Aug. 16, 2018

Construction progressing on Mizzou’s new School of Music building

After a ground-breaking ceremony in April, construction of the School of Music’s new building has been progressing throughout the spring and summer. For an overview of what’s happened so far, check out the embedded video in this post. The new building will bring together in one place offices and classrooms that currently are spread across six different locations on the Mizzou campus, and is scheduled to open in time for the Fall 2019 semester. The project is being funded by donations including a $10 million lead gift from Dr. Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation.

July 16, 2018

Yoshi Onishi answers “5 Questions” from I Care If You Listen

The Mizzou New Music Initiative’s new postdoctoral fellow Yoshiaki “Yoshi” Onishi is the subject of a “5 Questions” interview published last week by the new-music website I Care If You Listen. In the interview, Onishi (pictured) talks with ICIYL’s Alexander Rothe about his compositional process and his ongoing project “Les Six Aspects du Néant” (“The Six Aspects of Nothingness”). The work is a cycle of six pieces for string quartet, parts of which will be performed this fall at the Vertixe Sonora Festival in Spain, the 45th International Viola Congress in Rotterdam, and the Trieste Prima Festival in Italy.

July 11, 2018

Erin Hoerchler wins ASCAP Foundation scholarship

Mizzou alum Erin Marie Hoerchler is the winner of the 2018 ASCAP Foundation Frederick Loewe Scholarship. Hoerchler (pictured), who earned her bachelor of music degree in composition from Mizzou in 2017, is a composer, vocalist, and musical director with a particular interest in musical theater. She will begin work in September on a master of fine arts degree from New York University’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program. The ASCAP Foundation Frederick Loewe Scholarship is presented annually to a student of musical theater composition at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

April 11, 2018

Mizzou New Music Initiative awards postdoctoral fellowship to Yoshiaki Onishi

The Mizzou New Music Initiative (MNMI) and the University of Missouri School of Music have awarded a postdoctoral fellowship to composer Yoshiaki “Yoshi” Onishi. Starting with the Fall 2018 semester and continuing for two years, Onishi will teach private composition lessons, composition seminar, and freshman ear training to Mizzou students; serve as assistant conductor for the Mizzou New Music Ensemble; and assist with various MNMI programs. He also will begin a major research project to be completed during the two years of his fellowship. Onishi (pictured) made news last week when he was awarded a 2018…

April 6, 2018

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra musicians to perform three new works by Mizzou composers on Sunday, April 29 at Powell Hall

Dustin Dunn, Aaron Mencher and Douglas Osmun Members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, led by the SLSO’s resident conductor Gemma New, will perform three new works by student composers from the University of Missouri School of Music at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 29 at Powell Hall in St. Louis. Admission to the performance is free and open to the public, but those wishing to attend are requested to RSVP via the SLSO’s website at https://www.slso.org/en/com/community_concerts/community-events/mizzou-composers/. The event is the culmination of a year-long collaboration between the SLSO and the Mizzou New Music Initiative, with funding from…

March 22, 2018

Trey Makler selected for Juilliard’s OperaComp program

Mizzou composition alumnus Trey Makler has been selected as one of the composers for the 2018 season of OperaComp, The Juilliard School’s “incubator of revolutionary opera from the next generation of composers and writers.” Makler (pictured) graduated from Mizzou in 2016 and now is living in New York City, studying for an MM in composition at Juilliard. He’s one of six composers taking part in this year’s OperaComp program, for which he has written original music for a scene from “Let Them Eat Cake,” a new short play by librettist and Juilliard playwriting program graduate Ted Malawer.

March 14, 2018

Carolina Heredia to join faculty of University of Missouri School of Music as assistant professor of composition

The University of Missouri School of Music will welcome Carolina Heredia as an assistant professor of composition starting with the fall semester in 2018. Currently a post-doctoral fellow with the Mizzou New Music Initiative, Heredia (pictured) first came to Columbia as one of the eight resident composers for the 2017 Mizzou International Composers Festival. In her new tenure-track job, she’ll teach individual lessons, lead and teach independent and collaborative intermedia projects, and continue to assist with various MNMI programs. “Carolina Heredia was the best fit for the job, and with that credential, we’re very pleased…

Jan. 9, 2018

Mikkel Christensen wins grand prize in ShoutHouse call for scores

Mizzou’s Mikkel Christensen has won the grand prize in a worldwide open call for scores from the ensemble ShoutHouse in New York City. Christensen (pictured) is in his first year of work toward a master’s degree in composition at Mizzou, studying with Stefan Freund. A native of Lockhart, TX, he earned his undergraduate degree in music and technology at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. Formed in 2012, ShoutHouse is a 14-member chamber orchestra of classical, hip-hop, and jazz musicians that describes their style as combining “the freedom and lyricism of jazz, the poetry of hip-hop, and…