MUSIC

Rice University Shepherd School of Music presents Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, Saturday, November 6, at 8pm.

The Symphony Orchestra concert on Saturday evening, November 6th at 8 p.m. in Stude Concert Hall will feature some of the best-loved works in the nineteenth-century orchestra repertoire. The concert opens with Smetana's romantic whirlwind, the overture to the opera The Bartered Bride. Next comes one of the most familiar solo works ever, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major.  Shepherd School junior Luke Hsu performs as a winner of the School's Concerto Competition.

Last of all comes a beloved but rarely-heard Strauss tone poem, the massive and spectacular Also Sprach Zarathustra! Certainly its dramatic sunrise fanfare opening is familiar from the movie 2001, but there is a great deal more orchestra color and virtuosity to come after that.

Don't miss this opportunity to hear a live performance of this frequently-recorded work.

Featuring:
Larry Rachleff, music director

LARRY RACHLEFF Professor of Music and Music Director, Shepherd School Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, 2003-04 is Larry Rachleff’s eighth season as Music Director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic. This is his twelfth season as Professor of Conducting and Music Director of Rice University’s Shepherd School Orchestras in Houston and his eleventh as Music Director of Chicago’s Symphony II, an orchestra made up of members of the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra. Mr. Rachleff has appeared as guest conductor with such prestigious orchestras as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In 1993 he was selected as one of four American conductors to lead the Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall under the mentorship of Maestro Pierre Boulez.

Mr. Rachleff is a former faculty member of Oberlin Conservatory where he served as Music Director of Orchestras and Conductor of the Contemporary Ensemble. He also served as the Conductor of the Opera Theater at the University of Southern California. In 1988 Mr. Rachleff served as the Music Director of the highly acclaimed American-Soviet Youth Orchestra tour. He has conducted and presented master classes at the Chopin Academy in Warsaw, Poland, the Zurich Hochschule for Music and Theater and the Sydney and Queensland, Australia Conservatory Orchestras. He is in constant demand as a conductor and master class clinician and is frequently invited to lead the very finest American Conservatory Orchestras, most recently that of the Juilliard School. He has spent his summers guest conducting at Aspen, Tanglewood, the National Camp at Interlochen, the Music Academy of the West and the National Repertory Orchestra and has led the Camerata Australia on a tour of Japan.

This past summer he served in his third season as Music Director of the Sunflower Music Festival in Kansas. A champion of public school music education, Mr. Rachleff has conducted All-State orchestras and festivals in virtually every state of the United States, as well as in Europe and Canada. His college conducting career began at the University of Connecticut and continued at The University of Michigan. He has presented weeklong residencies at several leading universities and music schools, and he has served as conducting teacher for the American Symphony Orchestra League, the Conductors’ Guild and the International Workshop for Conductors in the Czech Republic. As an enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music, Mr. Rachleff has collaborated with several composers including Samuel Adler, Luciano Berio, George Crumb and John Harbison. Mr. Rachleff’s conducting reviews are impressive.

The Boston Globe, in a review of the Rhode Island Philharmonic’s Boston debut concert in June 2000, wrote, “Rachleff himself . . . is an important asset. He seems to relish the most complicated score and brings a nice sense of clarity and panache to the performance.” The Chicago Tribune’s most recent review of Mr. Rachleff stated, “He integrated his frequent tempo adjustments into seamless paragraphs and textures so clean that inner voices projected clearly. . . .” The Houston Chronicle hailed his last concert with the Houston Symphony as a “wonderful, polished performance . . . conducted with beauty and insight.” He is married to soprano Susan Lorette Dunn.

Scheduled Program:

Smetana - Overture to The Bartered Bride
Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto in D Major, op. 35 - Luke Hsu, soloist; Cristian Macelaru, conductor
Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30

Seventeen-year-old violinist Luke Hsu (pictured above) from Katy, Texas, U.S.A., is the grand prize winner of the 2008 Kingsville Competitions. He is a student of renowned violinist Fredell Lack, who teaches at the University of Houston, Moores School of Music.

Luke Hsu started his music study at age of three on the piano. Shortly afterward, at four, he began violin study with his mother, Yueming Hsu. Luke began winning awards for his playing at twelve years of age and holds numerous awards and prizes, some of which include solo performances with several symphony orchestras. Since 2002, he has given annual solo and chamber music performances at the Houston Young Artist gala concerts and has served for several years as concert master of the Texas All-State Symphony Orchestra, made up of students chosen from high schools in Texas.

In 2003 he performed as soloist with the Clear Lake, Texas, Symphony Orchestra after winning their competition. As a member of Greater Houston Youth Orchestra, he won concerto competitions and the honor of performing as soloist with two of their three orchestras: the Philharmonic (2003) and the Symphony (2004). In 2004, he was invited to perform the Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1 as a special guest soloist with the Ludwig Symphony Orchestra of Atlanta, GA, where the critic of The Johns Creek Herald declared him “One of the top ten prodigies in the world.” In 2006, he won first place in the Houston Symphony’s concerto competition and performed the Tchaikovsky violin concerto with the Houston Symphony. In 2007, he won the first place in the Dallas Symphony’s Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition, and is scheduled to appear as soloist with the Dallas Symphony this year to play Sibelius’ violin concerto. Luke is also a composer, having written numerous short pieces and tone poems for full orchestra.

A senior this year at Cinco Ranch High School in Katy, Texas, Luke is ranked in the top 5% of his school and is a National Honor Society member; recently, Luke received the Katy School District’s Award for Excellence, the district's highest award.
Luke has been playing tennis since the age of eleven, and is an avid player. Although he has not had sufficient time to compete recently, he enjoys playing and practicing tennis with his friends. He also likes to play ping pong, and racquetball. His other interests include rooting for the athletic teams at Cinco Ranch and supporting the other school athletic programs–especially the soccer team–watching movies, meeting new people, and hanging out with his friends.

Luke comes from a musical family. His mother is a musician, who began her violin study as a child, and holds a BA for music performance. Luke’s father is an engineer, but he enjoys music and is a strong supporter of Luke's career in music.