(Credit: Courtesy of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music)

Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music has announced that Cristian Măcelaru and Patrick Summers have joined its faculty.

Măcelaru, who studied at the institution from 2006-2008, will serve as distinguished visiting artists from 2025-26 through 2027-28. In his new role he will work with Distinguished Resident Director of Orchestras Miguel Harth-Bedoya on a wide range of activities, “including coaching ensembles, judging competitions, workshopping new compositions, guiding mock auditions, participating in special projects and helping to mentor both undergraduate and graduate students.”

“It’s no secret to those who know me that I have always placed an important focus on education and meeting young musicians at all stages of their artistic development,” Mӑcelaru said. “I’m very happy to be more involved working with the highly accomplished young artists at the Shepherd School.”

Măcelaru is the music director of the Orchestre National de France, which he led during the 2024 Paris Olympics. He is also the music director designate of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and is the artistic director of the George Enescu International Festival and Competition as well as the artistic director and principal conductor of the Interlochen Center for the Arts World Youth Symphony Orchestra, among other roles. He is a Grammy Award recipient for the Decca Classics recording of Wynton Marsalis’s violin concerto.

Meanwhile, Summers, the artistic and music director of the Houston Grand Opera, will take on the role of distinguished lecturer in opera studies. He will work with Joshua Winograde, director of opera studies, and opera students at the institution.

“I am thrilled to be joining Joshua Winograde’s new team at the Shepherd School’s Opera Studies program,” Summers, who has conducted for Opera Australia, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Metropolitan Opera, among others, noted. “These brilliant young artists are part of opera’s future, and my task is to bring alive for them opera’s past, to give a sense of the legacy into which they are emerging. I am very excited to get started.”