Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra
About the Artists
Jon Kimura Parker
Piano
A veteran of the international concert stage, with multiple solo appearances in the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, London’s South Bank, the Sydney Opera House, and the Beijing Concert Hall, Jon Kimura Parker continues to perform to great acclaim. He is an Officer of The Order of Canada, his country’s highest civilian honor. This past May he was also named a Fellow of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, an honor he shared with singer k.d. lang.
Last season Mr. Parker appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra with Marin Alsop, and the Minnesota Orchestra with Gilbert Varga. He also performed this summer at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, ChamberFest 2016, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Summerfest, and the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival.
As a founding member of Off the Score, Jon Kimura Parker performed last season with legendary Police drummer Stewart Copeland in a North American tour, including appearances in Ottawa and New York, featuring his own arrangements of music by Prokofiev, Ravel and Stravinsky.
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Larry Rachleff
Conductor
Twenty-five seasons ago Larry Rachleff became the Director of Orchestras and the Walter Kris Hubert Chair at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. He is also Music Director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and formerly served as Music Director of the San Antonio Symphony. Two recent reviews: “Music Director Larry Rachleff, a superb conductor with seasoned leadership skills who conducts everything with deep musical understanding…” (John von Rhein, Classical music critic, Chicago Tribune) and, from OpusColorado.com, “…make no mistake about it, Rachleff is an incredibly accomplished conductor and an incredibly accomplished musician.”
Mr. Rachleff is a regular guest conductor with the orchestras of Colorado, Utah, Indianapolis, and Kansas City, to name a few. He recently served as Artistic Advisor for the Grand Rapids Symphony. His summers are spent guest conducting at the Music Academy of the West, the Aspen Music Festival and School, where Mr. Rachleff has served as guest director of their summer conducting academy, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Chautauqua Music Festival and the Grand Teton Festival. Other summer festival engagements have included Tanglewood, Interlochen, Brevard Music Festival, and Opera Theatre of Lucca, Italy.
VIEW MORE >> Earning widespread notice for his richly colored and superbly crafted scores, Pierre Jalbert (b. 1967) has developed a musical language that is engaging, expressive, and deeply personal. Among his many honors are the Rome Prize, the BBC Masterprize, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's 2007 Stoeger Award, given biennially "in recognition of significant contributions to the chamber music repertory", and a 2010 Academy award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Jalbert has drawn inspiration from a variety of sources, from plainchant melodies to natural phenomena. His music has been performed worldwide, with four Carnegie Hall performances of his orchestral music, including the Houston Symphony's Carnegie Hall premiere of his orchestral work, big sky, in 2006. Other major works for orchestra include In Aeternam (2000), performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, Symphonia Sacra (2001), written for the California Symphony; Les espaces infinis (2001), written for the Albany Symphony, Chamber Symphony (2004), commissioned by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Fire and Ice (2007), commissioned for the Oakland East Bay, Marin, and Santa Rosa Symphonies through Meet the Composer Foundation's Magnum Opus Project, Autumn Rhapsody (2008), commissioned by the Vermont Symphony, Shades of Memory (2011) premiered by the Houston Symphony, and Strata (2015) for the Rhode Island Philharmonic.
VIEW MORE >>
Piano
A veteran of the international concert stage, with multiple solo appearances in the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, London’s South Bank, the Sydney Opera House, and the Beijing Concert Hall, Jon Kimura Parker continues to perform to great acclaim. He is an Officer of The Order of Canada, his country’s highest civilian honor. This past May he was also named a Fellow of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, an honor he shared with singer k.d. lang.
Last season Mr. Parker appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra with Marin Alsop, and the Minnesota Orchestra with Gilbert Varga. He also performed this summer at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, ChamberFest 2016, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Summerfest, and the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival.
As a founding member of Off the Score, Jon Kimura Parker performed last season with legendary Police drummer Stewart Copeland in a North American tour, including appearances in Ottawa and New York, featuring his own arrangements of music by Prokofiev, Ravel and Stravinsky.
VIEW MORE >>
Larry Rachleff
Conductor
Twenty-five seasons ago Larry Rachleff became the Director of Orchestras and the Walter Kris Hubert Chair at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. He is also Music Director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and formerly served as Music Director of the San Antonio Symphony. Two recent reviews: “Music Director Larry Rachleff, a superb conductor with seasoned leadership skills who conducts everything with deep musical understanding…” (John von Rhein, Classical music critic, Chicago Tribune) and, from OpusColorado.com, “…make no mistake about it, Rachleff is an incredibly accomplished conductor and an incredibly accomplished musician.”
Mr. Rachleff is a regular guest conductor with the orchestras of Colorado, Utah, Indianapolis, and Kansas City, to name a few. He recently served as Artistic Advisor for the Grand Rapids Symphony. His summers are spent guest conducting at the Music Academy of the West, the Aspen Music Festival and School, where Mr. Rachleff has served as guest director of their summer conducting academy, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Chautauqua Music Festival and the Grand Teton Festival. Other summer festival engagements have included Tanglewood, Interlochen, Brevard Music Festival, and Opera Theatre of Lucca, Italy.
VIEW MORE >> Earning widespread notice for his richly colored and superbly crafted scores, Pierre Jalbert (b. 1967) has developed a musical language that is engaging, expressive, and deeply personal. Among his many honors are the Rome Prize, the BBC Masterprize, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's 2007 Stoeger Award, given biennially "in recognition of significant contributions to the chamber music repertory", and a 2010 Academy award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Jalbert has drawn inspiration from a variety of sources, from plainchant melodies to natural phenomena. His music has been performed worldwide, with four Carnegie Hall performances of his orchestral music, including the Houston Symphony's Carnegie Hall premiere of his orchestral work, big sky, in 2006. Other major works for orchestra include In Aeternam (2000), performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, Symphonia Sacra (2001), written for the California Symphony; Les espaces infinis (2001), written for the Albany Symphony, Chamber Symphony (2004), commissioned by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Fire and Ice (2007), commissioned for the Oakland East Bay, Marin, and Santa Rosa Symphonies through Meet the Composer Foundation's Magnum Opus Project, Autumn Rhapsody (2008), commissioned by the Vermont Symphony, Shades of Memory (2011) premiered by the Houston Symphony, and Strata (2015) for the Rhode Island Philharmonic.
VIEW MORE >>