SHEPHERD SCHOOL STUDENTS CHOSEN TO PERFORM AT KENNEDY CENTER CONSERVATORY PROJECT IN 2004

Office of News and Media Relations
Ellen Chang
Media Relations Specialist
713-348-6777
Email: ellenc@rice.edu

The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University has been chosen as one of eight leading music conservatories by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to participate in its new program, the Conservatory Project.

Students from the Shepherd School participating in this year's Conservatory Project are Benjamin Jaber, horn; The Enso String Quartet, and Lola Astanova, piano.

The Conservatory Project is a new program designed to develop and present young talent from the leading music schools in the United States.

The Shepherd School will participate in the project's free week of performances May 24 to May 31, 2004, at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater. Three Rice students will perform at the music festival annually

The project showcases young performers who show extraordinary talent with seven performances of classical music, jazz and opera. The participants will have the opportunity to be critiqued by world-renowned musicians including Leonard Slatkin and Plácido Domingo. After the initial series in May 2004, the project will be presented biannually in late winter and late spring.

"We are extremely pleased with this invitation and its recognition of our national reputation among the top-tier music schools in the country," said Anne Schnoebelen, interim dean of music at the Shepherd School. "The students we choose to perform at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will not only be presented to Washington audiences but will also benefit from the feedback of prominent artists associated with the center."

The other colleges and universities chosen to participate in the project are:
Berklee College of Music, Boston
The Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia
Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, Rochester
The Juilliard School, New York
The Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco
The School of Music at Indiana University, Bloomington

Founded in 1975, the Shepherd School is one of the nation¹s youngest major university level music programs. Twenty-eight years later, it has become one of the most prominent music schools in the country. With an elegant state-of-the-art facility, the Shepherd School attracts an international student body of 302 music majors and 54 faculty members and has made a great impact on the cultural life of Rice and the greater Houston community.