The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will be the featured performers in the Mizzou International Composers Festival‘s “Mizzou New Music” concert on Friday, July 28 at the Missouri Theatre.

Comprised of graduate students on scholarship, the Ensemble (pictured) is directed by professor of composition, faculty composer, and Alarm Will Sound member Stefan Freund. They serve as the flagship group of the Mizzou New Music Initiative, collaborating with student, faculty, and visiting composers throughout the year to perform a variety of new works.

The Ensemble’s members for the 2016-17 season are Victoria Hargrove, clarinet; Daniel Keeler, cello; Kelariz Keshavarz, flute; Renan Leme, violin; Rebecca McDaniel, percussion; Gyumi Rha, piano; and Panagiotis Skyftas, saxophone.

For the “Mizzou New Music” concert on Friday, July 28, the Ensemble will play works by both of this year’s distinguished guest composers, performing Dan Visconti’s “Fractured Jams” and Georg Friedrich Haas’ “…aus freier Lust…verbunden”.

During the academic year, the group performs a series of concerts on campus, and they also play off campus as well. Most recently, in May of this year they premiered “Eclipse Symphony,” a suite of four new works written by Mizzou students to commemorate the upcoming solar eclipse, in a performance at the St. Louis Science Center’s McDonnell Planetarium.

The Ensemble also has performed at the World Chess Hall of Fame, the Sheldon Concert Hall, the Shoenberg Theatre at the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, the St. Louis Zoo’s Living World, and in St. Louis’ Forest Park as part of a benefit for Forest Park Forever.

Just about all of the Ensemble’s concerts, whether on campus or off, include music from student composers at Mizzou, giving both composers and performers valuable hands-on experience in the process of developing new work.

In the embedded audio player below, you can hear some samples of the Ensemble performing music from various student, faculty and visiting composers.