Rice University Music Programs 2025

The Shepherd School of Music boasts world-class faculty, students with exceptional musicaltalent, and acoustically magnificent concert halls. Our graduates have won coveted positions in orchestras, have sung in prestigious opera houses, and hold faculty positions at major academic institutions. Founded in 1975, The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas is one of the nations youngest major university level music programs. In less than forty years, it has become one of the most prominent music schools in the country, attracting an international student body of 300 music majors. Our illustrious faculty of artist-teachers is dedicated to the highest possible cultivation of the talents and skills of each individual student. Shepherd School alumni include Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award winners; they have debuted on the stages of Carnegie Hall and have appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera. They hold positions in prestigious orchestras across the globe, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Graduates of the Shepherd School Opera Program have sung in several of the worlds foremost opera houses and recital halls. The Program has had recent finalists and winners in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Recent alumni are members of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Program, the Houston Grand Opera Studio, the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, the Utah Opera Ensemble Program and the Seattle Opera Young Artist Program. Since 1991, The Shepherd School of Music has been housed in Alice Pratt Brown Hall, an elegant, state-of-the-art facility designed by renowned Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill. The hall boasts four performance venues, 54 teaching studios, 55 practice rooms, seven classrooms, an orchestra rehearsal hall, an electronic music studio, and production and rehearsal spaces. The school makes an enormous impact on the cultural life of Rice University and the greater Houston community by welcoming 75,000 visitors who attend nearly 400 events annually.