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The Shepherd School of Music in the News

RICE ALUMNA CAROLINE SHAW WINS PULITZER IN MUSIC
Rice University Shepherd School of Music alumna Caroline Shaw has won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in music for her composition “Partita for 8 Voices.” Shaw, who received her bachelor of music from Rice in 2004, is a versatile New York-based musician accomplished as a composer, violinist and singer.

RICE UNIVERSITY TO HOST TEDXHOUSTON OCTOBER 12 IN STUDE
Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business, Shepherd School of Music, Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies and Office of Public Affairs will host TEDxHouston Oct. 12 in Stude Concert Hall at the Shepherd School.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL STUDENTS TO PERFORM AT KENNEDY CENTER APRIL 13
Seven students representing Rice University's Shepherd School of Music will perform in concert at 6 p.m. April 13 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Their performance is part of The Conservatory Project, a Kennedy Center program showcasing the best young musical talent from the nation's leading conservatories, colleges and universities.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL PRESENTS SEASON FINALE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CONCERT
Rice University's Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra will offer its final performance of the academic year at 8 p.m. April 19 in Alice Pratt Brown Hall's Stude Concert Hall.

CHAO CENTER TO HOST SCREENING OF 'RETURNING SOULS'
The event will include a performance of the solo violin piece “Returning Souls: Four Short Pieces on Three Formosan Amis Legends,” adapted from the original film score composed by Rice Associate Professor of Composition and Theory Shih-Hui Chen.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL OPERA AND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA TO PRESENT HANDEL'S 'ARIODANTE'
Love, deceit and redemption will be on display during the upcoming production of Georg Friedrich Händel's "Ariodante" by the Shepherd School of Music Opera and Chamber Orchestra. Conducted by Richard Bado, director of Rice University's Opera Studies Program and directed by Edward Berkeley, guest stage director, the opera will be presented in Alice Pratt Brown Hall's Wortham Opera Theatre March 15, 17 and 19. Sunday's performance will be at 2 p.m.; all other performances will be at 7:30 p.m.

AMERICAN VIOLINIST ROBERT MANN TO PERFORM AT RICE, OFFER MASTER CLASS
Renowned American violinist and chamber musician Robert Mann will perform with members of his ensemble, the Mann Quartet, March 13 at 8 p.m. in Duncan Recital Hall, Alice Pratt Brown Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL ALUM GETS GRAMMY NOD
American record producer Blanton Alspaugh '87 has received the 2012 Grammy Award for "Producer of the Year, Classical." The 55th Grammy Awards were held in Los Angeles on Feb. 10.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL CELLIST TO BE FEATURED ON 'PERFORMANCE TODAY'
Undergraduate cellist Coleman Itzkoff was recently selected to represent Rice University's Shepherd School of Music as a part of American Public Media's (APM) "Performance Today" Young Artist Series. The segments will be broadcast on KUHA Classical 91.7 Feb. 25-March 1 from 10 to 11 a.m. daily.

HOUSTON SYMPHONY'S WOZZECK HIGHLIGHTS SHEPHERD SCHOOL CONNECTIONS
The Shepherd School of Music and the Houston Symphony have shared strong ties over the years, with Shepherd alumni and faculty comprising a notable part of the symphony’s onstage contingent.  On March 1 and 2 the Shepherd School will add to those numbers when the Houston Symphony presents concert performances of Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck at Jones Hall.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SYMPOSIUM: ARTISTS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
On January 28, 47 Strings founder Meghan Caulkett will be talking to current Boston University students about her outreach concert series. The “Artists for Social Change” panel features six alumni from Boston University who are all working to impact the community through different mediums. Meghan graduated with her Bachelor of Music from BU in 2010 and is currently a Master of Music student at the Shepherd School of Music.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL KICKS OFF NOVEMBER WITH FALL OPERA 'VOLPONE,' CHAMBER MUIC FESTIVAL
The Shepherd School of Music will kick off November with its fall opera production of “Volpone” Nov. 8 and 9 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 11 at 2 p.m. and the daylong Shepherd School Chamber Music Festival Nov. 10.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PREMIERES BOLCOM'S '9TH SYMPHONY'
To celebrate Rice University’s centennial year, the Shepherd School of Music last night presented the world premiere of American composer William Bolcom’s “Ninth Symphony: A Short Symphony in One Movement,” commissioned for the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra.

