Mizzou New Music Initiative
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Mizzou New Music Initiative
About
The Mizzou New Music Initiative is a diverse array of programs launched by the University of Missouri’s School of Music intended to position the school as a leading center for the composition and performance of new music. The Initiative is the direct result of the generous support of Dr. Jeanne and Mr. Rex Sinquefield and Sinquefield Family Philanthropy.

Recent Posts

April 8, 2025
Song composed for Creating Original Music Project creates a win for student as well as a small Missouri community
For evidence of how the Mizzou New Music Initiative’s Creating Original Music Project can impact not just an aspiring songwriter/composer, but also a teacher, a school, and even a community, look no further than Galena, Missouri’s Brendan Rieth and his song “Pretty,” which earned second place in COMP’s High School Acoustic category. Galena – population 455 as of the 2020 census – “is like, your picture-perfect definition of a rural small town,” says Drew Tate, the Music Director at Galena High School, the student body of which numbers around 200. “It’s very close-knit. So…

Feb. 25, 2025
Works by Missouri Composers Project winners to be performed by Columbia Civic Orchestra, Premiere Vocal Artists in Sunday, April 13 concert
The Columbia Civic Orchestra (CCO) and Premiere Vocal Artists, conducted by Jeremy Wagner, will perform the winning works from the 2025 Missouri Composers Project (MOCOP) competition in a concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 13 at Broadway Christian Church, 2601 W Broadway in Columbia. Admission to the concert is free and open to the public. Now in its 13th year, MOCOP is a collaborative effort involving the Mizzou New Music Initiative, the Columbia Civic Orchestra, Premiere Vocal Artists, and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. Composers from all over Missouri are invited each year to submit orchestral and choral works for…

April 7, 2025
In Kansas City magazine spotlights MNMI Artistic Director Stefan Freund
MNMI Artistic Director Stefan Freund spoke with In Kansas City magazine about the music he composed for an “audible landscape” based on Tomi Ungerer’s The Three Robbers, which will be featured at The Rabbit hOle, an immersive children’s literature museum in North Kansas City. “The music for The Three Robbers came very easily to me since the text and pictures of the book were so evocative,” Freund tells In Kansas City. “There are also refrains in the music that had a particular rhythmic feeling that I used as motives.” Dr. Stefan…