July 16, 2014
Composers Festival Spotlight: Prometheus
Prometheus: An American Vocal Consort will be the guest performers for the 2014 MICF’s “Mizzou New Music” concert on Friday, July 25 at the Missouri Theatre. The 12-member ensemble “aims to inspire, enlighten, heal, and share through intimate performances of blazingly communicative a cappella music from the renaissance to the brightest examples of music from today’s leading composers.” Prometheus is conducted by artistic director R. Paul Crabb, who in his “day job” serves as the University of Missouri’s Director of Choral Activities. Now six years old, the group was founded by Kyle Stegall,…
July 16, 2014
2014 Mizzou International Composers Festival to include free events
In addition to the ticketed concerts at the Missouri Theatre, the 2014 Mizzou International Composers Festival once again will include a number of events that are free of charge. All the presentations by the Festival’s guest, resident and faculty composers are free and open to the public, and will take place in Room 145 of the Fine Arts Building on the MU campus. The resident composers will give presentations on their work from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Monday, July 21; and from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday,…
July 15, 2014
Composers Festival Spotlight: Texu Kim
Texu Kim A native of South Korea, 2014 MICF resident composer Texu Kim currently is pursuing a doctorate in composition with minors in electronic music and music theory at Indiana University, where he also serves as an associate instructor in music theory. Before coming to the USA, Texu earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in composition from Seoul National University. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the same university, and in 1998 was a silver medal winner at the International Chemistry Olympiad in Melbourne, Australia. In March, he was appointed composer-in-residence for the Korean…
July 15, 2014
Composers Festival Spotlight: Ian Dicke
Ian Dicke Resident composer Ian Dicke comes to this year’s Mizzou International Composers Festival from the University of California, Riverside, where he just completed his first year as an assistant professor of digital composition. A native of New Jersey, Ian earned degrees in music from the University of Texas at Austin (D.M.A), University of Michigan (M.M.), and San Francisco Conservatory of Music (B.M.). In addition to teaching and composing, he also helps run two presenting organizations, founding and curating the Outpost Concert Series in Riverside while also continuing to co-direct the annual music festival…
July 14, 2014
Composers Festival Spotlight: Holly Harrison
Holly Harrison Holly Harrison is the first-ever MICF resident composer to come from Australia, where she was was born and raised, and currently is studying for a Doctorate of Creative Arts in Composition at the University of Western Sydney. She previously graduated from the University’s bachelor of music program with the University Medal for outstanding academic achievement. Holly’s music is “driven by the nonsense literature of Lewis Carroll, embracing stylistic juxtapositions, the visceral energy of rock, and whimsical humour.” The first and last of those qualities certainly are reflected in the name of the piece she’s…
July 14, 2014
Composers Festival Spotlight: Michael Schacter
Michael SchachterMichael Schacter is one of eight resident composers at the 2014 Mizzou International Composers Festival, and comes to Columbia from Ann Arbor, MI, where he currently is working towards a Ph.D. in music theory and composition at the University of Michigan. Originally from Massachusetts and an enthusiastic Red Sox fan, Michael is a pianist as well as a composer whose music draws from “an eclectic brew of influences including jazz and New Orleans, Renaissance polyphony, Jewish liturgy and klezmer, and South Indian classical music.” He earned his BA in 2009 from Harvard, where he directed…
July 9, 2014
Zhou Long to serve as guest composer
for 2014 Mizzou International Composers Festival;
Beat Furrer unable to attend for medical reasons
The Mizzou New Music Initiative announced today that Swiss composer Beat Furrer, who had been scheduled to be one of the guest composers later this month at the 2014 Mizzou International Composers Festival, will be unable to attend the festival due to medical reasons. In place of Furrer, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Zhou Long, Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, has agreed to serve as a guest composer for the 2014 MICF. “We regret that Beat Furrer won’t be able to participate in this year’s festival, as his doctor has…
July 8, 2014
Composers Festival Spotlight: Alarm Will Sound
Alarm Will Sound It’s been a busy year for Alarm Will Sound since the last Mizzou International Composers Festival. For starters, the MICF’s resident ensemble (pictured) recently completed a year-long residency at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, performing there four times during the 2013-14 presenting season. The concerts at the Met included “Permanent Collection,” revisiting key works written for the sinfonietta throughout musical history, in October; an all-Steve Reich program in November; a collaboration with Dance Heginbotham in February; and “I Was Here I Was I,” a music and theater piece composed by Kate…