THEORY: MUSIC UNDERLIES LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Contrary to the prevailing theories that music and language are  cognitively separate or that music is a byproduct of language, theorists at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) advocate that music underlies the ability to acquire language.

ACCLAIMED TRUMPET PEDAGOGUES TO JOIN SHEPHERD SCHOOL IN 2013
Acclaimed trumpet pedagogues Barbara Butler and Charles Geyer will join Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in July 2013.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL TO OFFER ARTIST DIPLOMA OF MUSIC
Beginning in the fall of 2013, the Shepherd School of Music will offer the Artist Diploma in Music for gifted performers seeking a highly advanced level of performance study.

ACCLAIMED VOCAL INSTRUCTORS TO JOIN THE SHEPHERD SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Two nationally acclaimed vocal instructors — Barbara Paver and Julie Simson — will join Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music faculty next year. Paver, currently with the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), and Simson, currently with the University of Colorado-Boulder, will become members of the Shepherd School faculty in July 2013.

RICE'S SHEPHERD SCHOOL OF MUSIC ANNOUNCES WORLD PREMIERE OF BOLCOM'S 'NINTH SYMPHONY: A SHORT SYMPHONY IN ONE MOVEMENT'
In honor of Rice University's centennial, The Shepherd School of Music is presenting the world premiere of American composer William Bolcom’s "Ninth Symphony: A Short Symphony in One Movement," commissioned for the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra. The work is approximately 15 minutes in length and is scored for full symphony orchestra. The piece will be premiered in concerts at Rice Oct. 11 and 12 as part of the university’s Centennial Celebration.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL'S STALLMANN WILL USE FULBRIGHT GRANT IN TAIPEI
Kurt Stallmann, the Lynette S. Autrey Associate Professor of Composition and Theory and director of the Rice Electroacoustic Music Labs (REMLABS), has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to conduct research at Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA) during the 2012-2013 academic year.

JAMES TURRELL SKYSPACE TO OPEN TO PUBLIC JUNE 14
Towering above a 12-foot-high grass berm just east of Rice’s Shepherd School of Music, the pyramid-like work of art will provide two light shows each day – one at sunrise and one at sunset – in conjunction with the arc of the sun. Visitors seated on the skyspace’s lower and upper viewing areas will gaze up at the 72-by-72-foot white roof, which offers a view of the sky through a 14-by-14-foot opening. Lights projected on the ceiling will change colors as the sun rises and sets, and these will impact the color of the sky as seen by visitors.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL PRESENTS FINAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CONCERT OF THE SEASON
Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music will close its spring season April 20 with a performance by the symphony orchestra, the Rice Chorale, Houston Masterworks Chorus and the Sam Houston State University Chorale. The concert will be at 8 p.m. at Rice University in Alice Pratt Brown Hall’s Stude Concert Hall.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 88 KEYS
As a Juilliard-trained classical pianist, Gallagher is attempting to revive the Romantic-era tradition of house concerts, or salons. Though he has played many impressive venues, Gallagher finds more inspiration from interacting with audiences and building lasting relationships with his concert hosts. His first opportunity to perform at a private home came about during his junior year at Rice, where he studied piano privately with Jeanne Kierman Fischer, an artist teacher of piano and collaborative skills at the Shepherd School of Music. “That first house concert was really where he found his calling,” she said.

LOVE AND OPERA ARE IN THE AIR!
Love will be in the air as the Shepherd School Opera, Chamber Orchestra and the Rice Chorale join forces to present their spring opera, "Romance x 3," March 19 and 21 at 8 p.m. in Stude Concert Hall. The performance will be conducted by Richard Bado, director of the Opera Studies Program, with guest Edward Berkeley as stage director.

