Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF) Announces 2022 Festival Dates; Opens Resident Composers Application Process
Alarm Will Sound in concert The Mizzou New Music Initiative is accepting applications for resident composers to take part in the 2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF), which will take place Monday, July 25 through Saturday, July 30, 2022 at the University of Missouri School of Music in Columbia, MO. The week-long MICF will feature concerts of music…
Mizzou New Music Ensemble opens 2021-22 season with live performance at Sinquefield Music Center on October 10, 2021
Members of the 2021-22 Mizzou New Music Ensemble with Artistic Director Yoshiaki Onishi (third from front) and Stefan Freund, Artistic Directoe of MNMI (fifth from front) For the first time since March, 2020, the Mizzou New Music Ensemble will perform in front of a live audience! The concert is scheduled for 7:30 pm on Sunday,…
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…
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…
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…
Composers Festival spotlight: Chen Yi
The Mizzou New Music Initiative is pleased to welcome Chen Yi as one of two distinguished guest composers for the 2021 Mizzou International Composers Festival. Chen (pictured) is a distinguished professor of composition at the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. A finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Music…
Composers Festival spotlight: David T. Little
The Mizzou New Music Initiative is pleased to welcome David T. Little as one of the two distinguished guest composers for the 2021 Mizzou International Composers Festival. Called “one of the most imaginative young composers” by The New Yorker, he has been recognized particularly for his operas "Dog Days," "JFK," and "Vinkensport" (with librettos by…
Composers Festival spotlight: Nina Shekhar
Resident composer Nina Shekhar is a first generation Indian American who grew up in Detroit and now lives in New Jersey, where she is pursuing her PhD in composition at Princeton University. She previously completed composition graduate studies at the University of Southern California and undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan, earning dual degrees…