An accomplished composer, Dr. Rice studied music composition with Stefan Young (a student of Nadia Boulanger), David Gillingham, Jere Hutcheson, and Mark Sullivan. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Michigan State University and a Master of Music with distinction from Westminster Choir College. In 2015 he was a winner in The American Prize for orchestral composition and a finalist in the ASCAP Morton Gould Awards. Since 2006 he has won awards from Chanticleer, the Kansas University Choral Society, the Michigan Music Educators Association, the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Iowa State University, Michigan State University, Central Michigan University, Westminster Choir College, and others. He specializes in setting found texts and the works of living writers.

Dr. Rice has sung under world-class conductors including Andrew Megill (with the Westminster Kantorei), Steven Sametz (the Princeton Singers), and Joe Miller (the Westminster Symphonic Choir) along with major orchestral conductors including Simon Rattle (Berlin Philharmonic), Daniel Harding (Dresden Staatskapelle), and Jacques Lacombe (New Jersey Symphony). He studied organ under Steven Egler (a student of Robert Glasgow), piano with Alexandra Moscolo-David, handbells with Kathleen Ebling-Shaw, and carillon with Ray McLellan.

As an author, he has published two poetry collections, several editorial and research pieces, and has appeared in publications such as Walloon Writers Review. His poetry has been set to music by composers such as Nathan Jones and Brandon Williams.