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The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will travel to South America May 15-24, 2025, for a tour of concert performances and residencies at four leading universities in Lima, Peru, and Medellín and Bogota, Colombia. Mizzou New Music Initiative Artistic Director Stefan Freund will lead each concert and residency, and Managing Director Andrea Luque Káram will assist on the tour, which will include eight musicians and composers.
Each concert on the tour will feature performances of a work by a local composer associated with the host institution. At each location, the Mizzou composers also will give presentations about their work, and the Ensemble will do reading sessions of pieces written by composition students at each university.
This will be the second South American tour for the Mizzou New Music Ensemble, which is part of the Mizzou New Music Initiative at the University of Missouri School of Music. The program is funded by the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. “This tour has attracted valuable international attention and exposure for our students, composers and the Mizzou New Music Initiative in the past,” said Freund. “It has been incredibly impactful to play in front of audiences that had not experienced something like our new music ensemble before. The concert halls were packed, and there was great enthusiasm for the work we did. It was wonderful to experience new cultures and to be able to work with so many unique composers. We look forward to sharing this experience again with this year’s students.”
The 2025 tour will include performances and residencies at the following institutions:
– May 15: the National Conservatory of Music in Lima, Peru. Performance includes El Ayla by Nilo Velarde
– May 16: Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru in Lima, Peru
– May 20: Universidad EAFIT – Auditorio Fundadores in Medellin, Colombia. Performance includes Whirlwind II by Marco Alunno and An Anatomy of the World by Frederico Garcia de Castro
– May 23: Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia. The performance includes Furias by Carolina Noguera.
Members of the Mizzou New Music Ensemble that will be on the tour include:
– Kyrsten Wehner, flute (Florida)
– Dr. Yoshiaki Onishi, clarinet (Delaware)
– Alexandre Negrao, violin (Brazil)
– Dean Wibe, cello (Iowa)
– “Mon” Ieong Cheok Kai, percussion (Macao)
– Daniel Noonan, percussion (North Carolina)
– Ryan Kee, piano (Missouri)
– Harry Gonzalez, composer and piano (Colombia)
An original work by Harry Gonzalez called Speechless will also be performed on the tour. His music has been commissioned by the Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra and the new music ensemble Periscopio at Universidad EAFIT.
“Our Managing Director, Andrea Luque Káram, has been critical to making this tour possible,” Freund added. “She has made connections with composers at each of the universities that we are visiting, arranging for us to play their music, perform concerts, and read their students’ pieces. She has also directed all of the logistical planning, including travel, accommodations, and percussion. We are grateful for the opportunities she has created for our students and our counterparts in South America.”
The Mizzou New Music Initiative is a diverse array of programs that position the University of Missouri School of Music as a leading center for the composition and performance of new music. The initiative is supported by the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation, led by Dr. Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield. Their vision is to create an incubator for the composition and performance of new music and to showcase Missouri as a center for the music of tomorrow.
To stay up to date with all MNMI announcements, follow them on Instagram and Facebook: @MizzouNewMusic