Rice Stadium Concert

On March 17th, 2021, in the midst of the COVID pandemic, Shepherd School of Music composition students participated in a unique concert of new music at Rice University’s 50,000 seat football stadium. Five new, site-specific works were composed by graduate students Nicky Sohn, Jake Sandridge, Grace Ann Lee and Daniel Leibovic, and by undergraduate Alex Moreno—works especially designed to be performed within the “extreme distanced” environment of the stadium. The collaborative project involved the school’s brass and percussion students, who rehearsed and performed the works over the course of several weeks, assisted by staff conductor (and light saber brandisher) Jerry Hou. The result was a memorable and unique concert on a massive spatial scale, occasioned by performance restrictions in the era of COVID. Full footage of the concert can be found below.