Shepherd School of Music
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The Shepherd School of Music is located in Houston, Texas on the campus of Rice University, Texas' most selective institute of higher education. Among the schools within the university, the Shepherd School is the most selective, accepting overall about twelve percent of all applicants. (The acceptance rate is different for each instrument and each year, but the average is twelve percent.)The next selective school at Rice is the Rice Architecture School.
Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba, Percussion, Harp, Piano, Organ, Voice, Composition and Theory, and Musicology are the areas of study offered at the Shepherd School of Music. With its small studios, world-class faculty, and top-rate facilities, the Shepherd School attracts students from all over the world, many turning down such prestigious schools as Juilliard to attend. The Shepherd School is known to have one of the best college orchestras in the country. Its voice and opera program is currently in an era of growth and increased publicity, and the operas presented are usually sold out. Musical performances and events attract over 70,000 audience members each year.
All Shepherd students enjoy a program that allows for individual care and attention for undergraduates and graduates alike, due to the small size and selectivity of the school. Courses are generally challenging and thorough, and are taught by faculty and not TAs. Almost every class has fewer than thirty students. Group piano, or piano proficiency, has long been regarded as a joke course, but has recently become a more challenging and serious course. The only course offered to Rice University as a whole (without special registration) is Fundamentals of Music, known by most students as "Clapping for Credit." Thus, the music school is somewhat isolated, both physically and academically, from the rest of Rice. Each Shepherd student may choose the level of activity he or she holds within the university.
Students at Shepherd have specific traditions and running jokes, such as "Fuck you, I go to Shepherd" and "What if Shepherd was a spaceship?" Frisbee on the grass is a popular pastime of Shepherd students, and many students head to Ruggles for dessert after concerts. Singers and cellists are considered the most attractive majors, an opinion held by much of the school. Post-recital receptions often serve as dinner for diligent Shepherd students, who do not leave the building until they finish practicing for the day. It is an upstanding tradition to spend the entire night before any music history test with a few study partners, cramming musical examples and vocabulary into one's brain while drinking large amounts of coffee and stuffing oneself with cookies.
Recently, a 30-year anniversary celebration gala was held in honor of the Shepherd School of Music. Itzhak Perlman played with the Shepherd orchestra and then conducted them for the concert, which was followed by a dance and dinner celebration outside of Alice Pratt Brown Hall.
Alice Pratt Brown Hall is the name of Shepherd's building, housing a 1,000-seat concert hall, a 250-seat recital hall, the Edythe Bates Old Grand Organ and Recital Hall, an opera studio, 65 practice rooms, seven classrooms, rehearsal and small ensemble spaces, 54 teaching studios, and a microwave and refrigerator for the convenience of students and faculty. Situated on the western side of the Rice campus, it is made up of two long parallel wings joined by gardens and connecting corridors of loggias. The facilities were designed by the Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill, and the $22 million building was completed very recently, allowing for the most current advantages in music facility architecture.
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