Vocal Training with Blair B.

A native of Texas, Blair began his study of voice and piano in Houston before moving to pursue his Bachelor'™s in Voice Performance (honors) and Master's in French Language, Literature and Culture at Syracuse University. During his academic tenure he was nominated for and received many awards such as Who Is Who Among College Students at American Universities, SU's prestigious Remembrance Scholar Award (named for the 35 students killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 Dec. 21, 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland), and The SU Graduate Teaching Fellowship in French. He also studied voice and piano at the Strasbourg Conservatory of Music in Strasbourg, France. After graduating and moving to New York City, Blair began teaching French and coaching singers in French diction and the French Melodie. He also holds a second Master's degree in Vocal Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College in Princeton where he graduated with honors and distinction. In addition to teaching voice and coaching singer's privately in the French vocal repertoire, Blair currently teaches French language at Queensborough Community College. Blair is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (N.A.T.S.), the New York Singing Teachers Association (N.Y.S.T.A.) and the College Music Society (C.M.S.). He is also a published film and music critic having interviewed a wide range of artists from Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Fred Hersch to Grammy Award-winning Haitian-American singer and producer Wyclef Jean for publications like MetroSource Magazine and NYC Resident. In May 2013, Blair also had the honor of assisting the legendary piano collaborator Dalton Baldwin, along with two of French song's most accomplished sopranos Elly Ameling and Rosemarie Landry, and several other highly notable adjudicators of distinction in the development and execution of the Positively Poulenc Vocal Competition and Recital under the sponsorship of Joy In Singing at the Bruno Walter Auditorium in the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library. Blair is a specialist in the art song composer Henri Duparc and has authored several theses on the French composer. Not limited to the French vocal repertoire, Blair has given art song recitals representing such composers as Berlioz, Brahms, Debussy, Duke, Duparc, Faure, Hahn, Mahler, Poulenc, Schubert, Schumann, Strauss, and Tchaikowsky. Blair is also currently the co-host of an internet-radio show called "A Toast To Song" sponsored by his nonprofit arts organization The Art Song Preservation Society of New York (ASPS) where he serves as Executive Director. He founded ASPS because of his concern and deep interest in promoting this declining area of vocal literature and in honor of his mentor of twenty-two years, master French and German song specialist, Mary Trueman (1915-2008). Blair has studied voice with Mary Trueman (Rice University), JoElyn Walkefied-Wright (Syracuse University), Elisabeth Schroeder (The Strasbourg Conservatory of Music) and Elem Eley (Westminster Choir College), and has sung in master classes with Oren Brown (The Juilliard School), Phyllis Curtain (Yale and Boston University) and Norma Newton (American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria). Blair has coached with Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Barbara Smith Conrad and internationally acclaimed specialist of the French vocal repertoire, Thomas Grubb (The Juilliard School and author of Singing in French: A Manuel of French Diction & French Vocal Repertoire). Blair also studied piano accompaniment with Mary Trueman, Steve Heyman (Syracuse University) and continues to study piano privately with Edward Nemirovsky in NYC.