Shepherd School of Music
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The Shepherd School of Music is located in Houston, Texas on the campus of Rice University, Texas' most selective institute of higher education. Among the schools within the university, the Shepherd School is the most selective, accepting overall about twelve percent of all applicants. The next most selective school at Rice is the Rice School of Architecture.
Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba, Percussion, Harp, Piano, Organ, Voice, Composition and Theory, and Musicology are the areas of study offered at the Shepherd School of Music. With its small studios, world-class faculty, and top-rate facilities, the Shepherd School attracts students from all over the world.
From its inception in 1974 (founded by Samuel Jones), The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University has emphasized orchestral and chamber music as a central element in its performing curriculum. As the Shepherd School has grown and matured, so too has the orchestral program until it is now made up of a full Symphony Orchestra of one hundred-plus music students and a Chamber Orchestra made up of some thirty more music students.
Its voice and opera program includes about thirty students, and, like the rest of the school, is very selective due to its small size. Two operas are presented each year, and the performances are usually sold out. Rumors insist that a new opera theater will be built in the near future.
Musical performances and events at the school attract over 70,000 audience members each year.
All Shepherd students enjoy a program that allows for individual care and attention for undergraduates and graduates alike, due to the small size and selectivity of the school. Courses are generally challenging and thorough, and are taught by faculty and not TAs. Almost every class has fewer than thirty students. A small number of courses are offered to Rice University as a whole (without special registration): Fundamentals of Music, known by most students as "Clapping for Credit," music theory for non-music majors I and II, and music literature for non-music majors I and II.
Frisbee on the grass is a popular pastime of Shepherd students, and many students head to Ruggles for dessert after concerts. Post-recital receptions often serve as dinner for diligent Shepherd students, who do not leave the building until they finish practicing for the day. It is an upstanding tradition to spend the entire night before any music history test with a few study partners, cramming musical examples and vocabulary into one's brain while drinking large amounts of coffee and stuffing oneself with cookies.
Recently, a 30-year anniversary celebration gala was held in honor of the Shepherd School of Music. Itzhak Perlman played with the Shepherd orchestra and then conducted them for the concert, which was followed by a dance and dinner celebration outside of Alice Pratt Brown Hall.
Alice Pratt Brown Hall is the name of Shepherd's building, housing a 1,000-seat concert hall, a 250-seat recital hall, the Edythe Bates Old Grand Organ and Recital Hall, an opera studio, 65 practice rooms, seven classrooms, rehearsal and small ensemble spaces, 54 teaching studios, and a microwave and refrigerator for the convenience of students and faculty. Situated on the western side of the Rice campus, it is made up of two long parallel wings joined by gardens and connecting corridors of loggias. The facilities were designed by the Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill, and the $22 million building was completed very recently, allowing for the most current advantages in music facility architecture.
[edit] About the Shepherd School
In just 30 years, Rice’s Shepherd School of Music has become one of the nation’s most prestigious major university-level music programs. The school has attracted an international student body and faculty whose impact on the cultural life of Rice and greater Houston is everywhere apparent. It is housed in an extraordinary facility: Alice Pratt Brown Hall, a showplace of the entire university. The $22 million facility represents the heart of the Shepherd School’s rise to excellence. The grand foyer invites audiences to enter some of the finest performance spaces in the city. Its Stude Concert Hall, Duncan Recital Hall, and Edythe Bates Old Recital Hall enjoy outstanding acoustics and attract audiences of more than 70,000 music lovers each year. Farther inside the building, long hallways of practice and chamber music rooms, recording studios, and faculty studios resonate with energy.
Shepherd School students take applied music lessons and core music courses from some of the most accomplished faculty in the nation and perform in ensembles with other musicians on the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels.
[edit] Preparatory Program
The preparatory division of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University offers non-credit private instruction in piano, harp, voice, percussion, brass, string, and woodwind instruments for children and adults. Pre-school classes for very young children begin as early as age two. Chamber music groups, group theory instruction, and classes for the young child are also available. Virginia Nance, director of the preparatory program, has especially designed the theory curriculum. Theory class sizes are limited to 12 students, and admission to all levels above primary 2, are by entrance exam only. Entrance exams are given at the beginning of the fall and spring semesters.
