Rice, Society for the Performing Arts to host Renée Fleming Nov. 3

Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and Houston’s Society for the Performing Arts will host internationally acclaimed soprano Renée Fleming Nov. 3 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in Alice Pratt Brown Hall’s Stude Concert Hall for a master class with four Shepherd School students. This class is free and open to the public. Seating is first come, first served; no tickets are required.

RENEE FLEMING (Photo credit: Decca)

Fleming was the featured soloist at the Shepherd School Gala in 2009 and gave a master class as part of the Shepherd School’s Aleko Endowed Master Class in Voice in 2013. In 2008, she became the first woman in the 125-year history of New York’s Metropolitan Opera to solo headline an opening night gala. In 2013, President Barack Obama awarded her the National Medal of Arts, American’s highest honor for an individual artist.

Winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solos for her CD “Poèmes,” Fleming continues to perform on the world’s greatest opera stages and concert halls. In recent years, she has hosted a wide variety of television and radio broadcasts, including the Metropolitan Opera’s “Live in HD” series for movie theaters and television, and “Live From Lincoln Center” on PBS. For more information on Fleming, visit http://www.reneefleming.com.

Fleming will also perform a recital, presented by Society of the Performing Arts, Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m. in Jones Hall, 615 Louisiana St. in downtown Houston. Rice students, faculty and staff will be offered a discount code of 20 percent off tickets to the performance. Email Pippa Jarvis at paj3@rice.edu for the discount code. Tickets are purchased through the Society for the Performing Arts.

The parking lot across from Alice Pratt Brown Hall is closed for construction. West Lot 2 is now the parking lot for all Alice Pratt Brown Hall/Shepherd School of Music events. Access this lot through 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 or to arrange coverage, contact Amy McCaig, senior media relations specialist at Rice, at 713-348-6777 or amym@rice.edu.

For a map of Rice University’s campus, go to http://www.rice.edu/maps/maps.html.