The Columbia Civic Orchestra (CCO) and the Columbia Chamber Choir will perform the winning works from the 2018 Missouri Composers Project (MOCOP) competition in a concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 11 at First Baptist Church, 1112 East Broadway in Columbia.
Admission to the concert is free and open to the public.
Two of the winning works from the MOCOP competition are for orchestra, and two are for chorus. “Antrios,” the winner in the “orchestral – open” category, is by Aaron Mencher, a junior composition major and Sinquefield Scholar at Mizzou and the winner of the 2018 Sinquefield Composition Prize. Named after a fictional painter in Yasmina Reza’s play “Art,” the work gives musical form to the composer’s reflections on the meaning of art via an introspective melody for flute and piccolo that “evolves throughout the piece to reflect art’s ever-changing role in my life.”
The winner in the “orchestral – high school” category is “The Fall of Númenor” by Devon Bollin, a 2017 graduate of Fort Zumwalt East High School who lives in St. Peters, MO. It’s described as “a musical depiction of the fantasy book “Akallabêth” by J.R.R. Tolkien (author of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”),” which “follows the downfall of a once powerful island nation because of the pride, envy, and bloodlust of its inhabitants.”
“Clap Your Hands” is a choral composition by Carlyle Sharpe, a professor of music at Drury University in Springfield. Using the word’s of the Bible’s Psalm 47 as text, the work originally was commissioned by Drury University for the inauguration of Dr. J. Timothy Cloyd as its 18th President, and reflects the celebratory mood of that event.
“Silence” is a choral work by Brandon Thibodeau, a student at Kearney High School in Kearney, MO, which the composer describes as “a bittersweet piece that indirectly voices the thoughts of a listener experiencing an internal struggle with pain and hardship.”
In addition to the four winning pieces from the MOCOP competition, the concert also will include performances of three more recent works by living Missouri composers.
“Dance and Sunrise” was composed for orchestra by Ian David Coleman, a professor of music and department chair at William Jewell College in Liberty, MO. Originally written for the New Plymouth Symphony in New Plymouth, New Zealand as an overture to a concert of American music, it moves “from fast action to quiet reflection,” leaving the “modern fast paced world, in order to take time to focus on the music of the concert at hand.”
“March of the Trees” is an orchestral work by Benjamin Rouder, a 2017 graduate of Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, and was inspired by summer weather and the views of nature from the composer’s back porch.
“She” is a choral piece by Jake Smucker, a second-year student working on a master’s in composition at Mizzou, that incorporates text from various Bible passages exploring pacifism.
Now in its seventh year, MOCOP is a collaborative effort involving the Mizzou New Music Initiative, the CCO, the Chamber Choir, and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. Composers from all over Missouri are invited each year to submit orchestral and choral works for potential performance, with winners selected in two age categories, “open” and “high school.” In addition to the performance and a recording of their work, all four winners of the competition receive a $500 honorarium from the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation.