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Augustina Crespo is one of eight Resident Composers selected to participate in the 2026 Mizzou International Composers Festival. MICF Resident Ensemble Alarm Will Sound will perform her composition Iter at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 25, at Columbia’s Missouri Theatre. The concert is free and open to the public.
Crespo is a composer, singer, and university professor from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She studied composition at the Argentinean Catholic University (UCA), where she graduated with honors in 2008. In parallel, she studied music production and singing at the National University of the Arts of Argentina. With higher diplomas in contemporary music, specializing in composition and singing at the Manuel de Falla Conservatory in Buenos Aires, she is now finishing her doctoral thesis in composition.
She holds teaching positions at two national universities in Argentina and serves as one of the conductors of the Untref Vocal Ensemble. Throughout her career, Agustina has received numerous awards and scholarships, with her compositions performed and recorded in prestigious venues across Argentina and internationally, including Colombia, Uruguay, Poland, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States.
Agustina has actively participated in various festivals, composition seminars, and masterclasses such as Warsaw Autumn (2024), Forecast Platform Forum (Berlin 2022), Ciel Academy (Cordes- sur-Ciel 2022), Buenos Aires Opera Winter School (2017), Forum Nueva Música (Córdoba, 2013 and 2017), Acanthes Festival (2009 and 2010), and the International Academy of Composition with New Technologies at IRCAM (2008). Her experiences have allowed her to study under renowned composers such as Mark André, Heiner Goebbels, Beat Furrer, Iván Fedele, Hugues Dufourt, Martín Matalón, Ian Maresz, and Mathias Spahlinger, among others.
She has collaborated with important ensembles and performers such as Chicago a Capella (USA), Arthaus Ensemble (Argentina), Pro Modern Vocal Ensemble (Poland), Dal Niente Ensemble (USA), Linea Ensemble (France), Nonsense Ensemble (Argentina), Compañía Oblicua (Argentina), MEI, Buenos Aires Quartet, Tropi Ensemble, and Untref Quartet, among others.
As a singer, she currently works as a mezzo-soprano in Música Inaudita vocal ensemble, the Damus Contemporary Vocal Ensemble and Colección de eventos extraños.
We recently chatted with her via email.
What is your musical background? When and how did you begin composing?
I am from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Although I have completed several residencies and courses abroad, all of my formal education was completed in my home country. I began my musical studies at the age of 10 with piano lessons and by joining a choir – an activity I have been involved in ever since.
During my university years, I completed two bachelor’s degrees: one in music composition at the Argentine Catholic University (UCA) and another in singing at the National University of the Arts (UNA). This period marked the beginning of my composition work, which continues to this day. After graduating, I pursued further studies and earned two postgraduate diplomas, one in vocal performance and the other in composition. Currently, I am awaiting my doctoral thesis defense, which will take place before the end of this year. Today, my musical career spans university teaching, composition, and vocal performance. I participate in multiple local contemporary music ensembles, where my roles vary from conducting vocal groups to singing and composing.
How did you hear about MICF?
I first learned about MICF through announcements by Alarm Will Sound. I’ve been following the ensemble on social media for a while, keeping track of their concerts and recordings.
Tell us about your piece that will be performed at MICF. What should we listen for?
In Iter, the musical material keeps coming back – not as a loop, nor as simple repetitions, but as recurrences that are always different, constantly adding new information and detail. I wanted to create a work with a great deal of movement, but that does not necessarily progress anywhere. There are moments in the piece where this dynamic stops, creating short plateaus where things seem to shift.
Above all, I wanted to focus on the idea of insistence from the perspective of the psychological and emotional responses it provokes. Whether we experience it as ‘insistence,’ ‘perseverance,’ ‘persistence,’ or even as ‘stubbornness’ or ‘obstinacy,’ the truth is that any act of repetition, regardless of its scale, triggers countless psychophysical implications. In a constant feedback loop between the listener and the event, these implications often lead to uncertainty, randomness, and even contradictions regarding the originally established direction.
What does it mean for you to work with an ensemble like Alarm Will Sound?
As I mentioned earlier, I discovered the festival through the ensemble, which I have followed for a long time and admire enormously. It is a true honor to have them perform my work, and I greatly look forward to the invaluable opportunity to collaborate with them firsthand during rehearsals.
What do you hope to learn from your MICF experience?
Participating in a residency as focused and prestigious as MICF is crucial for my ongoing artistic development. I deeply value building international musical networks. Given that my home country is geographically distant from many major hubs of contemporary music, this festival represents a meaningful opportunity for me to engage directly with other creative communities and artistic realities.
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