Shepherd School of Music Featured in OperaWire

On April 17, the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University raised the curtain on its mainstage production of Verdi’s comedic opus Falstaff. Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the school has grown from its inception as Rice’s music department through the support of community partnerships and donors, and has developed into a vibrant and effective center of musical education and collaboration.

Logan Martell traveled to Shepherd to explore the campus, speak with the faculty and students, and experience Falstaff. “It became clear that there was truly something special to be found there,” he reports for OperaWire.

“During my time on campus, it was not uncommon to glimpse classes or various practice, with students learning from truly renowned artists,” he says. “Without naming names, some of these I recognized from shows I have seen at places including the Metropolitan Opera. Leading the school since 2021, Dean Matthew Loden provided much insight on Shepherd’s recipe for success as we spoke and walked the building.”

Loden said:

I think over the 50 years of our history, the secret of our success is that we’ve maintained a very narrow focus. We’ve decided that there’s only a handful of things we want to do, but we want to do them better than anybody else, and we want to, wherever possible, avoid any kind of institutional drift — where the mission gets complicated or messy. What are the points of light that we need to pay attention to? [What do we need to do] in a different fashion to help amplify what we’re already doing for the benefit of the students and faculty that are here?”

Read Martell's piece here.