BALKAN DESIRE, ALUM RETURNS FROM BULGARIA
Laura Geier '04 recently returned from a Fulbright Grant in Plovdiv, Bulgaria where she studied performance of folk and Rrom (Gypsy) music at the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts learning music on both the violin and gadulka, the traditional stringed instrument of Bulgaria. Since leaving Rice, Geier has taken an untraditional path and pursued her passion of Rrom music. Laura Geier was a violin student of Kathleen Winkler.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL ALUM GETS GRAMMY
American mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke '04 has received the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for her performance as Kitty Oppenheimer in the Metropolitan Opera premiere of John Adams’s "Doctor Atomic." The 54th Grammy Awards were held in Los Angeles Feb. 12

SCIENTIA COLLOQUIUM: SALLIE'S GIFT: THE SHEPHERD SCHOOL OF MUSIC - BEGINNINGS AND EVOLUTION
"From its early days in the basement of Sewall Hall, the Shepherd School has developed into one of the premier music schools in America. As one of the founding faculty, I will outline the pre-history of the school from the initial gift of Sallie Shepherd Perkins to its actual opening in 1975 and go on to discuss the problems faced in the early years, the contributions of its deans, and the successes that have brought the school to its present outstanding reputation."

HANDEL'S 'MESSIAH' GETS A MAKEOVER
George Frideric Handel's "Messiah" is nearly 275 years old, but it's getting a bit of makeover this holiday season, thanks to Rice University music professor Karim Al-Zand.  

SHEPHERD SCHOOL ALUMNA RECEIVES GRAMMY NOMINATION
American composer and pianist Gabriela Lena Frank '94 and the ALIAS Chamber Ensemble have been nominated for a 2011 Grammy Award in the "Best Small Ensemble Performance" category.

CHORALE, SYMPHONY, AND CHAMBER ORCHESTRAS CONCLUDE FALL SEASON
The Shepherd School's Rice Chorale and the Chamber and Symphony orchestras will conclude their fall performance seasons with free concerts Nov. 28-29 and Dec. 1-2 at 8 p.m. on the campus of Rice University.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL OFFERS NEW COURSES IN CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Beginning with the fall 2011 semester, the Shepherd School is offering a new area of training in Music Career and Skills Enhancement. Required for all Masters of Music Performance majors, these courses supplement the traditional areas of music study already provided in the Shepherd School curriculum. Music Career and Skills Enhancement courses are designed to equip students with a broad complement of skills that are essential to the professional development of today's musicians.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL OPERA TO PRESENT COSI FAN TUTTE
Conducted by Richard Bado, Director of the Opera Studies Program, and directed by Vera Calábria, stage director, the opera will be presented in Alice Pratt Brown Hall's Wortham Opera Theatre Nov. 4, 6, 8 and 10. Sunday's performance will be at 2 p.m.; all other performances will be at 7:30 p.m.

FREE SYMPHONY AND CHAMBER CONCERTS TO KICK OFF SHEPHERD SCHOOL'S 2011-2012 SEASON AT RICE
Rice's Shepherd School Chamber and Symphony orchestras will kick off their fall seasons Oct. 4 and 6, respectively, with free performances at 8 p.m. in Alice Pratt Brown Hall's Stude Concert Hall.

A 'HANDS-ON' MUSICAL EDUCATION
Many radio professionals are in the industry for years before they get to produce their own shows, but not Joelle Zigman. The Brown College senior and classical music aficionada jumped headfirst into radio during her freshman year at Rice University and eventually took on responsibilities for producing shows on KTRU, Rice's student-run radio station, and KUHA, Houston's classical music public radio station.

ACCLAIMED ORGANIST AND TEACHER TO JOIN RICE'S SHEPHERD SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Internationally acclaimed concert organist and teacher Kenneth Cowan will join the faculty of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in fall 2012 as an associate professor of organ.

RICE A BESY BUY IN 2012 FISKE COLLEGE GUIDE
Rice University is one of 25 private “best buy” schools in the 2012 edition of Fiske Guide to Colleges.

RICE RANKED #1 FOR BEST QUALITY OF LIFE BY PRINCETON REVIEW
The nation's happiest students with the best quality of life are at Rice University, according to the 2012 edition of the Princeton Review's "The Best 376 Colleges." And that's according to the students. 

PREMIERE VIOLIN AND PIANO PROFESSORS JOIN RICE'S SHEPHERD SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Two of the country’s premiere teaching musicians are joining Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Paul Kantor, currently the Eleanor H. Biggs Memorial Distinguished Professor of Violin at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), and Virginia (Ginny) Weckstrom, a member of the chamber music and collaborative piano faculty at CIM, will join Rice in July 2012.  The two have been married for 30 years.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL OFFERS SUMMER CAMPS FOR KIDS THROUGHOUT HOUSTON
There's still an opportunity to enroll kids in the Shepherd School of Music's Summer Music Camps for young children. The camps, which begin May 31, are for children ages 2-10 to explore music through singing, rhythm games, creative movement, improvisation, musical storytelling and the building and playing of percussion instruments. The camps are open to the Houston community.

