The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will explore the influence of various styles of music created in Missouri with performances in Columbia and St. Louis of “Influences Symphony,” a new collaborative, multi-part work by four Mizzou student composers.
“Influences Symphony” will be premiered in a concert at 7:00 p.m. Friday, May 3 at the World Chess Hall of Fame, 4652 Maryland Ave. in St. Louis, with an encore performance at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, May 5 at Whitmore Recital Hall on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia.
The concert in Columbia is free and open to the public. General admission to the performance at the World Chess Hall of Fame is $20, which includes one free drink and complimentary hors d’oeuvres, or $10 for WCHOF members, seniors, and military. Advance tickets can be purchased at http://bit.ly/MizzouNME.
“Influences Symphony” has four sections, each inspired by a different style of music, and was composed specifically for the Mizzou New Music Ensemble with funding from the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation.
The performance will begin with “A Bucket and a Rag” by freshman composition major Holden Franklin, which acknowledges the influence of Scott Joplin and others in “a comedic ragtime piece about a group of friends cleaning the floors.”
Next is sophomore composition major Ben Rouder’s “Missouri,” which draws inspiration from the folk song “Shenandoah.” That’s followed by “the girl in the pines” by Emily Shaw, a freshman composition major who describes it as “an ode to Missouri’s classic rock…heavily influenced by the music of Chuck Berry.”
The final section is “City Swing” by freshman composition major Jack Snelling, which reflects his interest in jazz. as exemplified by Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Clark Terry and other giants of the genre with Missouri roots.
The concert in Columbia also will include two more new works by Mizzou composers. “Warm-up No. 1: Tuning Exercise” by Niko Schroeder, who’s in his first year of study for a master’s degree in composition, brings the audience inside the process of tuning and “directs the players through each stage of listening: ideation, self-assessment, and then the consideration of others.” The final piece, “you,oranyone” by second-year master’s student Mikkel Christensen, is a “musical, motivic, and emotional sequel” to his earlier work “notfromme.”
The World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to building awareness of the cultural and artistic significance of chess. It opened in September 2011 at 4652 Maryland Avenue in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis after moving from previous locations in New York; Washington, D.C.; and Florida.
The WCHOF is housed in an historic 15,900 square-foot residence-turned-business, featuring World Chess Hall of Fame inductees, United States Chess Hall of Fame inductees selected by the U.S. Chess Trust, displays of artifacts from the permanent collection and exhibitions highlighting the great players, historic games and rich cultural history of chess. The WCHOF partners with the Saint Louis Chess Club to provide innovative programming and outreach to local, national and international audiences.
The seven-member Mizzou New Music Ensemble is made up of University of Missouri graduate students under the direction of Stefan Freund, a cellist, composer, conductor, professor of composition, and artistic director of the Mizzou New Music Initiative.
The Ensemble’s members for the 2018-19 season are Hannah Hutchins, percussion; Ann Mozina, flutes; Pedro Ramiro, violin; Elisabeth Roberts, piano; Brianna Trainor, percussion; Cameron Tubbs, cello; and Austin Wright, clarinets.