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. Shepherd School is itself very selective, accepting overall about 10-15% of all graduate applicants and 15% of all undergraduate applicants. From its inception in 1974 under dean Samuel Jones, the Shepherd School has emphasized orchestral, chamber music, and opera as a central element in its performing curriculum. As the Shepherd School has grown and matured, so too has the orchestral program until it is now made up of a full Symphony Orchestra of one hundred-plus music... students and a Chamber Orchestra made up of some thirty more music students. In just 30 years, Rice’s Shepherd School of Music has become one of the nation’s most prestigious major music schools, attracting the world's most talented young musicians. 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.
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