April 30, 2025
World premiere performance of Yoell Tewolde’s “waves on the shore” earns rave review from St. Louis American
Chris King of The St. Louis American reviewed the world premiere of Yoell Tewolde’s waves on the shore, which was performed as part of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra‘s “Live at the Sheldon” series on April 24 at the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis. Yoell Tewolde Here’s what King wrote about Tewolde, waves on the shore, and the MNMI. One of the many joys of the Live at the Sheldon series is that these concerts feature the world premiere of a…
April 24, 2025
Oswald Huýnh (Mizzou Master of Music in Composition, 2022) named as a winner of the 2025-26 Rome Prize
The American Academy in Rome has named Oswald Huýnh (Mizzou Master of Music in Composition, 2022) as laureate of the Frederic A Juilliard | Walter Damrosch Rome Prize in Musical Composition. According to the organization, the Rome Prize is “a rigorous competition supporting innovative fellows in the arts, humanities, and sciences, offering artists and scholars the time, space setting, and colleagues to explore and create in the singular city of Rome.” Huýnh is one of 35 recipients who will reside at the Academy’s 11-acre grounds in the Eternal City for five to ten months,…
April 10, 2025
Mizzou Student Yoell Tewolde featured on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s SLSO Stories blog
Mizzou sophomore composition student Yoell Tewolde was recently featured on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s SLSO Stories blog. Tewolde’s piece waves on the shore for piano and wind quintet will be given its world premiere performance at 7:30 p.m. April 24 as part of the SLSO’s final “Live at the Sheldon” chamber-music concert of the season. The series is an ongoing collaboration between the SLSO and the Mizzou New Music Initiative. The April 24 concert, held at the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, is titled “Wind and Water” and is curated by the…
April 8, 2025
Song composed for Creating Original Music Project creates a win for student as well as a small Missouri community
For evidence of how the Mizzou New Music Initiative’s Creating Original Music Project can impact not just an aspiring songwriter/composer, but also a teacher, a school, and even a community, look no further than Galena, Missouri’s Brendan Rieth and his song “Pretty,” which earned second place in COMP’s High School Acoustic category. Galena – population 455 as of the 2020 census – “is like, your picture-perfect definition of a rural small town,” says Drew Tate, the Music Director at Galena High School, the student body of which numbers around 200. “It’s very close-knit. So…
April 7, 2025
In Kansas City magazine spotlights MNMI Artistic Director Stefan Freund
MNMI Artistic Director Stefan Freund spoke with In Kansas City magazine about the music he composed for an “audible landscape” based on Tomi Ungerer’s The Three Robbers, which will be featured at The Rabbit hOle, an immersive children’s literature museum in North Kansas City. “The music for The Three Robbers came very easily to me since the text and pictures of the book were so evocative,” Freund tells In Kansas City. “There are also refrains in the music that had a particular rhythmic feeling that I used as motives.” Dr. Stefan…
April 1, 2025
Students Gonzalez, Schlegel, and Wolfe premiere new works with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
New works by three University of Missouri School of Music students were given their world premiere on Wednesday, March 26, in a concert by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at the Touhill Performing Arts Center in St. Louis. SLSO Assistant Conductor Samuel Hollister led the performance. Harry Gonzalez, a master’s student from Medellin, Colombia; Atticus Schlegel, a senior from St. Louis; and JT Wolfe, a senior from St. Joseph, MO, were selected to participate in the program through a collaboration between the SLSO and the Mizzou New Music Initiative (MNMI). The pieces performed…
March 18, 2025
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to Premiere Three New Works from Mizzou Student Composers at March 26 Concert at The Touhill
Three University of Missouri School of Music students will have their original compositions performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) at a special concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri in St. Louis on March 26, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. This concert will feature works by Harry Gonzalez, a master’s student from Medellin, Colombia; Atticus Schlegel, a senior from St. Louis; and JT Wolfe, a senior from St. Joseph, MO. They were selected through a collaboration between the SLSO and the Mizzou New Music Initiative (MNMI). The program is funded by the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. The new…
March 17, 2025
Mizzou New Music Initiative announces winners in the 2025 Creating Original Music Project Competition
The Mizzou New Music Initiative has announced the winning composers in the 2025 Creating Original Music Project (COMP). Now in its 20th year, COMP is an annual statewide competition sponsored by the University of Missouri School of Music and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. COMP showcases new, original music from Missouri student composers and songwriters in grades K-12, offering positive recognition, prizes, performances, educational opportunities, and more. For the competition, students in grades K-5 submit compositions in two categories: Instrumental Music and Songs with Words. For grades 6-8, the categories are Acoustic, Notated, and Produced; for grades 9-12, the categories…