MUSICIANS AND SCIENTISTS TO RESEARCH MIND & MUSIC AT CONFERENCE
Distinguished neuroscientists and musicians from around the world will gather at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music June 13-17 to collaboratively explore music's role in human cognition and behavior and present the latest research findings from this emerging field of study.  

SHEPHERD SCHOOL STUDENTS TO DAZZLE DC
More than 100 Rice alumni and friends will gather around the Kennedy Center stage at 6 p.m. April 29 to watch a performance by high-caliber students from the Shepherd School of Music. For the eighth consecutive year, Rice students have been selected to partake in the Conservatory Project through the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL MUSICOLOGIST RECEIVES TWO PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS
Just as he was awarded a prestigious fellowship by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), Rice University's Gregory Barnett received another honor: He was awarded a monthlong residency at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center.

OPERA SET FINDS NEW HOME WITH HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
Though the stage of this spring's opera was deliberately minimal, the set continues to get maximum use. After the final performance of "Our Town," the set's floor was taken apart and donated to Houston Habitat for Humanity to be used in a future building project.

STUDENTS OF RICE'S SHEPHERD SCHOOL PRESENT BENEFIT CONCERT FOR JAPAN
Students in Rice University's Shepherd School of Music are hosting a benefit concert for the Japanese RedCross at 8 p.m. April 4 on campus to raise funds to help the people of Japan recover from the earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear crisis.

GRAD STUDENT ENJOYS BEST BIRTHDAY EVER
This was Fu’s fourth audition for an orchestral position, and he received the good news at the end of a demanding 10-hour day in which he played three times. “I was on stage a total of 10 minutes,” he said with a laugh, “but I endured 10 hours of waiting time.”

HOUSTON PREMIERE OF 'OUR TOWN' OPERA NEXT WEEKEND
The Shepherd School of Music will delight opera and musical lovers alike with the Houston premiere of Ned Rorem’s “Our Town,” an American opera with libretto by J.D. McClatchy and based on the play by Thornton Wilder.

AL-ZAND HONORED BY AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS
Rice University’s Karim Al-Zand is one of four composers chosen by the American Academy of Arts and Letters to receive a 2011 Arts and Letters Academy Award in Music.

MUSICIANS OF THE CARIBBEAN
Despite the recent unusually cold weather, memories of a tropical winter break continue to warm the faculty and students at the Shepherd School of Music who took their talents south to beaches throughout the Caribbean.

RICE STUDENTS, FACULTY TAKE STAGE AT HOUSTON SYMPHONY
Four Rice University students will be among the musicians performing Feb. 11-13 with the Houston Symphony for its all-Ravel weekend. The student vocalists from the Shepherd School of Music will join Rice professor and internationally renowned mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer and a full symphony orchestra that includes more than 30 Rice-affiliated musicians.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL CULTIVATES RELATIONSHIP WITH CHINESE CONSERVATORY
From hosting virtuoso professionals to turning prodigies into prodigious talents, Robert Yekovich has been exposed to the best the musical world has to offer. So it is a rarity when Yekovich, dean of the Shepherd School of Music and the Elma Schneider Professor of Music, encounters a moment in which anyone, student or otherwise, transforms an instrument into a sound unlike any he's previously heard.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL CONCERT MANAGER DIES JUST BEFORE THE HOLIDAYS
The Rice University community is mourning the loss of Thomas Littman '77, who passed away unexpectedly Dec. 22. He was 56. Littman was the concert manager of Rice's Shepherd School of Music for the past 24 years. He earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Rice and his MBA from the University of Texas.

SERGIU LUCA, PROFESSOR OF VIOLIN, DIES AT 67
Luca came to Rice in 1983 and served as the director of the Texas Chamber Orchestra of Houston until 1986. In Houston, Luca founded the Da Camera Society to produce a series of thematically programmed concerts designed to attract new listeners to the concert hall. Hailed as his most ambitious and influential project, Da Camera is widely acclaimed for its innovative programming and has established itself as one of America's leading presenters and producers of ensemble music. Along with some friends, he also founded the chamber ensemble Context, which is devoted to the performance of small-ensemble music, both historical and modern, on instruments appropriate for each era.

