With resident composers originally from Australia, Colombia, South Korea, Taiwan, and across the USA, the 2014 Mizzou International Composers Festival will bring a world of music to mid-Missouri next year.
Scheduled for Monday, July 21 through Saturday, July 26 in Columbia, the fifth annual MICF will present world premieres of new works from eight resident composers who were announced today by the University of Missouri School of Music and the Mizzou New Music Initiative.
Listed with their current places of residence, they are:
* Ian Dicke, Riverside, CA
* Holly Harrison, Sydney, Australia
* Texu Kim, Bloomington, IN
* José Martínez, Columbia, MO
* Nicholas Omiccioli, Kansas City, MO
* Michael Lee Schachter, Ann Arbor, MI
* Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang, Urbana, IL
* Christopher Weiss, Ann Arbor, MI
The eight resident composers were chosen through a portfolio application process that this year attracted 215 entries from around the world, a new record for the MICF.
Four of them were born outside the USA. The University of Missouri will be represented by José Martínez, who is a native of Colombia working on a master’s degree in composition at Mizzou and the winner of the 2014 Sinquefield Composition Prize.
The other international representatives among the resident composers will include Australia’s Holly Harrison, a candidate for the Doctorate of Creative Arts at the University of Western Sydney; Texu Kim, who’s originally from South Korea and currently is studying for his doctorate in composition at Indiana University; and Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang, a native of Taiwan currently pursuing her doctorate at the University of Illinois.
The group also includes another Missouri resident, Nicholas Omiccioli, an alumnus of the University of Missouri-Kansas City who currently is a resident with the Charlotte Street Urban Culture Project in Kansas City and production coordinator of newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble.
The 2014 Mizzou International Composers Festival will include a series of public concerts featuring music from the resident composers and other contemporary creators, as well as workshops, master classes, and other events.
The Festival’s guest composers for 2014 will be Beat Furrer, professor of composition at the Graz University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Vienna; and Nico Muhly, a Juilliard graduate and protégé of Phillip Glass known for composing an eclectic range of works for classical and pop musicians, ballet, opera, and more.
The acclaimed new music group Alarm Will Sound, conducted by artistic director Alan Pierson, once again will serve as resident ensemble, as they have since the MICF began in 2010.
During the festival, the eight resident composers will receive composition lessons from Furrer and Muhly; take part in rehearsals with Alarm Will Sound; give public presentations on their music; and receive a premiere performance and professional live recording of a new work created specifically for the MICF and Alarm Will Sound.
A complete schedule of events, times, dates and venues for the 2014 Mizzou International Composers Festival will be announced at a later date. For more information, please visit http://composersfestival.missouri.edu/.
Ian Dicke
Holly Harrison
Texu Kim
José Martínez
Nicholas Omiccioli
Michael Lee Schachter
Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang
Christopher Weiss