Feb. 4, 2013

Missouri Composers Orchestra Project selects works
by Stephanie Berg, Dustin Dunn for performance in March

Stephanie Berg Continuing their collaborative efforts to spotlight the work of Missouri composers, the Columbia Civic Orchestra (CCO) and the Mizzou New Music Initiative have announced the selection of two orchestral works written by Missouri residents to be performed by the CCO at a concert in March. The two winning pieces were chosen in a statewide competition conducted under the auspices of the Missouri Composers Orchestra Project (MOCOP). The winners will receive a $500 honorarium from MOCOP’s sponsor, the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. The work chosen in the Open category is Ravish and Mayhem by Stephanie Berg,…

Feb. 1, 2013

St. Louis Beacon spotlights Mizzou composers’ new works
for Sheldon Concert Hall’s 100th anniversary season

The St. Louis Beacon today published an article by Terry Perkins about the new works commissioned from Mizzou composers by the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation that are being performed at the Sheldon Concert Hall and Art Galleries as part of the hall’s 100th anniversary season. The third commission in the series, Patrick David Clark’s “Snow Coming,” will be premiered next Tuesday, February 5 by pianist Peter Henderson at one of the Sheldon’s “Coffee Concerts.” You can read the Beacon article here.

Nov. 26, 2012

Mizzou New Music Ensemble to perform works by Cage, Kellogg, Gladney, and Strobel on Monday, December 3 at Whitmore Recital Hall

The Mizzou New Music Ensemble (pictured) will present the second concert of their 2012-13 season at 7:30 p.m., Monday, December 3 in Whitmore Recital Hall, 135 Fine Arts Building on the University of Missouri campus. Admission is free for Mizzou students, $5 suggested donation for the general public. The program will include two pieces written by Mizzou students; a performance incorporating several works by famed composer John Cage; and the second installment in the Ensemble’s ongoing examination of Daniel Kellogg’s extended work Divinum Mysterium. Synergetic Waveforms, written this year by University of Missouri freshman composition student Shaun Gladney,…

Oct. 29, 2012

David Witter wins 2013 Sinquefield Composition Prize

The University of Missouri School of Music and the Mizzou New Music Initiative are pleased to announce that David Witter is the winner of the 2013 Sinquefield Composition Prize. Witter, who holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in composition from Mizzou, submitted his piece “Garden Music” to the competition and was selected for the prize by a panel of independent judges. The adjudicators for the 2013 competition were: * Mara Gibson, director of the Community Music and Dance Academy and a member of the composition faculty at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance in Kansas City;…

Oct. 10, 2012

“Music and New Media at the Crossroads”
scheduled for Thursday, October 18 and Friday, October 19

Next week, the University of Missouri will host an interdisciplinary symposium and festival, “Music and New Media at the Crossroads,” on Thursday, October 18 and Friday October 19. Described as “an exploration of the profound ways in which new media and technologies are changing the way we create, disseminate, receive, and comment about music,” the event is presented by the School of Music and School of Journalism in partnership with the University Concert Series and includes four public programs. At 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, composer Tod Machover (pictured), head of the MIT Media Lab’s Opera of…

Oct. 9, 2012

Mizzou New Music Ensemble opens 2012-13 season with concert on Monday, October 15 at Whitmore Recital Hall

The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will open their 2012-13 season with a concert at 7:30 p.m., Monday, October 15 in Whitmore Recital Hall, 135 Fine Arts Building on the University of Missouri campus. Admission is free for Mizzou students, $5 suggested donation for the general public. For the season opener, the Ensemble (pictured) will perform five recent pieces by composers associated with the University, along with two parts of Daniel Kellogg’s extended work Divinum Mysterium. Kellogg, an associate professor of music at the University of Colorado, will be one of the guest composers for the 2013 Mizzou International Composers…

Oct. 3, 2012

Sinquefield Charitable Foundation commissions new works from Mizzou composers to celebrate The Sheldon’s 100th anniversary

The famous German composer Robert Schumann once said, “In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of.” While that may be true, getting that new composition performed and heard once it is written can be another matter entirely. For an emerging composer writing music inspired by the classical tradition, performance opportunities can be few and far between. To give some of those composers a chance to be heard, the Mizzou New Music Initiative, the Sheldon Concert Hall and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation have joined forces to commission…

Sep. 10, 2012

Mizzou New Music Initiative’s summer event gets a new name:
Mizzou International Composers Festival

With applicants coming from dozens of countries on five different continents, the Mizzou New Music Summer Festival already has attracted significant international attention in its first three years. The composers from abroad who have been selected to participate clearly have influenced the Festival’s musical direction. They also have helped to spread the word about the event much farther and faster than originally anticipated. In a nod to these welcome developments, the event now will be known as the Mizzou International Composers Festival, effective immediately. Though the name has changed, the format will remain essentially the same. The…