April 10, 2025
Mizzou Student Yoell Tewolde featured on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s SLSO Stories blog
Mizzou sophomore composition student Yoell Tewolde was recently featured on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s SLSO Stories blog. Tewolde’s piece waves on the shore for piano and wind quintet will be given its world premiere performance at 7:30 p.m. April 24 as part of the SLSO’s final “Live at the Sheldon” chamber-music concert of the season. The series is an ongoing collaboration between the SLSO and the Mizzou New Music Initiative. The April 24 concert, held at the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, is titled “Wind and Water” and is curated by the…
April 8, 2025
Song composed for Creating Original Music Project creates a win for student as well as a small Missouri community
For evidence of how the Mizzou New Music Initiative’s Creating Original Music Project can impact not just an aspiring songwriter/composer, but also a teacher, a school, and even a community, look no further than Galena, Missouri’s Brendan Rieth and his song “Pretty,” which earned second place in COMP’s High School Acoustic category. Galena – population 455 as of the 2020 census – “is like, your picture-perfect definition of a rural small town,” says Drew Tate, the Music Director at Galena High School, the student body of which numbers around 200. “It’s very close-knit. So…
April 1, 2025
Students Gonzalez, Schlegel, and Wolfe premiere new works with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
New works by three University of Missouri School of Music students were given their world premiere on Wednesday, March 26, in a concert by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at the Touhill Performing Arts Center in St. Louis. SLSO Assistant Conductor Samuel Hollister led the performance. Harry Gonzalez, a master’s student from Medellin, Colombia; Atticus Schlegel, a senior from St. Louis; and JT Wolfe, a senior from St. Joseph, MO, were selected to participate in the program through a collaboration between the SLSO and the Mizzou New Music Initiative (MNMI). The pieces performed…
March 18, 2025
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to Premiere Three New Works from Mizzou Student Composers at March 26 Concert at The Touhill
Three University of Missouri School of Music students will have their original compositions performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) at a special concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri in St. Louis on March 26, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. This concert will feature works by Harry Gonzalez, a master’s student from Medellin, Colombia; Atticus Schlegel, a senior from St. Louis; and JT Wolfe, a senior from St. Joseph, MO. They were selected through a collaboration between the SLSO and the Mizzou New Music Initiative (MNMI). The program is funded by the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. The new…
March 17, 2025
Mizzou New Music Initiative announces winners in the 2025 Creating Original Music Project Competition
The Mizzou New Music Initiative has announced the winning composers in the 2025 Creating Original Music Project (COMP). Now in its 20th year, COMP is an annual statewide competition sponsored by the University of Missouri School of Music and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. COMP showcases new, original music from Missouri student composers and songwriters in grades K-12, offering positive recognition, prizes, performances, educational opportunities, and more. For the competition, students in grades K-5 submit compositions in two categories: Instrumental Music and Songs with Words. For grades 6-8, the categories are Acoustic, Notated, and Produced; for grades 9-12, the categories…
March 5, 2025
Mizzou student Henry Rusten featured in Cape Girardeau’s Southeast Missourian and on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s SLSO Stories blog
Mizzou student Henry Rusten, a composer and multi-instrumentalist, was recently featured in Cape Girardeau’s Southeast Missourian and on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s SLSO Stories blog. Rusten’s piece Paradigm Shift for string quartet will be given its world premiere performance at 7:30 p.m. March 6 as part of the SLSO’s “Live at the Sheldon” chamber-music series. Henry Rusten The series is an ongoing collaboration between the SLSO and the Mizzou New Music Initiative. The March 6 concert, held at The Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, is titled “Echoes of Home” and curated by the orchestra’s violinist…
Feb. 25, 2025
Works by Missouri Composers Project winners to be performed by Columbia Civic Orchestra, Premiere Vocal Artists in Sunday, April 13 concert
The Columbia Civic Orchestra (CCO) and Premiere Vocal Artists, conducted by Jeremy Wagner, will perform the winning works from the 2025 Missouri Composers Project (MOCOP) competition in a concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 13 at Broadway Christian Church, 2601 W Broadway in Columbia. Admission to the concert is free and open to the public. Now in its 13th year, MOCOP is a collaborative effort involving the Mizzou New Music Initiative, the Columbia Civic Orchestra, Premiere Vocal Artists, and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. Composers from all over Missouri are invited each year to submit orchestral and choral works for…
Feb. 18, 2025
2025 Sinquefield Prize winner Giovanni Porfirio invited to perform at Brazilian Legion of Good Will event in New York City
Giovanni Porfirio, the 2025 Sinquefield Composition Prize winner, has been invited to perform at the opening of the Brazilian Legion of Good Will’s new offices in New York City on Monday, March 10. The Legion of Good Will (LGW) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing educational and social assistance programs for economically disadvantaged communities. It was founded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on January 1, 1950 by poet and radio broadcaster Alziro Zarur, and established in New York in 1986. Giovanni Porfirio and Dr. Jeanne Sinquefield at the Sinquefield Prize award dinner on Nov.