Aug. 1, 2024
Premieres of works by Resident and Guest Composers highlight the 2024 Mizzou International Composers Festival
The 2024 Mizzou International Composers Festival, held July 22-27 at the University of Missouri and various locations in Columbia, concluded with a concert at the Missouri Theatre. It featured new works by eight MICF Resident Composers, performed by Ensemble-in-Residence Alarm Will Sound. This year’s Resident Composers are Lukáš Janata, Davor Vincze, Yingting Liu, Lila Meretzky, Benjamin Scheuer, ess whiteley, Mahbod Shirvani, and Claire Hu. The Festival also included a concert in which Alarm Will Sound performed pieces by Distinguished Guest Composers Mary Kouyoumdjian (Paper Pianos, a finalist for…
July 12, 2024
MICF Resident Composer Spotlight: ess whiteley
ess whiteley is a San Diego-based composer, multimedia artist, and performer working primarily with electronics and intermedia. They are interested in cyborg consciousness, computer hallucinations, haunted technologies, ecology, and more-than-human worlds in the context of virtually entangled, post-internet life and the Chthulucene. whiteley has had works performed at the MATA Festival (NYC), Int-Act Festival (Bangkok, Thailand), Dublin Music Current Festival (Dublin, Ireland), WOCMAT (Hsinchu, Thailand), and the MANTIS Festival (Manchester, UK), among others. They were the winner of the Riot Ensemble CFS (Liverpool, UK) and Honorary Mention Award recipient at the MA/IN Matera Intermedia Festival…
June 28, 2024
Mizzou International Composers Festival Spotlight: Distinguished Guest Composer Mary Kouyoumdjian
The Mizzou New Music Initiative is pleased to welcome Pulitzer Prize finalist Mary Kouyoumdjian as one of two Distinguished Guest Composers for the 2024 Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF). The Festival, which takes place from Monday, July 22 through Saturday, July 27 on the campus of the University of Missouri and at select Columbia locations, will also welcome Distinguished Guest Composer George Lewis. Kouyoumdjian, who returns to the Festival after attending as a Resident Composer in 2016, will have private meetings with the current Resident Composers, work with…
June 28, 2024
Mizzou International Composers Festival Spotlight: Distinguished Guest Composer George Lewis
The Mizzou New Music Initiative is pleased to welcome George Lewis as one of two Distinguished Guest Composers for the 2024 Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF). The Festival, which takes place from Monday, July 22 through Saturday, July 27 on the campus of the University of Missouri and at select Columbia locations, will also welcome Distinguished Guest Composer Mary Kouyoumdjian. Lewis will have private meetings with the Resident Composers, work with groups who will be performing his music at the Festival, and make a public presentation about his…
June 21, 2024
MIZZOU NEW MUSIC INITIATIVE READIES 2024 MIZZOU INTERNATIONAL COMPOSERS FESTIVAL
The 2024 edition of the Mizzou International Composers Festival is set to take place from July 22-27 at the University of Missouri and select Columbia locations. Presented by the Mizzou New Music Initiative, the festival includes several public concerts, world premiere performances, appearances by Distinguished Guest Composers George Lewis and Mary Kouyoumdjian, and a concert in which acclaimed new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound will perform works by eight Resident Composers invited to the festival. Here is the 2024 MICF schedule:…
May 14, 2024
2024 Guggenheim Fellowship awarded to Utku Asuroglu, University of Missouri School of Music Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in Composition
University of Missouri School of Music Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in Composition Utku Asuroglu has been appointed as a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition. The appointments were announced on April 11 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Asuroglu is among 188 new Guggenheim Fellows whose work encompasses 52 disciplines and artistic fields. They range in age from 28 to 89 and represent 84 academic institutions, 38 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, and four Canadian provinces. The fellows were selected via a rigorous peer review process from nearly 3000 applicants. Utku Asuroglu According to a…
April 23, 2024
Mizzou music students will have their works performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
At 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30, three University of Missouri School of Music students will have their compositions performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at the Touhill Performing Arts Center in St. Louis. Seda Balci, Giovanni Porfirio, and Mahbod Shrivani were selected to participate in an annual composer’s workshop which is a collaboration between the SLSO and the Mizzou New Music Initiative. The program is funded by the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. The April 30 performance is the culmination of a process that began last fall in which composers’ early drafts were critiqued by conductor…
April 8, 2024
Mizzou New Music Initiative announces winners in the 2024 Creating Original Music Project Competition
The winning composers in the 2024 Creating Original Music Project (COMP) have been announced by the Mizzou New Music Initiative. Now in its 19th 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 Notated Music, Popular Genres, Acoustic, and Popular…