CELLO PROGRAM RIGOROUS BUT REWARDING
On one of the walls in Norman Fischer’s office hang snapshots of the cello professor surrounded by beaming college students. They are memories, souvenirs from each class that has passed through his Shepherd School of Music studio during the last 18 years. As Fischer looks over them, a timeline from his respected career at Rice, he can pinpoint how the study of the cello has aided each one of his students: as a soloist, as a member of a quartet or as a fellow teacher like himself.

COMPOSED FOR SUCCESS
"My pivotal, formative years were spent at the Shepherd School," she said. "During this time the faculty grew as did the studios of musicians. I worked my tail off and had a blast, finding other kindred spirits who were throwing our lot in with this crazy endeavor of 'la musica.'"

CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED CLARINETIST JOINS RICE UNIVERSITY FACULTY
Rice University announced today that it has appointed critically acclaimed clarinetist Richie Hawley as professor of clarinet in the Shepherd School of Music. Hawley is the principal clarinet of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and head of the Clarinet Department at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, which under his leadership became one of the most outstanding clarinet schools in the country.

BAROQUE STYLE JAZZES UP OPERA PRODUCTION
Almost all Shepherd School of Music students strive for technical perfection in their playing and singing, so it's a special kind of challenge to ask them to improvise, experiment and go off script. But that's exactly what this year's opera is demanding of them. Like all baroque operas, Monteverdi's "The Coronation of Poppea" features just a voice line and words, so many decisions are left to the performers. It's a deviation from most later operas, in which the composer has written out detailed markings for tempo, dynamic, articulation and orchestration.

MOLECULES ARE MOTIFS IN NANOSYMPHONY
Rice University composer Anthony Brandt has compressed an entire evening at the symphony into a six-minute opus -- a "nanosymphony" -- as part of Rice University's Year of Nano celebration. The River Oaks Chamber Orchestra will premiere the piece Sunday at Rice's Buckyball Discovery Gala.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL BUYSE HONORED WITH LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Much has changed for Rice University's Leone Buyse since she was a fresh-faced flutist on the stage of the Geneva International Flute Competition some 40 years ago. Then she was a 22-year-old who had spent a year living and studying in Paris on a Fulbright grant. With a ragtag group of fellow students, she was traveling throughout Europe -- Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy and Greece -- and receiving a "remarkable education." But it was something learned on the Geneva stage all those years ago that set her on a career path that would lead to her being given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Flute Association this weekend.

COLLEGE GUIDE GIVES KUDOS TO THE SHEPHERD SCHOOL
Rice University's Shepherd School of Music is among the "10 music schools that should be on your radar" in the 2011 edition of The Fiske Guide to Colleges.

LOOKING BEYOND THE MUSIC NOTES
Armed with a Fulbright Scholar Grant, Rice's Shih-Hui Chen will spend next year in Taiwan studying aboriginal music and getting reacquainted with the sounds and culture from her childhood. After 28 years of living in the U.S., Chen is looking forward to the opportunity to immerse herself in Taiwanese culture while studying at National Taiwan University, which houses a collection of more than 500 recordings of tribal music and traditional Chinese nanguan music.

A MEETING OF THE MINDS OF MUSICIANS AND SCIENTISTS
Ten musicians and 10 neuroscientists will teach each other about music and the mind during a weeklong meeting at Rice in the summer of 2011, and Rice students will be able to witness the interaction.

ZEFF FELLOWSHIP WILL AID SENIOR'S MUSICAL PERFORMANCE, ETHNOMUSICOLOGY RESERACH ABROAD
Baker College senior Shelley Cantrick has been awarded the Roy and Hazel Zeff Memorial Fellowship, a $25,000 grant that will allow her to explore classical art song through its folk song roots and performance during the next year.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL'S DUNHAM TO PERFORM WITH BRENTANO QUARTET
In a special concert presented by Houston Friends of Chamber Music, James Dunham, professor of viola and chamber music, will perform with the Brentano String Quartet at 8 p.m. April 6 in Stude Hall at Rice's Shepherd School of Music. Dunham and the quartet will perform the Mendelssohn String Quintet No. 2 in B Flat Major, Op. 87. The quartet will also perform the Schumann Quartet No. 2 in F Major and a new work composed by Michael Hartke for the group.

