Shepherd School orchestras to present 2017-2018 season debut concerts

Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music will offer the first concerts of the academic year by its chamber and symphony orchestras. The chamber concert will be at 3 p.m. Sept. 24 and the symphony orchestra will perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 5 and 6. All concerts will take place in Alice Pratt Brown Hall’s Stude Concert Hall. Larry Rachleff, director of orchestras and the Walter Kris Hubert Professor of Orchestra Conducting, will conduct all three performances.

The chamber orchestra performance will feature Mozart’s “Overture to the Magic Flute,” K. 620, conducted by Benjamin Manis, a graduate student in orchestral conducting; Bartók’s Divertimento for Strings; and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36.

The symphony orchestra’s program will include Strauss’ “Don Quixote,” Op. 35, featuring Rice Professor of Cello Desmond Hoebig as soloist; Varèse’s “Amériques” (1929 version); and Strauss’ “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks.”

The parking lot across from Alice Pratt Brown Hall is closed for the construction of the new music and opera building. West Lot 2 is now the parking lot for all Alice Pratt Brown Hall/Shepherd School of Music events. The easiest way to access this lot is to enter campus from Entrance 18 off Rice Boulevard and turn right at the parking gates to West Lot 2. For visitors with disabilities, accessible parking is available at the south end of the lot. This is the closest lot to a temporary sidewalk that will service the west entrance to the Grand Foyer of Alice Pratt Brown Hall.

For more information, visit http://music.rice.edu/.