Mizzou students are winners in young composers competition

Erin Hoerchler

Mizzou composition students Erin Hoerchler and Gus Knobbe are among the winners of the Community Music School of Webster University‘s 11th Annual Young Composers Competition.

Hoerchler, a 19-year-old freshman from Jefferson City, won first place in the 17-21 age division for her work “Flight of the Hang Gliding Nightingale Nurses.”

Knobbe, who’s also 19 and a freshman from Webster Groves, MO, took second place in the same division with his composition “Murmurations.”

Before enrolling at Mizzou, both Hoechler and Knobbe also were winners in the annual Creating Original Music Project (C.O.M.P.) statewide competition for composers in grades K-12.

Both of their award-winning works and the rest of this year’s winning compositions will be performed by professional musicians at the Community Music School’s Emerging Composers Concert at 3:00 p.m., Saturday, March 21, at the CMS Center on the campus of Webster University. Admission is free and open to the public.

Gus Knobbe

The concert, which is part of an entire weekend of composition activities presented by CMS, also will include an original work by guest composer Don Freund, professor of composition at Indiana University (and the father of Mizzou New Music Initiative co-artistic director Stefan Freund).

The Young Composers Competition began in 2004, and is intended to recognize and encourage the efforts of those between the ages of 12 and 21 who are involved in the creative process of composing music. The program is open to nationwide participation, and this year attracted entrants from 13 states.