About the Program
The Shepherd School is considered one of the finest music schools in the United States. It attracts many of the brightest and most talented young performers and composers from around the world. The members of the faculty of the Department of Composition and Music Theory are all active, accomplished, and distinguished composers or theorists, and have received national and international recognition. Each is a dedicated teacher, and students usually study with several over the course of their degree, changing studios annually. This gives every student exposure to diverse teaching styles, focuses, and aesthetics. The number of students in the program is intentionally kept small, so each student receives a great deal of attention from the faculty, and has many opportunities to both participate in and contribute to the musical life of the school, the university, and Houston. Our composition graduates are among the most respected young composers in the country, and are employed at some of its finest educational institutions, as well as an array of other positions within the music community.
Performance Opportunities
Students enjoy many opportunities to hear new music at the Shepherd School and to have their own compositions performed. The school's Contemporary Music Ensemble, directed by Jerry Hou, presents two concerts per year, focusing on important 20th and 21st century repertoire. Once each semester a "composers forum" concert features new works drawn from all of the composition studios. The members of our performance faculty encourage members of their studios to present student compositions, and many performance majors ask our composers to write pieces for their degree recitals and other concerts, both on campus and elsewhere. The Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra or Chamber Orchestra performs graduate thesis and dissertation works for orchestra. A student-run new music ensemble, Hear&Now, performs student works throughout the year. Collaborative projects through the Moody Center, the James Turrell Skyspace, the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts, and in conjunction with the undergraduate residential colleges, also present opportunities for creative work. In addition, there are opportunities through the Cross-Cultural Asian Contemporary Music course to compose new works for traditional Asian instruments to be performed on and off campus.The school’s award-winning recording staff professionally records performances of student work in our acoustically unmatched performance venues. Beyond the Shepherd School, our students regularly compose music for local theater, dance, orchestra, vocal, and chamber groups, and enjoy frequent collaborations with local filmmakers and videographers.
Composer and Ensemble Residencies
The Department hosts two residencies each year, one with an eminent composer and one with a leading contemporary music ensemble. Composers give private lessons, master classes, and seminars. Our visiting composers have included Samuel Adler, William Bolcom, Donald Crockett, George Crumb, Mario Davidovsky, John Harbison, Stephen Jaffe, George Lewis, Steven Mackey, Krzysztof Penderecki, Shulamit Ran, Bernard Rands, George Rochberg, Steven Stucky, Augusta Read Thomas, Joan Tower, Chen Yi, Melinda Wagner and Yehudi Wyner.
The visiting ensemble presents a concert of music from its repertory and then reads and records student music written especially for them. Our Resident Ensembles have included Ensemble Modern, Roomful of Teeth, Prism Saxophone Quartet, Speculum Musicae, New York New Music Ensemble, Nunc, California EAR Unit, Relâche, Zeitgeist, and the Arditti, Enso and Flux String Quartets. In addition, acclaimed instrumentalists are frequent guests to the school and many, such as the Chiara Quartet, Daniel Druckman, Curtis Macomber, Ursula Oppens, and David Starobin, present master classes and seminars of direct interest to composers.