SHEPHERD SCHOOL IN THE NEWS

Office of News and Media Relations
Jessica Stark
Media Relations Specialist
Email: stark@rice.edu

6-6	Shepherd School Students Spend Summer Teaching Not only do children flock to campus for summer music camps, but current and former Shepherd School students return to fill new roles as teachers. Under the direction of Rachel Buchman, head of the Young Children's Division, the former students lead weeklong camps that aim to develop the innate musicianship of children and teach them to understand music through joyful experience.
5-29	Jasper Quartet and Trio Destino Take Silver at Fischoff The Fischoff Competition is the nation’s largest chamber music competition and attracts the finest young instrumentalists from across the country and around the world. The competition is held in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center at the University of Notre Dame.
5-15	Shepherd School Students Return to the Kennedy Center For the fifth year in a row, musicians from the Rice University have been invited to take center stage at one of the best-known venues in the country, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. Building on their school's legacy, eight students from the Shepherd School of Music will perform and participate in the Kennedy Center's Conservatory Project.
5-13	A Fulbright Funds Fantasy When she started at Rice University, Rachelle Hunt had no idea she would earn a Fulbright Scholarship to realize her dream of living abroad. A visit to Germany with her high school orchestra sparked her self-described obsession with travel -- a passion second only to her love of music.
5-9	Shepherd School's Al-Zand Garners Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize The plaudits of his students are music to Karim Al-Zand's ears. The Lynette S. Autrey Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory at the Shepherd School of Music is this year's winner of the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize, given to the assistant professor at Rice who earns the highest marks from students.
4-25	Quartet Wins Competitions The Jasper String Quartet, the graduate quartet-in-residence at the Shepherd School of Music, has recently won the grand prize and the audience prize at the 2008 Plowman Chamber Music Competition, as well as the grand prize at the 2008 Coleman Chamber Music Competition.
4-11	The interdisciplinary Guggenheim Fellow Having been recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Shepherd School of Music's Kurt Stallmann has joined an elite group of professionals who have demonstrated stellar achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. That group includes scores of Nobel, Pulitzer and other prize winners, such as Ansel Adams, Langston Hughes, Henry Kissinger, Vladimir Nabokov and 37 current and former Rice faculty members.
3-28	Opera Prepares Orchestral Conducting Student When Thomas Hong speaks, he looks you straight in the eye, but his hands are in constant motion. It's a trait you'd expect of a conductor, even one so young. With the excitement of his final production at Rice University still resonating, Hong, 36, reflected last week on two extraordinary years at the Shepherd School of Music, from which he will graduate with a master's degree in instrumental conducting this spring.
3-21	Building a Bridge of Beijing "You have to listen to this," said Kathleen Winkler, Rice University professor of violin, as she quickly moved across her music studio to her computer. "You'll never believe how old the musicians are."
3-14	The Elixir of Love The Shepherd School of Music will delight opera and musical lovers alike with a four-show production of Gaetano Donizetti's “L’elisir d’amore,” a beloved comic opera about a love elixir, performed by the Shepherd School Opera and the Shepherd School Chamber Orchestra.
2-22	Shepherd School Student Takes National Stage Shepherd School of Music graduate student Jennifer Johnson will take the national stage Feb. 24 when she sings with the Met Orchestra conducted by Stephen Lord. The Metropolitan Opera selected Johnson as one of nine finalists to sing in the 2008 National Council Auditions Grand Finals Concert. More than 1,500 singers auditioned for a spot.
2-22	'Three Dances' for Children and Parents Musical adventures for the young and young-at-heart will begin at 10 a.m. and noon Feb. 23 in Stude Concert Hall when the Shepherd School of Music presents Manuel de Falla's "Three Dances" from "The Three-Cornered Hat (Suite No. 2)." Recommended for ages 4 and up, the two Young People's Concerts are free and open to the public.
2-8	Strings in Kenya It wasn’t the size of the audience that was daunting. Clements often had played for much larger crowds, especially during her year with the Houston Grand Opera. But among the 500 people packed into the church in Nyeri, Kenya, only a handful recognized that she was holding a musical instrument. The program read, “Mount Kenya Academy: Solo Violin,” and thinking there was a typo, the minister introduced Clements as, “Violet, from the Mount Kenya Academy.”
1-31	Scene and Heard Juniors, seniors and graduate students enrolled in the opera workshop class will perform pieces including Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Debussy's "Pelleas et Melisande," Strauss' "Die Fledermaus," Bizet's "Carmen," Bernstein's "Candide," Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffmann," Floyd's "Of Mice and Men," Rossini's "Le Comte Ory," and Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro,” "Don Giovanni” and "Die Zauberflöte.”
