Richard Lavenda, Professor of Composition and Theory and Director of Graduate Studies
Winner of the Provost’s Award for Outstanding Doctoral Adviser
Karim Al-Zand, Professor of Composition and Theory
Performance of Lamentation on the Disasters of War by The Cleveland Orchestra
Winner of the Ronald G. Pogorzelski and Lester D. Yankee Annual Competition of the American Guild of Organists
Performance of Parizade and the Singing Tree for Orchestra at the 2023 George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, Romania
Robert Atherholt, Professor of Oboe
Delivered inspiring Master Classes at Oberlin College and Conservatory in October 2022
Faculty at the Atlantic Music Festival at Colby College in July 2023
Anthony Brandt, Professor of Composition and Theory
A 2023 MacDowell Fellowship recipient
Individual Artist Grant from the Houston Arts Alliance
Shih-Hui Chen, Professor of Composition and Theory
Chamber opera or/and 《給女兒的話》will be touring in Taiwan in Hualien 花蓮, Taipei 台北, Taichung台中 and Chiayi 嘉義 in March 2024
2023 Walter Hinrichsen Prize winner from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Chen’s opera, or/and premiered at the Asia Society Texas Center in September 2022 (was also performed in Germany and Italy)
Multimedia cello concerto Our Son Is Not Coming Home to Dinner premiered performed at the University of Connecticut in April 2023
Composer-in-Residence at the SoundScape Music Festival in Italy
Fellow, Center for Asian and Transcultural Studies at the University of Heidelberg (June 2022)
Residency, Civitella Ranieri Foundation (May 2022)
Joan DerHovsepian, Artist Teacher of Viola
Appointed Principal Viola of the Houston Symphony in May 2023 after a screened international audition
Arthur Gottschalk, Professor of Composition and Theory
Won the Global Music Award for Classical Music for Litany, libretto by W.E.B. DuBois, recorded by the Prairie View A&M Concert Choir with the Axiom String Quartet
Won the Presidential Award for Mentorship bestowed by Rice University
Brunetti Meditations recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, released 3/10/23 on Navona Records
Fanfare for a Great City recorded by the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra Brass Section with Larry Rachleff, conductor, released 3/3/23 on RMN Classical
Jerry Hou, Artist Teacher of Orchestras and Ensembles
Made his conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic
Made his subscription conducting debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Concert at the Grand Teton Music Festival
Alexandra Kieffer, Associate Professor of Musicology
Received a George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellowship
Shepherd School of Music State of the School Report Academic Affairs Committee – December 2023
Peter V. Loewen, Associate Professor of Musicology
H. Colin Slim Award from the American Musicology Society in November 2022 for the article “A Rudder for The Ship of Fools?: Bosch’s Franciscans as Jongleurs of God.” ( https://www.amsmusicology.org/page/Slim)
Ana María Martínez, Professor of Voice
Sang the role of Catrina in El último sueño de Frida y Diego (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego) by composer Gabriela Lena Frank (Shepherd School of Music alumnus) and librettist Nilo Cruz at LA Opera
Performed Spanish-language song recitals with acclaimed pianist Craig Terry at the Toronto Summer Music Festival and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival; also a guest teaching artist at Toronto Summer Music Festival
Sang the role of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at The Metropolitan Opera in New York City
Sang the role of Elisabetta in Don Carlo at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Germany
Sang the role of Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music at the Aspen Music Festival
Guest Lecturer, University of Chicago
Sohyoung Park, Artist Teacher of Piano and Piano Pedagogy
Lecture recital at Piano Teachers Congress of New York (co-presented by New York University)
Jon Kimura Parker, Professor of Piano
Toured with the Taiwan Symphony Youth Orchestra as soloist in Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Named Artist of the Season by Chamber Music International
Guest Artist-in-Residence, Colburn School, Los Angeles
Teaching Artist and Finalist Concerto Coach, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Fort Worth
Creative Partner, concerto soloist, and solo performer, Minnesota Orchestra
Timothy Pitts, Professor of Double Bass
Guest artist with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in Saint Paul, Minnesota, October 21, 22, and 23, 2022
Guest artist with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in Saint Paul, Minnesota, March 10, 11, and 12, 2022
Performed at Larry Rachleff’s Memorial Concert with other Shepherd School Faculty on October 29, 2022 in Stude Concert Hall
Member of the Artist Faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School, Aspen, Colorado, June-August 2023
William VerMeulen, Professor of Horn
Recorded the Concerto for Horn and Orchestra by Bruce Broughton with the London Symphony Orchestra, Jonathan Bloxham conducting, Henry Wood Hall, London, England, July 2022. The recording is scheduled to be released in Fall 2023
Guest Professor at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in October 2023
Visiting Professor (four visits) at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York
Held a Teaching Residency at the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida, the Domaine Forget Brass Seminar in Canada, the National Orchestral Institute in Maryland, and the Texas Music Festival in Houston
Danielle Ward-Griffin, Assistant Professor of Musicology
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
Robert Yekovich, Professor of Composition and Theory
Appointed to the board of the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg Foundation in New York City