Nicholas Omiccioli
Although this year’s Mizzou International Composers Festival is in one sense the most international to date, with resident composers who were born in Australia, Colombia, South Korea and Taiwan in addition to the USA, it’s also the first MICF with two resident composers currently living in Missouri.
One is José Martínez, who came to Columbia, MO from Colombia to study for his masters degree, and is representing Mizzou in this year’s festival. (More about him in this space soon.)
The other is Nicholas Omiccioli, who will be making the trip to Mizzou from Kansas City, where he currently is a resident with the Charlotte Street Urban Culture Project and production coordinator of newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble.
Born in Belleville, IL, Nick holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he was a Preparing Future Faculty Fellow, and Heidelberg University. A guitarist as well as a composer, he will have two works played during the 2014 MICF. In addition to “fuse,” the piece he wrote for Alarm Will Sound to play as part of Saturday night’s grand finale, the vocal ensemble Prometheus will perform his composition “a song of joys” at Friday’s “Mizzou New Music” concert.
“a song of joys” also was performed by KHORIKOS at the “A Breath of Fresh Air” concert in May at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Other recently performed works of Nick’s include “hommage à c. debussy,” by the COSMOS Trio at Ohio State University and at the American Harp Society’s Harp Carnivale 2014 in New Orleans; “push / pull,” at the ensemble mise-en music festival held in June at the Tenri Cultural Institute in New York City; and “funeral symphony,” which is being used this weekend and next by choreographer Erin Muenks for her show “Dwell” at the 2014 Kansas City Fringe Festival.
Nick’s music has has been performed in Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, Austria, Lithuania, Thailand, New Zealand, China, Sweden, and the United States by groups such as the Jasper String Quartet, Calder Quartet, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Curious Chamber Players, DuoSolo, Ensemble Platypus, le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and numerous others.
He has been commissioned by the Wellesley Composers Conference, Aspen Music Festival and School, Shouse Institute at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, National Arts Centre in Canada, Third Angle Ensemble, and Animus Ensemble.
Nick’s awards and honors include being a finalist for the 2013 Rome Prize. two nominations for awards by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award, plus many more.
You can read an interview with Nick, conducted by Patrick Neas in 2012 for the Kansas City Star‘s “Classical Beat” column, here, and listen to some of his music on his SoundCloud page and via the embedded videos below.
“Invisible Worlds” – Winner of the joint 2013 call for scores between Riot Ensemble & ECCE Ensemble, performed by Kate Walter (flute) and Adam Swayne (piano) for Transatlantic Collaborations 1 at The Forge, in Camden (London).
“Wild Nights”
“Danza di Fuoco,” performed by Omar Fassa (guitar) in 2011 at the highScore Festival in Italy.
A promotional video for KHORIKOS’ performance of “a song of joys.”