July 3, 2025
Mizzou International Composers Festival Spotlight: Distinguished Guest Composer Judd Greenstein
The Mizzou New Music Initiative is pleased to welcome Judd Greenstein as one of two Distinguished Guest Composers for the 2025 Mizzou International Composers Festival. The Festival, which takes place from Wednesday, July 23 through Saturday, July 26 on the campus of the University of Missouri and at the Missouri Theatre, will also welcome Distinguished Guest Composer Hilda Paredes. Greenstein will have private meetings with the Resident Composers, work with groups who will be performing his music at the Festival, and make…
July 3, 2025
Mizzou International Composers Festival Spotlight: Distinguished Guest Composer Hilda Paredes
The Mizzou New Music Initiative is pleased to welcome Hilda Paredes as one of two Distinguished Guest Composers for the 2025 Mizzou International Composers Festival. The Festival, which takes place from Wednesday, July 23 through Saturday, July 26 on the campus of the University of Missouri and at the Missouri Theatre, will also welcome Distinguished Guest Composer Judd Greenstein. Paredes will have private meetings with the Resident Composers, work with groups who will be performing her music at the Festival, and make…
July 3, 2025
World Premieres of Eight Musical Works by Internationally Acclaimed Composers to be Performed by Alarm Will Sound at the Mizzou International Composers Festival Concert on Saturday, July 26 at Missouri Theatre in Columbia
New musical works by eight internationally acclaimed composers from four countries will be performed publicly for the first time in concert at the Missouri Theatre in Columbia on Saturday, July 26 at 7:30 pm as part of the 2025 Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF). Critically acclaimed new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, conducted by artistic director Alan Pierson, will perform all eight compositions during this dynamic public concert presented by the Mizzou New Music Initiative. The concert will cap six days of musical workshops and…
June 17, 2025
Mizzou New Music Ensemble Completes 12-Day South American Tour Featuring Concerts and Readings of Local Composers’ Works
The Mizzou New Music Ensemble has completed a two-week South American tour that featured four public concert performances of eight local composers’ works as well as readings of local students’ works and conducting/composition classes in Lima, Peru, and Medellín and Bogotá, Colombia. This was the MNME’s second South American tour; the first was held in 2023. The seven-piece ensemble, led by conductor and director Dr. Stefan Freund, performed on May 15 at Lima’s Universidad Nacional de Música and on May 16 at Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, with readings of Lima students’ works on…
May 27, 2025
Dr. Tiffany M. Skidmore joins MNMI as Managing Director
The Mizzou New Music Initiative is pleased to announce that Dr. Tiffany M. Skidmore will be joining our team as Managing Director. Dr. Skidmore is an American composer and performer based in Columbia, Missouri. She has held faculty positions at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, Virginia Tech, and the University at Buffalo (SUNY), where, from 2023-2024, she held the Birge Cary Chair in Music Composition. Most recently, she was a Visiting Professor at McGill University, in residence at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT). She is Co-Founder, Executive…
May 19, 2025
MOCOP honorable mention Violet Burney featured in the Ladue News
Violet Burney, whose composition “Sleep” earned an honorable mention in the Mizzou New Music Initiative‘s 2025 Missouri Composers Project Choral Open Age category, was featured in the May 16 issue of the Ladue News. The piece was performed as part of a concert featuring the Columbia Civic Orchestra and Premiere Vocal Artists on April 13 at Broadway Christian Church.
May 8, 2025
Mizzou New Music Ensemble to Perform Four Concerts with Residencies in South America May 15-24, 2025
The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will travel to South America May 15-24, 2025, for a tour of concert performances and residencies at four leading universities in Lima, Peru, and Medellín and Bogota, Colombia. Mizzou New Music Initiative Artistic Director Stefan Freund will lead each concert and residency, and Managing Director Andrea Luque Káram will assist on the tour, which will include eight musicians and composers. Each concert on the tour will feature performances of a work by a local composer associated with the host institution. At each location, the Mizzou composers…
May 5, 2025
Mizzou New Music Initiative to expand thanks to $4.6 million gift
A $4.6 million gift from Dr. Jeanne Sinquefield, Rex Sinquefield, and the Sinquefield CharitableFoundation will ensure University of Missouri students continue to redefine the sounds oftomorrow through the Mizzou New Music Initiative. The funding will expand opportunities for students and faculty, supercharging a program alreadyknown for fostering bold, original compositions and turning visionary ideas into reality. “My goal is to make Missouri a mecca for musical composition,” said Jeanne Sinquefield, amember of the UM Board of Curators and founder of the Mizzou New Music Initiative (MNMI). “The MNMI covers K-12, undergraduate,…