Sep. 25, 2019
Amy Williams coming to Mizzou in October for residency and concert
Composer and pianist Amy Williams is coming to Mizzou next month for a residency and concert. Williams, who is an associate professor teaching composition and music theory at the University of Pittsburgh, will be on campus in Columbia on Wednesday, October 9 and Thursday, October 10. While she’s at Mizzou, Williams (pictured) will make a presentation to composition students, give private lessons, and perform in a free concert featuring excerpts from John Cage’s “Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano” at 3:00 p.m. Thursday at Whitmore Recital Hall. The daughter of two professional musicians, Williams…
Sep. 23, 2019
Ben Rouder wins 2020 Sinquefield Composition Prize
The University of Missouri School of Music and the Mizzou New Music Initiative have awarded the 2020 Sinquefield Composition Prize to Ben Rouder. Rouder (pictured) is a junior working toward a bachelor’s degree in composition at Mizzou. He submitted “M.I.S.”, a work for chamber ensemble originally composed as part of last year’s “Influences Symphony” project, to the competition and was selected for the prize by independent judges. The adjudicators for the 2020 competition were Yotam Haber, associate professor of music composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Nina C. Young, assistant professor at the University of Southern California. Now…
Sep. 18, 2019
Mizzou New Music Ensemble to perform works by Boulez, Higdon, Martínez, and Heredia in concert Sunday, October 6 at Whitmore Recital Hall
The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will begin their 2019-20 season with a concert featuring works by two modern masters, a Mizzou alumnus, and a current Mizzou faculty member. The Ensemble (pictured) will perform music by Pierre Boulez, Jennifer Higdon, José Martínez, and Carolina Heredia at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, October 6 at Whitmore Recital Hall on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia. The concert is free and open to the public. As the name suggests, Boulez’s “Dérive 1” is derived from two of his other compositions, “Messagesquisse” and “Répons,” the latter of which in turn was…
Sep. 17, 2019
Mizzou International Composers Festival set for July 27 – August 1, 2020; applications for resident composers now open
The Mizzou New Music Initiative is accepting applications for resident composers to take part in the 11th annual Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF), which will take place starting Monday, July 27 through Saturday, August 1, 2020 on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia. Chen Yi and David T. Little (pictured) will serve as the festival’s two distinguished guest composers for 2020, teaching and consulting with the resident composers and ensembles. Little also will write a new commissioned work specifically for the festival. The week-long MICF features concerts of music from contemporary composers, along with…
Sep. 10, 2019
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to read works by Mizzou composers
Hans Bridger Heruth, Ethan Forte, and Daniel Vega
From left: Heruth, Forte, Vega Three University of Missouri student composers will have their works played by musicians with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra this year as part of a joint educational venture between the orchestra and the Mizzou New Music Initiative. Student composers Hans Bridger Heruth, Ethan Forte, and Daniel Vega (pictured) were selected by SLSO Resident Conductor Gemma New to write new works for a 40-piece chamber orchestra drawn from the musicians of the St. Louis Symphony. The three works will be read, played, and critiqued in a private session on Tuesday, October 1 in St. Louis.
Sep. 5, 2019
MADSM 2019 Collegiate Composition Competition
looking for new works for chamber ensemble
The Missouri Association of Departments and Schools of Music (MADSM) and the Mizzou New Music Initiative are looking for new chamber music written by college students in Missouri for the second annual MADSM Collegiate Composition Competition. Founded in 2018 to encourage the creation of original chamber music that can be played by high-school level musicians, the MADSM Collegiate Composition Competition is open to all students currently enrolled in any MADSM member institution, with separate categories for undergraduate and graduate students. Composers are asked to write a new work from five to seven minutes in length for a group of…
July 29, 2019
A look back at the 2019 Mizzou International Composers Festival
July 21, 2019
Composers Festival spotlight: Donnacha Dennehy
Donnacha Dennehy returns to the Mizzou International Composers Festival in 2019 as a distinguished guest composer, having previously served in the same capacity in 2012, and thereby making MICF history by becoming the only composer to play that role twice. Considered one of Ireland’s top living composers, Dennehy (pictured) is a founder of the new music group Crash Ensemble and an associate professor of music at Princeton University. His music has been featured at major festivals and venues around the world, including the Edinburgh International Festival; Carnegie Hall; the Tanglewood Festival; the Kennedy Center; The Barbican, Wigmore…