Taking Center Stage

Taking
Center Stage
………………………………

Seven
Shepherd School students selected to perform in May
at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

BY ELLEN CHANG
Rice News staff

Seven students
from the Shepherd School of Music have been chosen to perform
at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in
Washington in May.

Photo by Tommy LaVergne

Students from the Shepherd School of Music will perform in May at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the center’s new Conservatory Project, a program designed to develop and present young talent from the top music schools in the United States.

Benjamin Jaber,
horn; Hyojin Ahn and Lola Astanova, piano; and the Enso
String Quartet, the graduate quartet-in-residence, will
perform the week of May 24 for the Conservatory Project
at the Kennedy Center on the Millennium Stage. The performance
will be broadcast live on the Web.

In 2003, the
Shepherd School was selected by the Kennedy Center as one
of eight leading music conservatories to participate in
its new program, the Conservatory Project, a new program
designed to develop and present young talent from the leading
music schools in the United States.

“In this
first year, students from our string, woodwind/brass and
piano departments will be featured on the program,”
said Robert Yekovich, dean of the Shepherd School of Music.
“Having been selected by the faculty, these students
are indicative of the extraordinary level of talent that
is pervasive in the Shepherd School, and we’re delighted
to have them as this year’s representatives. Our appearance
at the Kennedy Center will only further enhance the lofty
reputation enjoyed by the Shepherd School.”

The project showcases
young performers who show extraordinary talent with seven
performances of classical music, jazz and opera. The participants
will have the opportunity to be critiqued by world-renowned
musicians, including Leonard Slatkin and Placido Domingo.
After the initial series in May, the project will be presented
biannually in late winter and late spring.

The other colleges
and universities chosen to participate in the project are
Berklee College of Music, Boston, the Curtis Institute of
Music in Philadelphia, Eastman School of Music at the University
of Rochester, the Juilliard School in New York, the Peabody
Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University, the San
Francisco Conservatory of Music and the School of Music
at Indiana University at Bloomington.

The repertoire
to be presented by the Shepherd School students will begin
with “Concertino for Horn, Op. 45, No. 5” by Lars-Erik
Larsson and “Flight of Fancy” by Richard Lavenda,
professor of composition and theory at Rice. Both pieces
will be performed by Jaber, who will be accompanied by Ahn.

Jaber, a senior
horn performance major, has gained widespread recognition
as a musician with a diverse range and accomplishment through
his performances in solo, orchestra and chamber music. He
made his solo debut performing Mozart’s “Concerto
No. 3 in E-flat” with the American Radio Chamber Orchestra
in 2000. In 2003, he also performed alongside Jacek Muzyk,
who currently serves as the Dallas Symphony’s associate
principal horn, in “Concerto for Two Horns” by
Antonio Vivaldi with the Houston Chamber Orchestra. Jaber
also received first prize at the University Division of
the American Horn Competition in 2003.

Recently appointed
principal horn of Houston’s Orchestra X, Jaber is also
a substitute hornist with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra,
having participated in many nationally broadcast productions.
As a chamber musician, Jaber is the hornist of the Texas
Brass Ensemble and a frequent performer with the Paragon
Brass Ensemble.

“I am honored
beyond words to have been chosen to represent the Shepherd
School in this great event,” Jaber said. “Being
a student here has been a dream come true, but I could never
have imagined that the great, eminent artists who make up
our faculty would have the faith in me to allow me to perform
in this capacity. It is a blessing, and I intend to make
the absolute best of it.”

Ahn, a doctoral
candidate in piano performance, began winning prestigious
piano competitions when she was 9 years old in Korea. She
has also received numerous scholarships and fellowships
in Korea and the United States. Ahn, a proponent of new
music, has also premiered several new compositions for solo
piano and a variety of ensembles. She was a member of Contemporary
Directions Ensemble directed by Jonathan Shames and has
collaborated with composers Karen Tanaka, Evan Chambers
and Susan Botti. Ahn has also performed with the University
of Michigan Band Orchestra, the Shepherd School Chamber
Orchestra and Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra and given
recitals in Italy, Korea, Mexico and the United States.

The third Shepherd
School student to perform, Astanova, is a graduate student
in piano performance. She will play Frédéric
Chopin’s “Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 35
‘Funeral March.’”

Astanova began
touring at the age of 8 and has played at concerts in the
United States, Germany, France, Austria, Italy and Russia
both as a soloist and with orchestras.

In 1996, Astanova
was selected as a laureate of the second international Chopin
Competition for Young Pianists in Moscow. Her performances
at the Big and Small Hall of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State
Conservatory were featured in a Chopin Compilation album
released in Europe by Zvuk Records and the Russian Chopin
Society. During that same year, she played at a UNESCO event
in Paris; her performance was featured in a UNESCO documentary,
“Prodigies of the 20th Century.” Her performances
have been featured by international media, including CNN
and the BBC.

Astanova is completing
the recording of her first solo album, which is scheduled
for release later this year in the United States.

She said she
is very excited to be chosen to represent the Shepherd School.
“The Kennedy Center is a legendary concert hall and
performing there is a very special opportunity for any musician,”
Astanova said. “It is overwhelming to think of all
the brilliant names that have performed there over the years.
I am sure that being on that stage will be a very powerful
experience.”

The Enso String
Quartet — composed of violinists Maureen Nelson and
Tereza Stanislav, violist Robert Brophy and cellist Richard
Belcher — will perform “String Quartet in C Minor,
D. 703 ‘Quartettsatz’” by Franz Shubert and
“Episodes for String Quartet” by Kurt Stallmann,
assistant professor of composition and theory at Rice.

The Enso String
Quartet is quickly becoming one of America’s leading
young ensembles. The quartet was a winner of the 2003 Concert
Artists Guild International Competition and also earned
top prizes at the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition
and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. In
April, the quartet will make its New York debut on the Concert
Artists Guild series at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.

Its future engagements
include performances at the La Jolla Chamber Music Society
Sum-merFest, concerts at New York City’s Merkin Concert
Hall, the Chautauqua Institution, Brooklyn Friends of Chamber
Music, Chicago’s Music in the Loft Series, Market Square
Concerts, Newtown Friends of Chamber Music and the Bedford
Chamber Music Series.

The Enso String
Quartet has performed throughout the United States and abroad
since its inception in 1999. It has also performed at the
Mostly Music and the Dame Myra Hess Series of Chicago; SYZYGY,
New Music at Rice; the Rockford Symphony Orchestra and the
Champaign-Urbana Symphony at the Krannert Center for Performing
Arts. The quartet also toured Costa Rica as guest artists
in the 12th international Costa Rica Music Festival. Past
performances have taken the ensemble to England and Canada,
where the group was a finalist in the Banff Seventh International
Quartet Competition.

Before becoming
the graduate quartet-in-residence at the Shepherd School,
the group held a graduate residency at Northern Illinois
University.

The ensemble’s
commitment to bring classical music to the community includes
program performances at the Shepherd School geared toward
children that emphasize interaction between the audience
and the quartet.

The Enso String
Quartet draws together four musicians from around the world
whose members hold degrees from the Juilliard School, Curtis
Institute of Music, Indiana University, Royal Northern College
of Music in the United Kingdom and the University of Canterbury
in New Zealand. The members of the ensemble met while pursuing
graduate degrees at Yale University, where they later worked
with the Tokyo String Quartet.

The group’s
performances have been broadcast on PBS, Chicago’s
WFMT and Canada’s CBC radio.

To watch the
performances live the week of May 24, visit <www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/conservatory.html>.