The 2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival is scheduled from July 25th – 30th in Columbia,Missouri. Once again, Alarm Will Sound will perform world premieres of works by the eight Resident Composers chosen for the MICF. Let’s take a look back at AWS recordings from the 2021 Festival.
Alarm Will Sound in concert at the Missouri Theater
This year you can hear AWS in-person when the MICF returns to live performances for the first time since 2019! AWS recently released a recording of “Turn Your Feet Around,” a composition by 2021 MICF Resident Composer Nina Shekhar.
Nina Shekhar. Photo credit: Shervin Lainez
Here are Ms Shekhar’s comments on the composition:
“During the COVID-19 pandemic – a highly unusual yet new normal, surreal, and yet painfully real time – artists have been challenged to think about what community means. In an art form in which physicality is essential, how is this affected during a pandemic in which our bodies are at risk? Our connection to our physical bodies has deepened, becoming hyper-aware of every breath, every ache, and every anxiety. Furthermore, due to social distancing, we haven’t been able to physically connect with each other in the same ways as before, simultaneously craving and fearing each other’s human contact. As society reopens, we’re all itching to get up and dance after sitting on our couches for an entire year. “Turn Your Feet Around” brings the nightclub to the concert hall. Using deconstructed and warped fragments of the ever fabulous Gloria Estefan’s “Get On Your Feet,” performers have a chance to reconnect with their own physicality by dancing to wild reimagined grooves and 80s-style drum beats. Whether socially distanced or not, it’s time to get on our feet and find the rhythms and movements that have been waiting to unleash this entire year! Because as Gloria says, “Find it, I know it will pull you through.” ”
Here’s a link to AWS performing the full work on Soundcloud:
This year you can hear AWS in-person when the MICF returns to free live performances for the first time since 2019! For those unable to attend in person, all concerts will stream live on:
Here’s a link to the complete 2022 MICF Schedule.