Oct. 8, 2021
Visiting Artist Ami Dang to perform Nov. 4, 2021 as part of the Columbia Experimental Music Festival
Amrita “Ami” Kaur Dang, (pictured) a South Asian-American vocalist, sitarist, composer and producer from Baltimore, will be a visiting artist at the Mizzou New Music Initiative on Nov. 4, and open the 2021 Columbia Experimental Music Festival with a performance that evening. Ami Dang Dang’s concert will take place at A.P. Green Chapel, 518 Hitt St. on the University of Missouri campus at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available for Dang’s concert, as well as other Columbia Experimental Music Festival performances on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 5 and 6 at this link. Face masks and proof of vaccination will be required for…
Oct. 7, 2021
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 from contemporary composers performed in front of live audiences, along with in-person workshops, master classes, and other events. All events will take place at the Sinquefield Music Center. Saturday night’s grand finale will present the world premieres of new works from each of…
Sep. 29, 2021
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, Oct. 10, 2021, and will take place on the University of Missouri Campus at the Sinquefield Music Center (SMC 132). The concert is free and open to the public. For those unable to attend in person, the concert will be livestreamed on the…
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…
July 23, 2021
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 for her composition “Si Ji” (“Four Seasons”), she was born and raised in Guangzhou, China and is known as a prolific composer who blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural and musical boundaries. She holds a BA and MA in music composition from…
July 22, 2021
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 Royce Vavrek), and “Soldier Songs,” which have been widely acclaimed, “prov[ing] beyond any doubt that opera has both a relevant present and a bright future,” according to the New York Times. Little (pictured) holds degrees from Susquehanna University (2001), University of Michigan (2002), and…