Playing by Heart
Shepherd School hits a high note with community day.
Fall 2025
By Sarah Rufca Nielsen ’05
This spring, the Shepherd School of Music threw itself a birthday party — and invited all of Houston. The school’s 50th Anniversary Community Day March 29 welcomed hundreds of guests, transforming the grounds into a kid-friendly cultural playground of musical performances and hands-on activities designed to connect the school’s world-class talent with visitors.
The day kicked off with a sold-out performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s famed and family-friendly “Peter and the Wolf,” narrated by Michael Sifuentes and conducted by resident maestro Miguel Harth-Bedoya. (Not to be outdone, Sammy the Owl delighted the crowd with his own conducting debut.) Meanwhile, visitors roamed freely throughout both Alice Pratt Brown and Brockman halls, engaging in activities that included iPad-powered sound experiments and performances that blended chamber music with traditional South Asian and Filipino dance.
Musical demonstrations offered included Baroque movements, opera arias, organ and choral showcases, and creative new compositions, such as unexpected and intriguing duets for violin and contrabassoon. Along the Shepherd School’s Piazza Della Musica, families gathered for face painting, musical games and pop-up concerts performed from a mobile concert truck.
We want to make sure that we can give them an experience that’s fun, that they begin to attach themselves to the joy of making music, and hopefully they’ll keep coming back to campus over and over again.
“We know that for so many of these students and families, this is their first interaction with classical music,” said Lynette S. Autrey Dean of Music Matthew Loden. “We want to make sure that we can give them an experience that’s fun, that they begin to attach themselves to the joy of making music, and hopefully they’ll keep coming back to campus over and over again.” For Houstonian Isabel David, it was a reminder of attending music classes at the Shepherd School when her daughter was a toddler. Celine, now 9 years old, described the day as “fun, dramatic and very memorable.” And for Houston? A joyful reminder of why Rice’s Shepherd School is one of the city’s most treasured cultural gems.