson Music Library!
All students enrolled in the Blair Academy are eligible for a library card with borrowing privileges. Students can borrow books, scores, and audiovisual materials for 28 days. These privileges are limited to the Wilson Music Library only. Complete the registration form to get your library card.
Families are welcome to use the Wilson Music Library during lessons or ensemble rehearsals. Since Vanderbilt University is an institution of higher education, minor children should be accompanied by parents while using the library. Since access to the Blair building is limited by I.D. card, please call the Wilson Music Library's service desk at (615) 517-0324 if you need to be let inside.
Helpful Links!
Use the Library Search to search the library catalog for scores, books, and more!
- Library Search This link opens in a new window
Check out the Library Search which finds print and electronic items, including journal and newspaper articles, book chapters, books, reviews, legal documents, and much more. Note: Due to licensing restrictions, some content is only available to current students, faculty, and staff.
Performer's can request copies of their Blair performances at https://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/music/recital-request/. Parents of performers under 18 may request copies of their child’s performance on their behalf.
- Blair Performance Archive This link opens in a new windowStreaming audio database containing recordings of Blair performances with their corresponding programs, masterclasses, and lectures held in the Wilson Music Library archives.
Library Policies:
Conduct Policy:
We do our best to create a welcoming environment for all who use the Wilson Music Library. We ask that users be respectful of one another. Many undergraduate students and faculty use this library for study and research, so unruly behavior (i.e., yelling, running, etc.) will not be tolerated. Parents and legal guardians of minors are responsible for supervising the behavior of their children. If an issue arises with a Blair Academy student's behavior, we will notify Mary Biddlecombe, Director of the Blair Academy at Vanderbilt program.
Computer Usage:
The Wilson Music Library does not control information available over the Internet, and it is not responsible for its content. Users should be aware that Internet sites may contain offensive or controversial material. Parents or legal guardians of minors are responsible for monitoring the library activities of their children. Users of workstations are in a public building, and they are expected to show consideration for others.
Because the Music Library has a limited number of computer stations, priority is given for academic uses (i.e., writing papers, using library databases, etc.). If other users are waiting for a workstation, you may be asked to give up your computer if you are engaged in non-academic computing (i.e., using Facebook, checking e-mail).
All users must abide by the terms of the Heard Libraries Use of Public Computers Policy.
Food and Drink Policy:
Non-alcoholic drinks in spill-proof containers or sports bottles are permitted. Packaged or wrapped snack foods are permitted at study carrels but not near electronic equipment or computer workstations. Hot meals or messy, aromatic food (e.g., hoagies, pizza, salads, soup) are not permitted in the library. If you enter the Music Library with these types of foods, you will be asked to use the seminar room (pending availability) or exit the library. Food and drink pose a potential risk to library collections, equipment, and furnishings. We ask that you act responsibly when consuming food and drink in the library. Please deposit your garbage in the trash cans and clean up after yourself.
Build a House
Grammy Award winner Rhiannon Giddens celebrates Black history and culture in her unflinching, uplifting, and gorgeously illustrated picture book debut. I learned your words and wrote my song. I put my story down. As an acclaimed musician, singer, songwriter, and cofounder of the traditional African American string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Rhiannon Giddens has long used her art to mine America's musical past and manifest its future, passionately recovering lost voices and reconstructing a nation's musical heritage. Written as a song to commemorate the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth--which was originally performed with famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma--and paired here with bold illustrations by painter Monica Mikai, Build a House tells the moving story of a people who would not be moved and the music that sustained them. Steeped in sorrow and joy, resilience and resolve, turmoil and transcendence, this dramatic debut offers a proud view of history and a vital message for readers of all ages: honor your heritage, express your truth, and let your voice soar, even--or perhaps especially--when your heart is heaviest.
