Symphony to celebrate American Music Month

Symphony to celebrate American Music Month

The Shepherd School’s symphony orchestra will celebrate national American Music Month with a Nov. 5 concert that will feature works of three American composers.

The concert will be the premiere of “Blood Rite,” a musical work by Rice alumnus Randolph Partain.

Partain received his master’s and doctoral degrees from Rice in 2000 and 2005, respectively, and is currently serving as adjunct professor of music at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.

Graduate student Daniel Myssyk will serve as conductor for the piece.

The program will also include a performance of Aaron Copland’s “Billy the Kid,” conducted by Larry Rachleff, the Walter Kris Hubert Professor of Orchestra Conducting.

To round out the concert, Susan Lorette Dunn, lecturer in voice, will be featured alongside the orchestra in a rendition of Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphony No. 1, Jeremiah,” with Rachleff conducting.

The U.S. Senate established American Music Month in 2004 as a means to pay homage to great American musicians, composers and singers.

It also calls attention to the National Federation of Music Clubs and its more than 200,000 members, as well as the Society for American Music, the National Association for Music Education, the College Music Society, the Music Library Association, the American Musicological Society and the Americans for the Arts.

The measure also focuses on the importance of the month of November regarding American Music, specifically citing the births of John Philip Sousa, Scott Joplin, Copland, Mary Travers and the debut of the New York Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra.