SHEPHERD SCHOOL ORCHESTRAS, CHORAL GROUPS HOLD SPRING CONCERTS

Office of News and Media Relations
Arie Wilson
Rice News Staff
Email: arie@rice.edu

Rice University’s Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, Shepherd School Chamber Orchestra, Shepherd Singers and Rice Chorale will present five concerts this spring, featuring varying genres of music.

Rice graduate student Maiko Sasaki will be the featured soloist in the piece by Danish composer Neilsen.

The Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra will hold a concert at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17, in Stude Concert Hall. Larry Rachleff, the Walter Kris Hubert Professor of Orchestra Conducting, will conduct Christopher Rouse’s “The Infernal Machine,” Carl Nielsen’s “Clarinet Concerto, Op. 57” and Antonin Dvorak’s “Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88.”

Composed in 1981 for the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra’s European tour, Rouse’s “The Infernal Machine” is named after a play by Jean Cocteau.

Known for being influenced by his country’s Czechoslovakian folk music, Dvorak composed works that contain dance traits, polka rhythms and immediate repetition of the initial bar.

The Shepherd School Chamber Orchestra will join the Rice Chorale at 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19, for a concert in Stude Concert Hall. Rachleff will conduct the chamber orchestra, and Thomas Jaber, professor of music and director of choral ensembles, will lead the chorale.

The concert will begin with a performance of Maurice Ravel’s “La Mere l’Oye (Mother Goose).” Ravel originally wrote the piece as a four-hand piano suite for the children of a friend, accomplished pianists.

National Symphony Orchestra bassist Ira Gold, who received his master’s degree from Rice in 2005, will be the featured soloist in Johann Baptist Vanhal’s “Double Bass Concerto.” Gold was named the winner of the 2005 Shepherd School Concerto Competition and served as a member of the Rice bass faculty last summer.

The program will conclude with Beethoven’s “Hallelujah Chorus” from “Christ on the Mount of Olives” and “Choral Fantasy,” which will feature Sohyoung Park, artist teacher of piano.

The Shepherd Schol Symphony Orchestra will present works by recent Shepherd School graduates at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, in Stude Concert Hall. Daniel Myssyk, a graduate student in orchestra conducting, and Paul Kim, music director for the Campanile Orchestra, will conduct the orchestra. The concert will feature Lembit Beecher’s “Don’t Go There,” David Wrightman’s “Oh No You Didn’t” and Huay Ming Ng’s “Strike!”

Directed by Jaber, the Rice Chorale and Shepherd Singers will present a concert at 8 p.m. Friday, March 3, in Stude Concert Hall. The concert will feature Mozart’s “Solemn Vespers” and Brahms’ “Liebeslieder Waltzes.”

During the symphony orchestra’s concert at 8 p.m. Friday, March 24, in Stude Concert Hall, Rachleff will direct John Harbison’s “Remembering Gatsby (Foxtrot for Orchestra),” Jean Sibelius’ “Symphony No. 2 in D Major” and Bela Bartok’s “Dance Suite.” Haribson’s work, “The Flight into Egypt,” was honored with a Pulitzer Prize in 1987.

Sibelius, a native of Finland, is known for his 19th century compositions. Though he began his college career as a law student, Sibelius quickly abandoned legal studies to pursue music full time. Bartok, an acquaintance of musical greats Wagner and Strauss, wrote “Dance Suite” for a concert marking the 50th anniversary of Budapest.

All the concerts are free and open to the public. For more information, call the concert office at 713-348-8000.