July 7, 2026
Five Questions for MICF Resident Composer Danae Venson
Danae Venson 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 shout! at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 25, at Columbia’s Missouri Theatre. The concert is free and open to the public. Venson is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from Houston, Texas. She has recently completed her Bachelor of Music degree with academic honors at The Juilliard School, studying with Dr. Amy Beth Kirsten and Valerie Coleman. In 2020, after paying close attention to troubling events of racial violence, Danae decided to…
July 6, 2026
Five Questions for MICF Resident Composer Dean Wibe
Dean Wibe is one of eight Resident Composers selected to participate in the 2026 Mizzou International Composers Festival. MICF Resident Ensemble Alarm Will Sound will perform his composition something in-between at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 25, at Columbia’s Missouri Theatre. The concert is free and open to the public. Wibe is a composer and cellist from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He began playing in the public school classroom and first studied cello privately with Dianne Platte and Hannah Holman. He received his Bachelor of Music in cello performance at the University of Iowa. Currently, Dean is pursuing a Master of Music…
July 5, 2026
Five Questions for MICF Resident Composer Paul Novak
Paul Novak is one of eight Resident Composers selected to participate in the 2026 Mizzou International Composers Festival. MICF Resident Ensemble Alarm Will Sound will perform his composition ship of theseus variations at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 25, at Columbia’s Missouri Theatre. The concert is free and open to the public. The “spellbinding” (Washington Post) music of Chicago-based composer Paul Novak immerses listeners in shimmering and subtly crafted musical worlds full of color, motion, light, and magic. His recent projects engage with dreams and memory, queer identity, climate change and the natural world, and psychosomatic illness.
July 2, 2026
Five Questions for MICF Resident Composer Agustina Crespo
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…
July 1, 2026
Five Questions for MICF Resident Composer Tan Yuting
Tan Yuting 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 glossy starlings in glassy trees at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 25, at Columbia’s Missouri Theatre. The concert is free and open to the public. Singaporean composer Tan Yuting explores the interaction of different sounds and the manipulation of rhythm, texture, and timbre to create evocative soundscapes. Her music has been recognized with awards including First Prize in the Macht Orchestral Composition Competition (2018), First Prize in the Virginia Carty DeLillo…
June 30, 2026
Five questions for MICF Resident Composer Ihlara McIndoe
Ihlara McIndoe 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 Sleepwards, but aware meanwhile, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 25, at Columbia’s Missouri Theatre. The concert is free and open to the public. Ihlara McIndoe is a composer from Ōtepoti Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand, currently based in New York City. Her compositional work draws on themes of exploration and preservation to investigate artistic ecologies and creative modes of (re)thinking, (re)making and remembering. Her work has been performed in Aotearoa…
June 29, 2026
MNMI Artistic Director Stefan Freund’s “The Three Robbers” performed at UMKC
Mizzou New Music Initiative Artistic Director Stefan Freund joined the American Wild Ensemble for a performance of his piece The Three Robbers on Wednesday, June 24, at the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Freund’s piece was part of AWE’s 10th anniversary concert, which also included works by Michael-Thomas Foumai, Takuma Itoh, and Chris Stark, all of whom have been Resident Composers at the Mizzou International Composers Festival. The performance continued the decade-long collaborations between the American Wild Ensemble and MNMI, the highlights of which included a fall 2020 performance at Mizzou and…
June 4, 2026
MNMI releases schedule for Mizzou International Composers Festival
The Mizzou New Music Initiative has released the schedule for the 2026 Mizzou International Composers Festival, which takes place Monday, July 20 through Saturday, July 25 in Columbia, Missouri. Public events run from July 21-25. Admission is free. The schedule is as follows: Tuesday, July 21, 7:30 p.m., Sinquefield Music Center (SMC 130)Distinguished Guest Composers Jlin and Karola Obermüller deliver lecture presentations on their works and careers Wednesday, July 22, 7:30 p.m., Sheryl Crow Concert Hall (SMC 132)New-music quartet Yarn/Wire…