July 25, 2016
Composers Festival spotlight: Julie Rosenfeld and Peter Miyamoto
Performing as guest artists at the Mizzou International Composers Festival this year are violinist Julie Rosenfeld and pianist Peter Miyamoto, who will be playing together as part of the “Mizzou New Music” concert on Friday, July 29 at the Missouri Theatre. Rosenfeld (pictured, top left) joined the faculty of the University of Missouri School of Music in the fall of 2014 as assistant professor, violin and a member of the Esterhazy Quartet. Previously, from 2009 until 2013 she was assistant professor of violin in-residence at the University of Connecticut, and from 2001 to 2009 she…
July 24, 2016
Composers Festival spotlight: Wang Lu
Born in Xi’an, the ancient capital of China, 2016 MICF resident composer Wang Lu was raised as part of a musical family immersed in Chinese opera and folk music traditions, and her works “reflect a very natural identification with those influences, through the prism of contemporary instrumental techniques and new sonic possibilities.” An assistant professor of music at Brown University since 2015, Wang (pictured) graduated in 2005 from the Central Conservatory of Music in Bejing and earned her doctoral degree in composition in 2012 from Columbia University. Her honors include a 2014 Guggenheim…
July 22, 2016
Composers Festival spotlight: Daniel Silliman
2016 Mizzou International Composers Festival resident composer Daniel Silliman was born in Syracuse, NY and grew up in Katy, TX, near Houston. He began studying piano as a child, and upon graduating high school, enrolled in the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, where his composition teachers included Andrew Norman, who was a distinguished guest composer at last year’s MICF. After graduating summa cum laude from USC in 2015 with a B.M. in composition, Silliman is now a doctoral fellow working on an MFA/Ph.D in composition at Princeton University in New Jersey.
July 21, 2016
Composers Festival spotlight: Wang A Mao
Coming originally from China, Wang A Mao had to travel a long way from home to study composing in the United States. But her journey to Columbia to serve as one of the eight resident composers for this year’s Mizzou International Composers Festival was considerably shorter, for as the latest festival participant from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, she only had to travel another hundred miles or so down the road. Wang (pictured) earned her bachelor of arts in composition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and…
July 20, 2016
Composers Festival spotlight: Trey Makler
Originally from Farmington, Missouri, Trey Makler is Mizzou’s representative among this year’s group of eight resident composers at the Mizzou International Composers Festival. Makler (pictured) just completed his senior year in Columbia, earning his bachelor’s degree studying composition with Stefan Freund and oboe with Dan Willett. While an undergraduate, he has served as vice-president of the Mizzou Composers Guild and president of the Zeta Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia national music fraternity, and he’s also quite familiar with the MICF, having been a production coordinator for the festival for the past three…
July 19, 2016
Composers Festival spotlight: Erin Gee
The innovative composer of vocal music Erin Gee is one of the two distinguished guest composers at this year’s Mizzou International Composers Festival. In that capacity, she’ll give a public presentation on her music; teach and interact informally with the festival’s eight resident composers; and be in the audience for performances of her work in concerts by Alarm Will Sound on Thursday night and the Mizzou New Music Ensemble on Friday night. Currently an assistant professor of composition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Gee (pictured) is known particularly for her series of…
July 18, 2016
Composers Festival spotlight: Ryan Lindveit
Resident composer Ryan Lindveit comes to this summer’s Mizzou International Composers Festival with a brand new bachelor of music degree in composition from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, from which he graduated summa cum laude this spring and was selected as Salutatorian for the class of 2016. Lindveit (pictured) also was named this year’s “Outstanding Graduate” from the Thornton School of Music and received both the Composition Department Award and the USC Discovery Scholars Prize, a competitive postgraduate grant awarded to ten graduating seniors for the creation of outstanding original work…
July 18, 2016
Composers Festival spotlight: Missouri Saxophone Quartet
In addition to a performance by the Mizzou New Music Ensemble, the Friday night concert of the Mizzou International Composers Festival usually features one or more guest artists, and this year’s “Mizzou New Music” concert will include some selections from the Missouri Saxophone Quartet. Formed in 2009, the MSQ includes Leo Saguiguit (soprano sax), Adrianne Honnold (alto sax), Joel Vanderheyden (tenor sax), and Matthew Kendrick (baritone sax). Collectively, they play a variety of musical styles, from baroque transcriptions and traditional French repertoire to jazz, tango, and avant-garde, but are particularly “devoted to exploring and promoting…