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Contemporary music ensemble Alarm Will Sound has released The Smell of Sunshine, a new work by composer Geli Li on its YouTube channel. Li was one of eight composers selected to participate in the 2025 Mizzou International Composers Festival.
The piece was recorded at Columbia’s Missouri Theatre during its world premiere performance in July, as part of the 2025 MICF. Alarm Will Sound is the MICF Resident Ensemble and includes two University of Missouri School of Music faculty members, Stefan Freund and Bill Kalinkos. Freund is a Professor of Music Composition, the Artistic Director of the Mizzou New Music Initiative, and Director of the Mizzou New Music Ensemble. Kalinkos teaches clarinet and co-directs the Mizzou Creative Improvisation Collective.
Li said the piece “unfolds as a continuous journey of sound. In this work, I explore the interplay of contrapuntal layers, blended instrumental colors, and fragmented melodic gestures within a flowing, ever-evolving soundscape. The piece evokes an atmosphere where warmth, memory, poetry, and fleeting impressions gently converge. Here, sunshine is imagined as both scent and sound — lingering in the air like a soft, radiant veil of memories.
“This work draws inspiration from my residency in Potríes, Spain, in May 2024. I often return in my mind to that golden courtyard light, the profound silence in which I could hear the fluttering wings of birds, and a solitary daisy blooming beside a centuries-old church — images filled with nostalgia and quiet reflection.”
Watch the new video on YouTube.
Alarm Will Sound’s next appearance in Columbia will be at 7:30 p.m. January 20 in 130 Sinquefield Music Center.
More information on Geli Li can be found here.
A brief interview with the composer for the 2025 MICF can be found here.
To stay up to date with all Mizzou New Music Initiative announcements, follow them on Instagram and Facebook: @MizzouNewMusic