Shepherd School of Music

The Shepherd School of Music is a university school of music located on the campus of Rice University in Houston, Texas. From its inception in 1974 under dean Samuel Jones, the Shepherd School has emphasized orchestral, chamber music, and opera as the central elements of its performing curriculum.

History

The Shepherd School has existed in name since 1950, with an $8 million endowment by Sallie Shepherd Perkins in honor of her grandfather Benjamin A. Shepherd. It was opened in 1974 under the deanship of conductor and composer Samuel Jones. The school's building, Alice Pratt Brown Hall, was dedicated on October 4, 1991. Prior to its existence, concerts were given in Hamman Hall, Cohen House, Fondren Library’s Kyle Morrow Room, Rice Memorial Chapel, Milford House, and various churches in Houston.

Academics

Shepherd students participate in a program that allows for individual study at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Courses are taught exclusively by faculty, with classes averaging fewer than thirty students. A small number of courses are offered to Rice University students as a whole (without special admission requirements), including Fundamentals of Music, Music Theory for Non-Music Majors I and II, and Music Literature for Non-Music Majors I and II.

Music school

A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger institution), conservatory o conservatoire. Instruction includes training in the performance of musical instruments, singing, musical composition, conducting, musicianship, as well as academic and research fields such as musicology, music history and music theory.

Music instruction can be provided within the compulsory general education system, or within specialized children's music schools such as the Purcell School. Elementary-school children can access music instruction also in after-school institutions such as music academies or music schools. In Venezuela El Sistema of youth orchestras provides free after-school instrumental instruction through music schools called núcleos. The term “music school” can be also applied to institutions of higher education under names such as school of music, such as the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University; music academy, like the Sibelius Academy; music faculty as the Don Wright Faculty of Music of the University of Western Ontario; college of music, characterized by the Royal College of Music and the Berklee College of Music; music department, like the Department of Music at the University of California, Berkeley; or the term conservatory, exemplified by the Conservatoire de Paris. In other parts of Europe, the equivalents of higher school of music or university of music may be used, such as the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln (Cologne University of Music).