Shepherd School orchestras to perform final 2014-15 season concerts April 23, 24

Rice University’s Shepherd School Chamber and Symphony orchestras will offer their final performances of the academic year April 23 and 24, respectively, at 8 p.m. in Alice Pratt Brown Hall’s Stude Concert Hall. Larry Rachleff, the Walter Kris Hubert Professor of Orchestral Conducting, and associate conductor Jerry Hou will lead the orchestras.

The Shepherd School orchestra performs at Stude Hall.

This year’s concerts include solo performances with alumni and students who were winners of last season’s Shepherd School Concerto Competition.

The chamber orchestra’s April 23 performance will feature alumnus Michael Severance ’14, returning to the Stude stage to perform Rossini’s Bassoon Concerto. Severance is currently a bassoonist with the San Francisco Opera. Mozart’s Symphony No. 31 in D Major, K. 297, “Paris,” and Strauss’ suite from “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme” will complete the program.

The symphony orchestra concert on April 24 opens with Janáček’s “Jealousy,” followed by Britten’s Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 15, featuring Shepherd School master’s student Ling-Ling Huang as soloist. Rachleff will direct the final piece, Shostakovich’s tragic Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, Op. 93.

Not only do these concerts give students the opportunity to perform some of classical music’s great pieces; they also provide a chance for graduating students to reflect on what they have learned, Rachleff said.

“It’s always bittersweet at the end of the year to say goodbye to so many gifted and remarkable musicians with such a bright and talented future ahead of them,” he said.

Both performances are free and tickets are not required. For more information, contact the Shepherd School Concert Office at 713-348-8000.