The Shepherd School of Music Highlighted in Classical Voice North America

Photo Credit: Brandon Martin

The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, with highlights that include seven world premieres by the school’s composition faculty: Shih-Hui Chen’s The Birds Are Real, Ambushed From Ten Directions, Richard Lavenda’s Upon Further Reflection, Anthony Brandt’s Chamber Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Kurt Stallman’s The Fruit and the Work, Karim Al-Zand’s A Joint Interest, Arthur Gottschalk’s Tombeaux: pour un création d’une rapsodie, and Pierre Jalbert’s Another Starry Night.

Reporting for Classical Voice North America, James Bash met with Dean of Music Matthew Loden, who spoke of the Shepherd School’s unique position as “a conservatory inside of a research university,” which brings “sophisticated, academically bright and musically brilliantly talented students who want to have the bespoke musical experience.” Loden also mentions its small body of students, with an enrollment of 285, citing that “our size allows us to concentrate on what our students need to be successful in the future.”

Miguel Harth-Bedoya recently joined the faculty as director of orchestra and professor of conducting, following 20 years leading the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. After attending a rehearsal with one of Harth-Bedoya’s student conductors, Bash remarks that his “engaging, enthusiastic teaching style is contagious.”

Read the full article from Classical Voice North America here.

Photo Credit: Michael Stravato