Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music will open its 2025-26 season with two concerts led by its new distinguished resident director of orchestras, Emmy Award-winning and Grammy-nominated conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya. This season continues the Shepherd School’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
Harth-Bedoya, who joined the Shepherd School faculty this year, is the music director laureate of the Fort Worth Symphony and former chief conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut last fall and has led major orchestras around the world.
“The future of music rests on three things: curiosity, creativity and innovation,” Harth-Bedoya said. “That is what I see in the Shepherd School students, and it’s why I’m so honored to begin making music with them this season.”
The opening concert “A Symphonic Celebration” will be performed by the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 20. The program includes Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture,” Mason Bates’ “Mothership,” Strauss’ “Don Juan” and Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloé” Suite No. 2.
The following week, the Shepherd School Chamber Orchestra will present “Beethoven, Rossini & Brandt” at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27. Highlights include Rossini’s Overture to “La gazza ladra” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, known as “the apotheosis of the dance.” The concert will also feature the world premiere of a new chamber concerto by Anthony Brandt, professor of composition and theory, commissioned in honor of the Shepherd School’s 50th anniversary. Brandt’s work will be performed by his colleague Norman Fischer, professor of cello and chair of chamber music.
“I’m honored to celebrate the Shepherd School’s 50th anniversary with this work, performed by my esteemed colleague Norman, who alongside his wife and fellow faculty member Jeanne, exemplifies everything that makes the Shepherd School special,” Brandt said. “The audience can expect many changes in mood and character from the single-movement concerto with the cellist as protagonist.”
Both concerts will be held in the newly renovated Stude Concert Hall at Alice Pratt Brown Hall. Tickets are required and may be reserved online. The Sept. 20 performance is pay-what-you-wish starting at $5, while the Sept. 27 concert is pay-what-you-wish starting at $0. The performances will also be livestreamed. For more information, click here.