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC OFFERS DELIGHTS FOR THE EYES AND EARS
Promises, lies, love triangles and a parade of beautifully hand-painted costumes will be on display for all to see at the Shepherd School of Music when the opera program and chamber orchestra present Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music." Conducted by Richard Bado, director of opera studies, and directed by Debra Dickinson, artist teacher of opera studies, the musical will be presented in Alice Pratt Brown Hall's Wortham Opera Theatre March 25, 26, 28 and 29. Sunday's performance will be at 2 p.m.; all other performances will be at 7:30 p.m.

RICE ALUM RETURNS WITH PROJECT TRIO IN CHAMBER MUSIC PERFORMANCE - WORKSHOP
PROJECT Trio, the high energy chamber music ensemble which is creating a whole new musical genre, offered a riveting performance and inspired workshop to Shepherd School students on Thursday, March 18, 2010. 

OUT OF THE ORDINARY AND INTO THE VAULTS AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Like most doctoral students would, Sonja Harasim began mapping out a plan when she found out she was selected to spend a week during Rice's winter break in Washington, D.C., for a music project. First and foremost came her research, but she allotted time for the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, the Smithsonian Institution and the other sightseeing jaunts. She figured she'd have time to sleep and sample the local cuisine. But her careful planning quickly flew out the window as soon as she set foot in the hallowed halls of the Library of Congress.

RICE STUDENTS PLAN FEB 21 CONCERT TO RAISE HOPE, MONEY FOR HAITI
Students in the Shepherd School of Music are hosting the "Hope for Haiti Benefit Concert" at Rice University's Stude Concert Hall to raise funds for organizations supporting the people of Haiti and the victims of the January earthquake.

ENSO QUARTET NOMINATED FOR GRAMMY
The Enso String Quartet, whose members spent a two-year residency at Rice's Shepherd School of Music, has been nominated for a Grammy in the "Best Chamber Music Performance" category. Nelson and Belcher were members of the quartet in 2004, when they began their two-year graduate quartet-in-residency at the Shepherd School. The quartet received a Master of Music in string quartet after their two years of residency and were then invited to remain a third year as guest lecturers. Their mentors were James Dunham, professor of viola and chamber music; Norman Fischer, professor of cello; and Kenneth Goldsmith, professor of violin.

A CHRISTMAS CHORALE
It might not be angels singing, but the sound of the heralded Rice Chorale sure is heavenly and hark-worthy. This chorus of more than 100 voices will treat audiences to a free concert featuring holiday carol and choral music at 8 p.m. Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 in Edythe Bates Old Recital Hall, Alice Pratt Brown Hall.

NEW HEIGHTS FOR SHEPHERD SCHOOL OPERA PROGRAM
Though its set has been struck from the stage of Alice Pratt Brown Hall's Wortham Opera Theatre, the recent Shepherd School Opera production continues to sing volumes about a Rice University education.

OPERA PRODUCTION HIGHLIGHTS JOY OF MUSIC MAKING
Joy will echo through the Rice University campus next week when The Shepherd School of Music pairs its unparalleled chamber orchestra with its on-the-rise opera program for one-act productions of Richard Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" and Gaetano Donizetti's "Viva la Mamma!" Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 4, 6 and 10th and at 2 p.m. on November 8th in Wortham Opera Theatre, Alice Pratt Brown Hall.

YOUNG COMPOSER HAS NO DOUBTS ABOUT RICE
While many students in Rice's Shepherd School of Music are training for careers that will take them to Carnegie Hall, Rice freshman Hilary Purrington already has that experience under her belt -- and her pen. In high school, Purrington composed "Doubts," which her choir sang on the famous stage.

CONDUCT GREAT AND GREAT THINGS WILL HAPPEN
After four years of modest work in the Philadelphia music scene, Thomas Hong '08 decided to go back to school. It's a decision that is now paying dividends: Hong was recently named assistant conductor of both the Pittsburgh and Seattle symphony orchestras.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL BASSISTS TAKE TOP HONORS
Last month, two bassists from Rice's Shepherd School of Music took top prizes in the 2009 International Society of Bassists Double Bass Competition, the field's most prestigious competition. Shawn Conley '05 earned first place in the jazz division and Kevin Brown, a Baker College senior, placed first in the orchestra division. Both studied under Paul Ellison, the Lynette S. Autrey Professor of Double Bass and chair of strings.