1-25	Collaboration brings Grammy nominees to campus Rice University's Shepherd School of Music hosted the Grammy-winning groups the Ying Quartet and the Turtle Island Quartet for a Houston Friends of Music (HFM) concert on Jan. 22. Both quartets have been nominated for 2007 Grammy Awards.
1-07	Opera Binds Music and Humanities When a music student mentioned continuing his Italian studies to Edward Anderson, lecturer in Italian and classical studies, Anderson talked with him about doing independent study. While that idea would have met one student's needs, Anderson saw the opportunity to do more to bring the humanities and music together at Rice.
12-21	Shepherd School's Dunham performs on Grammy-nominated CD James Dunham, Rice professor of viola and chamber music, is a featured artist on the Grammy-nominated Ying Quartet double CD "Tchaikovsky: Three String Quartets; Souvenir de Florence."
10-23	Shepherd School Opera and the Shepherd School Chamber Orchestra Present Rinaldo The first Italian opera to be composed specifically for the English stage, Rinaldo is the fourth of Handel’s surviving operas. Its huge success, which established Handel as the most celebrated composer of the moment, was based largely on the theatricality of the setting, which was designed to utilize spectacular stage effects, and the intense emotional situations of the characters, exploited brilliantly by Handel’s compelling dramatic genius.
10-19	Shepherd School Takes Lead in Helping Solve Classical Music's Career Conundrum Like beauty, success is defined in the eye of the beholder. Most classical music students tend to define their future success as a career playing in orchestras, chamber groups or as a soloist. This traditional view leaves other important career opportunities overlooked, a situation Rice's Shepherd School of Music is determined to remedy.
10-18	Rice Alumna Performs on Today Show Pianist and Rice alumna Lola Astanova '05 performed on the Today Show Oct. 18 to promote an exclusive concert that high-end retailer Nieman Marcus is offering as a fantasy gift in its legendary Christmas Book for $1.57 million.
10-3	David In-Jae Cho '03 Wins First Prize at the Mata International Conducting Competition David In-Jae Cho, the First Prize Winner of the 3rd Eduardo Mata International Conducting Competition, has been the Utah Symphony’s Assistant Conductor since September 2006 conducting Pops, Educational, and Subscription Classical Series.  During the 2004-2007 seasons, David served as the Bruno Walter Resident Conductor of the San Antonio Symphony.
8-30	Jeffrey Stephenson Wins First Prize in Fernand Gillet - Hugo Fox Internation Competition Held at the 36th annual IDRS Convention at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY June 12-16, 2007, this year's first prize was awarded to Jeffrey Stephenson, a current graduate student at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. Mr. Stephenson received a cash prize of 8,000 US dollars, with second prize receiving 3,000 US dollars and three honorable mentions capturing 1,000 US dollars each.
7-2	Madeleine Kabat Takes Third Prize in Irving M. Klein International String Competition The annual Irving M. Klein International String Competition is recognized as the world’s leading competition for young string artists. For the past 22 years, the Klein Competition has given classical music virtuosos between the ages of 15 and 23 a place to showcase their skills and to initiate their careers.
6-28	Rice's Institute Attracts Teachers From Around the Globe With more than 2,265 registered participants hailing from more than 225 school districts, Rice's Advanced Placement Summer Institute is the largest of its kind in the country. Middle and high school teachers from nearly 30 different U.S. states and countries, including Columbia, Egypt, Honduras, Italy, Jordan, Mexico and Thailand, came to Rice this week to begin taking classes at the institute.
6-5	Jasper String Quartet Performs at Juilliard The Jasper String Quartet formed at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 2003. They immediately gained attention, winning the Oberlin-Smithsonian fellowship twice in their first two years, followed by the Presser Music Award in 2004, and the Kauffman Chamber Music Prize three times. In 2005 they were invited to play at the Vigeland Museum in Oslo, Norway. Other recent highlights include performances at the Kennedy Center, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music Series in New York City.
5-17	Shepherd Student Earns Competitive Fellowship Upon graduation from his master’s program in the Shepherd School of Music, bassoonist Bradley Balliett has earned a selective fellowship at The Academy – A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and The Weill Music Institute, which combines the finest young professional musicians with children in New York City public schools.
5-11	Brant Honored with George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching The George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching honors six of Rice’s best professors each year. The recipients are determined by the votes of alumni who graduated two and five years ago.  One of this year’s recipients was Anthony Brandt, associate professor of composition and theory.
5-11	Shih-Hui Chen Receives Duncan Award Every year, the Charles W. Duncan Achievement Award for Outstanding Faculty is given to at least one Rice faculty member. Candidates must be considered to be a standout in both the areas of teaching and scholarship -- qualifications that can make it difficult to find a winner.
