April 7, 2025

In Kansas City magazine spotlights MNMI Artistic Director Stefan Freund

MNMI Artistic Director Stefan Freund spoke with In Kansas City magazine about the music he composed for an “audible landscape” based on Tomi Ungerer’s The Three Robbers, which will be featured at The Rabbit hOle, an immersive children’s literature museum in North Kansas City.   “The music for The Three Robbers came very easily to me since the text and pictures of the book were so evocative,” Freund tells In Kansas City. “There are also refrains in the music that had a particular rhythmic feeling that I used as motives.” Dr. Stefan…

Jan. 16, 2025

Top Performers, Composers, and Internationally Renowned Artists to be Showcased at Nine Upcoming Mizzou New Music Initiative Concerts in Columbia

The Mizzou New Music Initiative (MNMI) will present nine concerts this winter and spring in Columbia that will showcase the program’s newest musical groups and composers along with internationally renowned artists. MNMI is a diverse array of programs that position the University of Missouri School of Music as a leading center for the composition and performance of new music. The initiative is supported by the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation, led by Dr. Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield. Their vision is to create an incubator for the composition and performance of new music and to showcase Missouri as a center for the music…

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…

July 29, 2022

2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival July 29th schedule features Laraaji in concert with Katina Bitsicas and the Onishi-Beis Duo

Tonight, the Mizzou Interational Composers Festival presents celestial-ambient music pioneer Laraaji headlining a 7:30 PM (CDT) concert at Studio 4 at McKee Gymnasium on the Mizzou campus. The July 29th concert is co-hosted by Dismal Niche Arts, and will also feature new media artist and Mizzou Assistant Professor Katina Bitsicas, and the Onishi-Beis Duo. The general admission concert is free to the public. Laraaji Laraaji, one of modern experimental music’s most distinctive, prolific and charismatic artists, has been creating radiant, luminous long-form compositions for electronically treated zither, kalimba, piano and more for over 40 years. He released…

July 22, 2022

2021 MICF performances by Alarm Will Sound: “Turn Your Feet Around” – by Resident Composer Nina Shekhar

The 2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival is scheduled from July 25th – 30th in Columbia,Missouri. Once again, Alarm Will Sound will perform world premieres of works by the eight Resident Composers chosen for the MICF. Let’s take a look back at AWS recordings from the 2021 Festival. Alarm Will Sound in concert at the Missouri Theater This year you can hear AWS in-person when the MICF returns to live performances for the first time since 2019! AWS recently released a recording of “Turn Your Feet Around,” a composition by 2021 MICF Resident Composer Nina Shekhar. Nina Shekhar. Photo credit: Shervin Lainez…

July 20, 2022

2021 MICF performances by Alarm Will Sound: “Spiraling Down the Rabbit Hole” by Ana Paola Santillán Alcocer

Alarm Will Sound in concert at the Missouri Theater The 2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival is scheduled from July 25th – 30th in Columbia,Missouri. Once again, Alarm Will Sound will perform world premieres of works by the eight Resident Composers chosen for this year’s MICF. AWS recently released a recording by 2021 MICF Resident Composer Ana Paola Santillán Alcocer: “Spiraling Down the Rabbit Hole.”     Here’s how Ms. Santillán Alcocer describes her inspiration for the work — and her compositional approach to “Spiraling Down the Rabbit Hole.” The expression “spiraling down the rabbit hole’’ originates from the 1865…

July 19, 2022

2021 MICF performances by Alarm Will Sound: “Nested Time” by Yu Kuwabara and “Rainbow Diamond” by Paul Mortilla

The 2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival is scheduled from July 25th – 30th in Columbia,Missouri. Once again, Alarm Will Sound will perform world premieres of works by the eight Resident Composers chosen for this year’s MICF. AWS recently released recordings by two 2021 MICF Resident Composers: “Nested Time” by Yu Kuwabara, and “Rainbow Diamond” by Paul Mortilla. Alarm Will Sound in concert at the Missouri Theater Here’s how Kuwabara describes his compositional approach to “Nested Time.” “I have always been trying to find an answer which intermediates in-between some things or some contexts; sometimes in-between the past…

July 18, 2022

2021 MICF performances by Alarm Will Sound: “Sploopy” – by Resident Composer Celka Ojakangas

The 2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival is scheduled from July 25th – 30th in Columbia,Missouri. Once again, Alarm Will Sound will perform world premieres of works by the eight Resident Composers chosen for the MICF. Let’s take a look back at AWS recordings from the 2021 Festival. Alarm Will Sound in concert at the Missouri Theater This year you can hear AWS in-person when the MICF returns to live performances for the first time since 2019! AWS recently released a recording of “Sploopy,” a composition by 2021 MICF Resident Composer Celka Ojakangas. According to Ojakangas, the composition references everything from The Creature…