Feb. 4, 2022

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to perform works by three Mizzou composers on February 16 at Powell Hall

Three University of Missouri student composers will have their works played at Powell Hall by musicians of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) at 7:30 pm Wednesday, February 16th, 2022 by SLSO musicians under the direction of SLSO Assistant Conductor Stephanie Childress. The performance is part of a joint educational venture between the SLSO and the Mizzou New Music Initiative that began in 2017. Here are the three composers and pieces that the SLSO will perform on Wednesday, Feb. 16: Holden Franklin, Club FOMO Daniel Fitzpatrick, Ritual and Sacrifice Oswald Huynh, Gia Đình Left to Right: Holden Franklin, Daniel Fitzpatrick,…

Sep. 13, 2021

Dean Minderman (1957-2021)

Dean Minderman performing at the Big Muddy Blues Festival in St. Louis, 2018 We at the Mizzou New Music Initiative and the MU School of Music are saddened to learn of Dean C. Minderman’s passing. Dean was the voice of this blog and our Twitter profile for the last 11 years, and as part of Slay & Associates’s team, worked tirelessly to promote MNMI’s activities. If you’ve ever been a visiting composer or performer at Mizzou, or if you’re a student or faculty composer who’s won an award or participated in an opportunity, Dean has written about you. If…

Aug. 17, 2021

Stefan Freund wins commission from Barlow Endowment

University of Missouri professor of composition and Mizzou New Music Initiative artistic director Stefan Freund has won a commission for 2021 from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition. Freund (pictured) was one of 9 composers selected from among 259 applications this year to the Endowment’s General and LDS commissioning programs, which will award grants totaling $60,000 to the winners. The Barlow Endowment was established in September 1983 through a gift from Milton A. and Gloria Barlow to Brigham Young University for the purpose of “engendering and supporting excellence in musical composition through the university and the BYU College…

Aug. 9, 2021

Mizzou composer, musicians featured in PBS special celebrating Missouri’s bicentennial

A new work written by a Mizzou composer and performed by MU faculty members will be featured in “Show Me the Music: A Celebration of the Missouri Bicentennial,” a television special that will air beginning this week on PBS affiliates in Missouri. “Waterways” was written on commission specifically for the bicentennial project by Stefan Freund (pictured), who is MNMI’s artistic director and professor of composition at Mizzou. The work then was performed and recorded in May at the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis by MU faculty members Alice Dade (flute), Eli Lara (cello), Julie Rosenfeld…

April 29, 2021

Springfield Symphony to perform Stefan Freund’s “Ragfare” in concerts on Saturday, May 8

The Springfield Symphony will perform “Ragfare,” a work written by University of Missouri professor of composition Stefan Freund, in a pair of concerts on Saturday, May 8 at the Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts in Springfield, MO. Freund (pictured), who’s also a cellist, conductor, and the artistic director of the Mizzou New Music Initiative, originally composed “Ragfare” for the Columbia Civic Orchestra to play at the reopening in 2008 of the renovated Missouri Theatre in Columbia. Inspired for the occasion by the music of Scott Joplin, Freund says that he “wanted to write a…

March 25, 2021

Sheldon commissions to be available for online viewing

New works written on commission by Mizzou student composers for premiere at the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis soon will be available for everyone to view via The Sheldon’s YouTube channel. The first three pieces that will go online at 8:00 p.m. Thursday, March 25 are “The Grace of Falling” by Santiago Beis, “Aubade with Ashen Clouds, Scarlet Sky“ by Oswald Huynh, and “Poem of the Phantom Queen” by Daniel Fitzpatrick. All three works were written as the result of a partnership between The Sheldon (pictured) and the Mizzou New Music Initiative that since 2012 has commissioned new…

Jan. 19, 2021

Yoshiaki Onishi chosen as MMTA’s Commissioned Composer for 2021

The Missouri Music Teachers Association (MMTA) has selected Yoshiaki Onishi as their Commissioned Composer for 2021. Onishi (pictured), a postdoctoral fellow with the Mizzou New Music Initiative, was chosen after submitting a portfolio of works anonymously to a panel of three judges. As the winner of the award, he will be commissioned to write a new work to be premiered in November 2021 at MMTA’s annual conference. The winners of the Commissioned Composer competition in various states also are eligible to compete for the Music Teachers National Association’s “Distinguished Composer of Year” award, which includes…

Aug. 17, 2020

Carolina Heredia wins commission from Barlow Endowment

Mizzou assistant professor Carolina Heredia has won a commission for 2020 from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition. Heredia was one of 15 composers selected from among 286 applications this year to the Endowment’s General and LDS commissioning programs, which will award grants totaling $83,000 to the winners. The Barlow Endowment was established in September 1983 through a gift from Milton A. and Gloria Barlow to Brigham Young University for the purpose of “engendering and supporting excellence in musical composition through the university and the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications.” The Endowment hosts an international…