Collegium Musicum

The Shepherd School Collegium Musicum performs instrumental and vocal repertory of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque eras using historical performance practices and, in most cases, period instruments such as viols, recorders, shawms, crumhorns, the dulcian, lute, harpsichord, and Baroque violin.  Recent concerts have included works by John Dowland, Diego Ortiz, Francesco Cavalli, Alessandro Scarlatti, G. F. Handel. 

Collegium students rehearse two hours per week and perform in a recital each semester.  Over the course of their enrollment, they become familiar with historical approaches to pitch, tuning, tone production, proportional meters, melodic embellishment, and vibrato.  As a means of seeing current practitioners first-hand, students in the Collegium are also given the opportunity to attend concerts organized by Houston Early Music free of charge.  The Collegium is directed by musicologists Gregory Barnett and Peter Loewen, both of whom have researched and performed early music according to historical performance practices.