The Shepherd School of Music

Campaign Goal: $40 million

Rewarding Top Musicians with Scholarships - $30 million

For The Shepherd School of Music to remain competitive with its peer professional music schools throughout the nation, it must work toward providing the most competitive scholarship packages for its students. The Curtis School of Music, the Yale School of Music and the Colburn School of Music have consistently raised the bar in terms of tuition-free education for their students. By establishing an additional $30 million in endowed scholarships, we also will be able to provide tuition-free benefits to music students in Rice’s second century.

Building an Outstanding Opera Program - $10 million

The Shepherd School of Music is well known for the extraordinary quality of its orchestral program. The Centennial Campaign will provide the opportunity for the Shepherd School to establish a premier, highly selective opera training program of equal stature. We are distinguished from our competitors by the personal attention we lavish upon our young singers, our capacity to deliver thorough instruction, and our ability to offer unique performance and educational opportunities. With additional funds, we will be able to support a one-of-a-kind Italian language/diction program; establish a national aria competition to enhance our already aggressive recruitment efforts; support a guest artist series focused on master classes in voice; and establish a directorship of opera studies to ensure that a competitive level of compensation is available for this position as the opera program’s prestige continues to grow.

For information about supporting The Shepherd School of Music, contact Diane McOmie, Director of Development at 713-348-4992 or dmcomie@rice.edu