March 28, 2019

Miles Brown to premiere new concerto for bass in concert on Friday, April 26

Bassist Miles Brown will be the featured soloist for the world premiere of “Incino Arvum,” a new concerto by Mizzou professor emeritus of composition W. Thomas McKenney that will be performed by the MU Wind Ensemble in a concert at 7:00 p.m. Friday, April 26 at the Missouri Theatre. During his residency on campus, Brown (pictured) also will make a presentation to student composers, coach the Concert Jazz Band, and give private bass lessons. A composer and teacher as well as a bassist, Brown is an assistant professor of string bass and jazz at the University…

March 26, 2019

Cellist T.J. Borden coming to Mizzou for residency, concert

Cellist and composer T. J. Borden will visit Mizzou next month for a residency and concert. Borden (pictured) will be in Columbia on Tuesday, April 9 and Wednesday, April 10. While on campus, he’ll make a presentation to Mizzou composition students and give private lessons to selected cello students. He’ll wrap up his visit with a concert at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night at Whitmore Recital Hall, performing a work by Mizzou New Music Initative post-doctoral fellow Yoshi Onishi, plus music by composers Zeynap Toraman and Carolyn Chen and the world premiere of “Soften the World,” a new…

March 20, 2019

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra presenting public reading of new works
by Mizzou composers on Wednesday, April 3 at Powell Hall

From left: Colagiovanni, Roberts, Christensen Three University of Missouri student composers will have their works played by musicians with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a public reading session at 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, at Powell Hall in St. Louis. The public is invited to attend, with no admission charge or RSVP required. As part of a joint educational venture between the orchestra and the Mizzou New Music Initiative, student composers Mikkel Christensen, Ben Colagiovanni, and Libby Roberts were selected last year by SLSO Resident Conductor Gemma New to write new works for a 40-piece chamber orchestra drawn…

March 19, 2019

Mizzou’s COMP Festival presenting award-winning works from
Missouri student composers on Saturday, April 13 in Columbia

Audio from the 2018 COMP Festival will stream live online on Saturday, April 13 at https://music.missouri.edu/concert-audio-streaming The Mizzou New Music Initiative will present new works from Missouri’s best young composers at the 14th annual Creating Original Music Project (COMP) Festival from 11:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturday, April 13 in the Fine Arts Building on the campus of the University of Missouri. Admission is free and open to the public. The junior division concert, featuring works from elementary and middle school winners of this year’s competition, begins at 11:30 a.m., with the senior division concert of music by…

Feb. 25, 2019

Mizzou New Music Initiative gets $2.5 million gift
from Sinquefield Charitable Foundation

In a news conference on Thursday, February 21, University of Missouri officials announced that the Mizzou New Music Initiative will receive a gift of $2.5 million from the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation to help continue the program over the next three years. The funds will help support all of MNMI’s activities, including the costs of faculty and staff, graduate student assistantships, and two full-tuition scholarships per year for undergraduate composition majors; presenting the Mizzou International Composers Festival; bringing guest composers and performers to campus; funding the Sinquefield Composition Prize; and more.  The University will match the $300,000 portion designated for…

Feb. 20, 2019

Mizzou New Music Ensemble featured on new album from jazz pianist Rich Pellegrin

The Mizzou New Music Ensemble is featured on Down, the new album by jazz pianist and former Mizzou faculty member Rich Pellegrin that recently was released on the OA2 Records label. Recorded in 2014 in Seattle, WA and Columbia, MO, the album is Pellegrin’s third as a bandleader for the label. It includes seven tracks of his original music, with the Ensemble performing on the album’s two-part finale, augmenting Pellegrin’s quintet for an “extended alternate version” of the title composition. The Mizzou musicians on the recording are Erin Spencer (flute), Jeremiah Rittel (clarinet), Britney Stutz (violin), Korin Wahl…

Feb. 14, 2019

Mizzou New Music Ensemble to perform works by Socolofsky, Kirsten, Dennehy, Christensen and Forte on Sunday, February 24 at Whitmore Recital Hall

The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will perform works by three visiting composers plus two world premieres by Mizzou students in a concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, February 24 at Whitmore Recital Hall, 135 Fine Arts Building on the Mizzou campus. Admission is free and open to the public. The program will feature “Don’t say a word,” a “feminist rager-lullaby” by Annika Socolofsky from 2017 that “invokes the fragility and fury of the female voice.” Socolofsky, a composer and singer who is a doctoral candidate and fellow in composition at Princeton University, will be visiting Mizzou for a residency that…

Feb. 6, 2019

Annika Socolofsky visiting Mizzou for concert, residency

Composer and singer Annika Socolofsky is coming to Mizzou later this month for a residency and concert. During her visit, she will coach the Mizzou New Music Ensemble, make a presentation on her music to composition students, and give private lessons to selected composition majors. Socolofsky will conclude her residency by performing with the Ensemble when they present her work “Don’t say a word” at their concert on Sunday, February 24 at Whitmore Recital Hall. Currently a doctoral candidate and fellow in composition at Princeton University. Socolofsky previously earned an MFA in composition from Princeton, an…