5-10	Vibrant Music Community Plays for Houston Symphony Jon Kimura Parker, professor of piano at Rice, will play George Gershwin's "Concerto in F" on the closing weekend of the Houston Symphony's classical subscription concerts May 17, 19 and 20. The concert will review Gershwin's most celebrated works.
5-10	Founding Member of Shepherd School of Music Dies at Age 69 One of the founding members of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, Professor Emeritus Ellsworth Milburn, died May 3 of complications from pneumonia. He was 69. Milburn, a Rice faculty member since 1975, retired in the fall of 2000 after serving as chair of the Department of Composition and Theory for more than 12 years.
4-11	Performing Arts Medicine Day Symposium to be held April 28 The nagging ache in your thumb; the stabbing pain in your forearm, neck or back; or the scratchiness in your throat can be a sign of a repetitive movement injury or overuse of vocal cords.  Performing artists know these types of injuries all too well.  They will be the focus of an interactive day of music and learning during Performing Arts Medicine Day, a collaborative effort between the Methodist Center for Performing Arts Medicine (CPAM) and Rice’s Shepherd School of Music
3-23	Syzygy Marks 30 Years with Two Nights of 'New' Music Since 1976, the faculty music ensemble Syzygy has been introducing Houston audiences to cutting-edge, new music. As part of a yearlong 30th-anniversary celebration, Syzygy is honoring the heritage of the Shepherd School of Music by featuring the works of some of its founding members at two concerts this month.
3-22	Pierre Jalbert Awarded 2006-07 Stoeger Prize At a special award ceremony at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on Monday, March 20, composer Pierre Jalbert was awarded the Elise L. Stoeger Prize for Composition. The Stoeger Prize is a $25,000 cash award given every two years in recognition of significant contributions to the chamber music repertory. Mr. Jalbert accepted the award from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Co-Artistic Director Wu Han at the ceremony, which was hosted by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Resident Lecturer and Director of Family Programs Bruce Adolphe.
3-19	Shepherd School Opera to Perform Street Scene The Shepherd School of Music will delight opera and musical lovers alike with a four-show production of Kurt Weill’s “Street Scene,” an American opera about working-class life in New York City performed by the Shepherd School Opera and the Shepherd School Chamber Orchestra.
3-9	Shih-Hui Chen Receives Goddard Lieberson Fellowship Two Goddard Lieberson fellowships of $15,000, endowed in 1978 by the CBS Foundation, are given to mid-career composers of exceptional gifts. This year they will go to Shih-Hui Chen and Seung-Ah Oh.
2-8	Shepherd School Orchestra to Premiere Work of Al-Zand The concert features the world premiere of an orchestral work by Shepherd School faculty member and awarding-winning composer Karim Al-Zand. The 12-minute work is entitled "City Scenes: three urban dances for orchestra" and was written for the orchestra's director, conductor Larry Rachleff.
2-6	Performing Arts Medicine Day in April The Shepherd School of Music in collaboration with the Methodist Center for Performing Arts Medicine will offer an all-day symposium on medical issues affecting performing musicians. Physicians with expertise in treating music related injuries will discuss injury prevention and treatments.
1-26	Jade Simmons Recognized as a Rising Star in her Field Shepherd School of Music alumna Jade Simmons, an internationally touring classical pianist and a former Miss America runner-up, can now include Ebony magazine’s “Young Leader of the Future” among her growing list of distinctions. Simmons was among 30 people named to the list, which appears in Ebony’s February issue and recognizes young, gifted black men and women who are rising stars in law, academia, religion, science, entertainment, communications and the arts.
1-11	Shepherd School's Mentzer Takes the Stage at the Met As a girl ushering audience members to their seats at the Santa Fe Opera, Susanne Mentzer likely never imagined she would someday be performing on that very stage — much less on the stages of the most famous opera houses around the globe. But she has; in fact, she currently is performing on perhaps the most famous U.S. stage, The Metropolitan Opera in New York.
1-9	Anthony Brandt discusses his on-line music appreciation course in an interview on public radio A free online introductory course in music appreciation from Rice University offers adults a new way to learn how to listen to music. Titled “Sound Reasoning,” the course comes complete with on-screen audio samples that demonstrate concepts explained in the text and interactive exercises that offer immediate feedback on why a response is correct or incorrect. Designed to be as user-friendly as possible, the course does not require the ability to read music, and the audio samples can be accessed quickly with the click of a mouse.
1-4	Fusion: A Feast for the Senses Experience a place where contemporary music, art and cuisine collide!  Guests will explore a world where Houston’s cutting-edge artwork and innovative music, combine with an array of tempting culinary treats provided by Houston’s hottest chefs!
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