Blair Tindall

Blair Alston Mercer Tindall (February 2, 1960 – April 12, 2023) was an American oboist, performer, producer, speaker, and journalist. After spending years as a classical musician, she wrote the 2005 memoir Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music, which was later adapted into a television series. Early life and education Tindall was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to historian George Brown Tindall and Blossom Tindall. She started playing the piano at an early age and switched to oboe when joining the junior high school band; because of her surname's place in alphabetical order, she was the last person able to choose an instrument, and the only one available was the oboe. She attended high school at the North Carolina School of the Arts, received bachelor's and master's degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, and a masters in communication from Stanford University, which she attended on a full tuition fellowship. She also attended Columbia University. Career Tindall spent 23 years as a professional musician in New York City, playing with such groups as the New York Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, presenting a critically acclaimed solo debut at Carnegie Recital Hall, and earning a jazz Grammy nomination. She also performed on many film soundtracks, including those of the movies Malcolm X, for which she was lauded in CD Review Magazine, Crooklyn, and Twilight. She has also performed with Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts at the Blue Note Jazz Club. Tindall taught journalism at Stanford and music at the University of California, Berkeley and Mills College. She has also received residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and the Ucross Foundation.