Rice’s Shepherd School Symphony Makes Carnegie Hall Debut with Cho-Liang Lin in Rouse (Feb 18) and Baltimore Debut (Feb 15) in First East Coast Tour

As the centerpiece of its inaugural East Coast tour, Rice University’s Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra makes its Carnegie Hall debut on Tuesday, February 18. The program will showcase Pulitzer Prize-winner Christopher Rouse’s Violin Concerto performed byits dedicatee, Cho-Liang “Jimmy” Lin, Professor of Violin at the Shepherd School and a former Musical America Instrumentalist of the Year. According to the New York Times, Rouse’s concerto “is a showpiece for a virtuoso, and Cho-Liang Lin took full advantage. He squeezed as much passion as he could into the slow, wandering melody of the first movement and was dazzling in the cadenza.” The Carnegie concert marks the second major debut of the tour, following the orchestra’s first appearance at Baltimore’s Meyerhoff Symphony Hall on February 15, with Jon Kimura Parker, Shepherd’s Professor of Piano, as the “insightful, energetic soloist” (New York Times) in Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Bookending both the Carnegie and Baltimore programs are Berlioz’s Le corsaire overture and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, conducted by music director Larry Rachleff, under whose leadership the Shepherd School now offers one of the nation’s pre-eminent orchestral programs.

The Shepherd School

Founded in 1975, the Shepherd School has built a reputation as one of the nation’s finest university-level music programs. In its relatively short history, the School has amassed a pre-eminent group of artist-teachers, attracting the most promising young musicians in training from around the world. The Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, under the artistic direction of Larry Rachleff, is widely regarded as one of the premier student orchestras in the country.

Larry Rachleff

Conductor-educator Larry Rachleff is renowned for his rich, productive rapport with orchestra musicians. He has served as principal conducting teacher for the American Symphony Orchestra League, the Conductors’ Guild and the International Workshop for Conductors in the Czech Republic. As an advocate of contemporary music, he has collaborated with such leading composers as Samuel Adler, Luciano Berio, George Crumb, Michael Daugherty, and John Harbison.

Besides serving as the Walter Kris Hubert Professor of Music and Music Director of the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra and Shepherd School Chamber Orchestra, Rachleff is music director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and was formerly music director of the San Antonio Symphony. His recent and upcoming engagements include collaborations with the Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Utah Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, and Toledo Symphony, among many others. Summer festival engagements include Tanglewood, Aspen, Interlochen, Chautauqua, and Brevard, as well as Music Academy of the West, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and Italy’s Opera Theatre of Lucca.

Shepherd School Symphony: first East Coast tour

Saturday, Feb 15, 7:30pm 

Baltimore, MD 

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall 

Hector Berlioz: Le corsaire, Op. 21 

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 (Jon Kimura Parker, piano)

Bela Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra

Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra / Larry Rachleff

Tuesday, Feb 18, 8pm

New York, NY 

Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium

Hector Berlioz: Le corsaire, Op. 21 

Christopher Rouse: Violin Concerto (Cho-Liang Lin, violin) 

Bela Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra

Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra / Larry Rachleff

Louise Barder

21C Media Group

162 W. 56th Street, Suite 506

New York, NY 10019

(646) 532 4372