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Contemporary music ensemble Alarm Will Sound has released As Brightness is to Time, a new work by composer Matt Smith on its YouTube channel. Smith 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.
Smith said of the piece, “My initial inspiration came from the opportunity to write for drum kit. I’d never done that in a contemporary classical context before, and I was interested in bringing together aspects of my past work in jazz and hip-hop with my current compositional language. The intersection between jazz and hip-hop had become a kind of second home for me after I stepped away from classical music. At the heart of that scene was a venue called the Bluewhale, a beloved spot in LA’s Little Tokyo. I was deeply inspired by the artists who performed there, and heartbroken when it closed during the pandemic. Thankfully, they’ve found a new location and plan to reopen soon, and I have no doubt that the magic will come back. On the ceiling of the old venue was a Rumi poem, painted around the lights and acoustic treatment; it is from this poem that I borrow my piece’s title, As Brightness Is To Time.
“That initial idea evolved quite a bit, especially after the wildfires in Los Angeles. I was lucky to be safe, but many people I care about were affected, and a lot of places we all cared about were left unrecognizable. The piece started to shift in response to that. I ended up rewriting huge sections to reflect how my ideas about the piece’s narrative had changed. I always revise heavily, but this time I discarded almost as much as I kept. There are around seven minutes of music that didn’t make it into the final eight-minute piece.”
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 Matt Smith 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