When Rubin Plays
From the PW Flying Starts creative force Gracey Zhang comes a touching and beautiful story about community, finding your own voice, doing what you love the most, and expressing your passion with FORTE! Rubin loves the beautiful sounds that are played by the orchestra. He wants to learn to play the violin and make his own music. But when Rubin plays, it doesn't sound like he imagines it should. Rubin goes into the forest to practice alone and despite only getting the violin to screech, he finds an unlikely audience that loves his unique style. In another inspiring and lyrical picture book that deftly dives into the psyche and heart of a child's viewpoint and experience, the creator of Lala's Words, Gracey Zhang, offers confidence to everyone who longs to master something that can be difficult and shows that there is only one way to do something right: that is to do it your own special way. This is the next book from one of today's most gifted young creators. Zhang is a Publishers Weekly's Spring 2021 Children's Flying Starts creator and her debut, Lala's Words, was the 2022 EJK Award Winner, with endless praise: "Little Lala helps the weeds in the vacant lot blossom into full, gorgeous plants just by talking to them and showing them a little love. This picture book is breathtaking, and Zhang's use of color really helps the story come alive. It's like a modern inverse of The Giving Tree." -- Paul Swydan, The Silver Unicorn Bookstore
I Got the Rhythm
On a simple trip to the park, the joy of music overtakes a mother and daughter. The little girl hears a rhythm coming from the world around her- from butterflies, to street performers, to ice cream sellers everything is musical! She sniffs, snaps, and shakes her way into the heart of the beat, finally busting out in an impromptu dance, which all the kids join in on! Award-winning illustrator Frank Morrison and Connie Schofield-Morrison, capture the beat of the street, to create a rollicking read that will get any kid in the mood to boogie.
The Green Piano
This autobiographical picture book by the multiple Grammy Award-winning singer Roberta Flack recounts her childhood in a home surrounded by music and love- it all started with a beat-up piano that her father found in a junkyard, repaired, and painted green. Growing up in a Blue Ridge mountain town, little Roberta didn't have fancy clothes or expensive toys...but she did have music. And she dreamed of having her own piano. When her daddy spies an old, beat-up upright piano in a junkyard, he knows he can make his daughter's dream come true. He brings it home, cleans and tunes it, and paints it a grassy green. And soon the little girl has an instrument to practice on, and a new dream to reach for--one that will make her become a legend in the music industry. Here is a lyrical picture book--perfect for aspiring piano players and singers--that shares an intimate look at Roberta Flack's family and her special connection to music.
Mary's Idea
Two-time Caldecott Medal winner Chris Raschka captures the sound, passion, innovation, and love of the arts that the renowned jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams shared with the world. Mary's Idea is a stunning and transporting picture book about music and the creative process, for readers of Trombone Shorty and Chris Raschka's acclaimed books about musicians, including Charlie Parker Played Be Bop and Mysterious Thelonious. At the age of three, Mary Lou Williams taught herself how to play the piano. At the age of fifteen, she was considered a professional. An American jazz pianist and composer, Mary Lou Williams wrote hundreds of compositions, recorded hundreds of songs, and wrote arrangements for musicians, including Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. Mary's Idea is an exquisite picture book about Mary Lou Williams, an artist often overlooked in the canon of American music because of her gender and skin color. With a text full of rhythm and movement and illustrations that sing off the page, Chris Raschka's picture book is equal parts biography and celebration of the imagination, ideas, and creative process. Mary's Idea will find readers in fans of Traci N. Todd's and Christian Robinson's Nina, and Brian Selznick's and Pam Muñoz Ryan's When Marian Sang. Includes backmatter.
The Cosmobiography of Sun Ra
Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka shares his love of jazz great Sun Ra, just in time to mark the centennial of the musician's birth. Jazz musician Sun Ra (1914-1993) always said that he came from Saturn. Being from another planet, he was naturally intrigued by everything earthly -- especially music, because music is the one thing on Earth most like the stars. Earthlings themselves confused Sun Ra, the way they sorted themselves by color and fought wars against one another. So he made music. And he traveled with other musicians and singers, calling themselves the Sun Ra Arkestra, playing, singing, and dancing for people all over the planet. Because music, he said, is what holds us all together. Join acclaimed author-illustrator Chris Raschka in celebrating a legend of the jazz world who was truly one of a kind.
The ABCs of Women in Music
This vibrantly illustrated children's picture book highlights the contributions of women to music, representing a diversity of ages, races, time periods, abilities, and geographic regions. Meet Clara the composer, Ella the jazz singer, Selena the pop star, and Xian the conductor! Women in music are brilliant, creative, brave, and resilient. They are composers, conductors, singers, musicologists, electronic music producers, and so much more. In this vibrantly illustrated picture book, meet 26 remarkable women musicians who collectively span over 1,000 years of music history and represent a diversity of cultures, races, professions, and abilities. Their incredible stories and beautiful work are sure to inspire a new generation of musicians!
Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane
A lyrical picture book biography of John Coltrane that focuses on his childhood. Young John Coltrane was all ears. And there was a lot to hear, growing up in the south during the 1930s: church songs, preachers praying, music on the radio, and the bustling of the household. John was surrounded by all kinds of vivid noises that shaped his own sound as a musician. With vibrant words and glowing colors, Carole Boston Weatherford and Sean Qualls compose an amazingly rich hymn to the childhood of jazz legend John Coltrane. Before John Was a Jazz Giant is a 2009 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book and a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
Orchestra
Perfect for quarantine reading with your children! Before there were DJs, rock stars, pop groups, and jazz trios, there was the orchestra. Whether it takes center stage or brings performances and movies to life, the orchestra is the magnificent original voice of the western world. Learn about all of the ingenious instruments that make up the orchestra and the luminary composers whose work has endured for centuries. Travel from the stunning Wiener Musikverein in Vienna to the world's greatest recording studios, all illuminated by David Doran's stylish and immersive artwork. A beautifully illustrated coffee table guide to everything you could ever want to know about the orchestra.
Steel Drums
Go behind the scenes and learn how craftsman Glenn Rowsey makes one-of-a-kind steel drums by hand with this nonfiction book that's full of photographs and illustrations about his process. Tap-happy Glenn was inspired and taught by the Father of the Modern Steel Drum, Ellie Mannette. This book gives a step-by-step glimpse at Glenn's creative process for making and tuning pans--from start to finish--with love and care. It also features a timeline and history detailing how the passion of generations of determined people from Trinidad gave birth to this percussion instrument. Charts, infographics, and bold photographs will inspire kids to make their own objects by hand.
Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum
Regardless of whether they've heard of jazz or Art Tatum, young readers will appreciate how Parker uses simple, lyrical storytelling and colorful, energetic ink-and-wash illustrations to show the world as young Art Tatum might have seen it. Tatum came from modest beginnings and was nearly blind, but his passion for the piano and his acute memory for any sound that he heard drove him to become a virtuoso who was revered by both classical and jazz pianists alike. Included in the back matter is a biography and bibliography.
Jake the Philharmonic Dog
Like most dogs, Jake loves playing fetch. Unlike most dogs, Jake loves music even more. He loves to wag his tail to the beat of an ordinary day and "sing" with the birds. When his friend Richie, the principal stagehand at the Philharmonic, brings Jake to work one day, Jake is treated to a lesson in real music. He "woofs!" to the tweeting woodwinds and "ruffs!" to the deep horns, but when he hears the entire symphony orchestra practice, he knows to be quiet andlisten. And when a crisis develops at that night's performance, Jake steps onstage and steals the show.
When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson
A harmonious introduction to one of our country's most important singers and role models--as envisioned by Newbery Honoree Pam Muñoz Ryan and Caldecott Medalist Brian Selznick.Marian Anderson is best known for her historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, which drew an integrated crowd of 75,000 people in pre-Civil Rights America. While this momentous event showcased the uniqueness of her voice, the strength of her character, and the struggles of the times in which she lived, it is only part of her story. Like the operatic arias Marian would come to sing, Ryan's text is as moving as a libretto, and Selznick's pictures as exquisitely detailed and elaborately designed as a stage set. What emerges most profoundly from their shared vision is a role model of courage.
Halloween Hustle
In the dark, a funky beat. / Something white with bony feet. / Skeleton dancing up the street, / Doing the Halloween Hustle.Skeleton is dancing his way to a Halloween party--but as he grooves across town, he keeps stumbling, tumbling, and falling apart! Can Skeleton stay in one piece long enough to make it to the party? Does he have a shot at winning the Halloween Hustle dance contest?
Marsalis on Music
With an unrivaled freshness, charm, and sense of fun, Wynton Marsalis steps forward not only as a world-renowned jazz and classical performer, but as a great teacher in the tradition of Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts. Using wonderfully appealing examples and analogies--likening the rhythmic structures of music to playing basketball or football, teaching sonata form through a story about chasing a pet hamster through a shopping mall, drawing unprecedented and revealing connections between classical music and jazz--Wynton Marsalis makes so-called "difficult" music vivid, immediately graspable, and most of all fun. The result is the perfect book for families and schools eager to give children a strong cultural foundation without boring them--no risk of that here!--or for anyone who has ever felt interested in "serious" music only to be intimidated by its intricacies. The most popular and acclaimed jazz musician and composer of his generation, Wynton Marsalis is also one of the world's leading classical trumpet virtuosos. Throughout his career he has made room for extensive work with children and students. He is co-founder and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