KIDS CAMPS TEACH TUNES
Even kids too young for school are spending time in Rice classrooms this month during summer camps at the Shepherd School of Music. The camps, which began last week, are for children ages 2-9 to explore music through singing, rhythm games, creative movement, improvisation, musical storytelling and the building and playing of percussion instruments.

CARNEGIE HALL CALLS RICE STUDENT
This weekend, Rice's Kana Mimaki will realize a lifelong dream when she graces the stage of Carnegie Hall to perform Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op. 32, No. 5 and Liszt's Concert Paraphrase of "Rigoletto." Mimaki, who is a graduate student in the Shepherd School of Music, earned the opportunity when she took first prize in the 2009 Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition.

A MUSICIAN AND A SCIENTIST
A concert violist by day, a neuroscientist by night and a professor somewhere in between. Those are superhero-style ambitions that Molly Gebrian is turning into reality at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. Already an accomplished musician, Gebrian began her studies in the highly selective doctoral program at the music school this fall. But her musical abilities and accomplishments aren't all she brought to Rice. She also plans to pursue a doctorate in cognitive neuroscience.

SHEPHERD SCHOOL PRESENTS MOZART'S 'DON GIOVANNI'
Rice University's Shepherd School of Music will bring a tale of the world's most famous ladies' man to life when it presents a special performance of Mozart's beloved opera "Don Giovanni" at 8 p.m. March 19 and 21 in Stude Concert Hall. The venue is a change of pace for the opera program and will allow for use of an orchestra pit for the first time in one of its productions.

EXPLORE THE MIND THROUGH MUSIC WITH TOP RESEARCHERS
Later this month, distinguished scientists, composers and musicians from across the country will convene at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music to discuss music's role in human cognition and behavior. The Exploring the Mind Through Music conference will be held March 27-29 in Alice Pratt Brown Hall.

THE SHEPHERD SCHOOL RAISES RECORD-BREAKING $2.4 MILLION AT GALA
With dinner, dancing and an intimate performance by internationally acclaimed soprano Renée Fleming, Rice's Shepherd School of Music celebrated the school's successes in its 33 years and the growth of the burgeoning opera program. The gala drew a sellout crowd of about 700 and raised a record-breaking $2.4 million, which will support the school, benefit the opera program and increase endowed scholarships as part of Rice's Centennial Campaign.

INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED SOPRANO RENÉE FLEMING TO PERFORM AT THE SHEPHERD SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Internationally acclaimed soprano Renée Fleming will grace the stage at Rice University's Stude Concert Hall as the Shepherd School of Music celebrates “An Evening with Renée Fleming -- The Shepherd School Opera Gala” Feb.19. The evening, which begins at 7 p.m., features Fleming in a concert and gala to benefit the school's opera program, which is quickly gaining national attention, and increase endowed scholarship funds at the school.

HONORING MENDELSSOHN'S BICENTENNIAL
Like musicians and communities around the globe, Rice University's Shepherd School of Music is celebrating the 200th birthday of Felix Mendelssohn, a German composer, pianist and conductor whose works continue to play an important role in performances and music education. The Shepherd School will celebrate and honor Mendelssohn with free concerts at 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Feb. 3 in Alice Pratt Brown Hall's Duncan Recital Hall.

MORE THAN 'CRASH, BANG, BOOM'
With state-of-the-art facilities and a composition and music theory program that branches out in the field of electronic music, Rice University's Shepherd School of Music was chosen to host the eighth annual Electric LaTex Festival. It was the second time Rice hosted the student-organized event, which is a celebration of new electronic computer music by students from a consortium of universities in Louisiana and Texas.  

COLLEGIUM MUSICUM
Baroque violins, krumhorns and harpsichords aren't instruments you'd expect to find in a 21st-century music school, but they were front and center during a recent concert at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. As part of the Collegium Musicum class, students have the opportunity to use replicas of historic instruments to play music from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque periods.