Oct. 28, 2016
Dustin Dunn wins MTNA’s 2016 statewide composition competition
University of Missouri composition student Dustin Dunn has won this year’s award in the “Young Artist” category of the Missouri state division of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) composition competition. Dunn, a junior working on a bachelor’s degree in music composition at Mizzou, was recognized for “Of Stained Glass and Hymnody,” which was premiered in March 2016 by the Mizzou New Music Ensemble. He’s the third Mizzou student in a row to win the statewide MTNA award, following Ben Colagiovanni last year and Trey Makler in 2014. “Of Stained Glass and Hymnody” now will be entered…
Oct. 26, 2016
Creating Original Music Project (COMP) offers awards, cash prizes for original music from Missouri student composers
From school bands to adjudicated contests, young musicians today have many outlets to demonstrate their instrumental prowess. For young composers, the opportunities to show their talents can be much harder to find, which is why the Mizzou New Music Initiative began the Creating Original Music Project (COMP). Now in its twelfth year, COMP is an annual statewide competition that showcases new, original music from Missouri student composers and songwriters in grades K-12, offering positive recognition and prizes, performance and educational opportunities, and more. Sponsored by the University of Missouri School of Music and the Sinquefield Charitable…
Oct. 10, 2016
2017 Mizzou International Composers Festival set for July 24 – 29; applications for eight resident composers now open
The Mizzou New Music Initiative is now accepting applications for eight resident composers to take part in the 2017 Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF), which will be held Monday, July 24 through Saturday, July 29 on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia. Georg Friedrich Haas and Dan Visconti will serve as the distinguished guest composers for the 2017 MICF, which will include three public concerts of contemporary music as well as workshops, master classes and other events. As in years past, Saturday night’s grand finale at the Missouri Theatre will feature the world premieres…
Oct. 3, 2016
Mizzou composer Douglas Osmun wins 2017 Sinquefield Composition Prize
The University of Missouri School of Music and the Mizzou New Music Initiative have awarded the 2017 Sinquefield Composition Prize to Douglas Osmun. Osmun, who grew up in Zeeland, MI, is a first-year graduate student at Mizzou studying composition with Stefan Freund. He submitted “First Fig,” a work written for alto voice, cello and piano, to the competition and was selected for the prize by a panel of independent judges. The adjudicators for the 2017 competition were: * Lee Hartman, instructor in music and music theory, University of Central Missouri; * Allison Ogden, lecturer in composition, University…
Sep. 27, 2016
Aaron Mencher wins Boston New Music Initiative Young Composers Competition
Mizzou composer Aaron Mencher has won this year’s Boston New Music Initiative Young Composers Competition with his work “Uncertainly Yours,” which will be performed by the Boston New Music Initiative ensemble in a concert on November 4 at The Record Company in Boston. Mencher (pictured) is a sophomore composition major and Sinquefield Scholar from John’s Creek, GA, a suburb of Atlanta. He’s now the second Mizzou student to win BNMI’s Young Composers Competition, as Trey Makler was last year’s winner for his musical setting of poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Die Sonette an Orpheus.”…
Sep. 22, 2016
Mizzou New Music Ensemble to open 2016-17 season on Sunday, October 16 at Whitmore Recital Hall
Keith Fitch The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will begin their 2016-17 season with a concert featuring music from a renowned visiting composer, two works written by Mizzou composers, and more. The performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, October 16 at Whitmore Recital Hall on the University of Missouri campus. General admission is $5 for the public, free for Mizzou faculty, students and staff. