- So perhaps the first place we should start or go to is,
when you come into a music school,
if you're focused on an orchestral career,
is that the be all end all of what you're gonna do
for the next four years?
And my first response is I certainly hope not.
And one of the reasons that you're at a university
as an institution rather than a conservatory,
is to give yourself every opportunity to have
the broadest possible education.
And I know from my past experience
since the Shepherd School started,
that I've had everything from computer science
to advanced mathematics, PhD to neurosurgery,
to a master chef who now owns one
of the more successful catering businesses in Houston.
And they all came out of the base class.
And, Michael Hammond, our former Dean was very fond
of talking about the wonderful opportunity
that any undergraduate gets to study music
because of the one-on-one interactions
they have with top faculty
unlike in a lot of other disciplines
where you never even see the faculty person.
You only see the graduate assistant.
So I think when you are considering
what you're gonna do with your future
that there are so many things to think about
not the least of which is what's going on
in music right now internationally
as far as performance opportunities.
Even 10 years ago, the very idea
of becoming an early music specialist
was perhaps bizarre and maybe even unrealistic.
We only had one or two small labels
that were recording--
Effectively recording early music performance.
And now we have people involved in early music performance
by period, and that's all they do.
Specialists in romantic music, in classical music,
in Baroque music, and music before the Baroque.
And that's an interest that you probably didn't have
in high school.
And that if you open yourself to it,
you may as--
You may have it by the time you leave college.
And you may wanna that--
May be an area that you'd like to further.
Many people come in with an idea that they like new music.
And these people frequently turn out
to be really gifted composers.
An example out of my class, a young man who
by the time he was ready for his senior recital,
he looked at all the repertoire that was out there
and couldn't find the major piece
for his program that he liked.
So he wrote it.
And he wrote a four movement,
a low-end string quartet which meant one violin
instead of two Viola cello bass.
And, he taught the other three people
in the group that he put together
to improvise and was very successful for me movement piece,
which is now published.
And he went on to study in Europe, study composition.
And actually he's finishing a doctorate.
Oddly enough in early music
but he's finishing a doctorate elsewhere
with a composition that's become a major force in his life.
He actually won an international composition competition
and his piece was played
at the International Society of Basis Convention.
And to great success and has been recorded.
And I don't think when he was a freshman
that he would ever have considered that
to be what he would have done in his future.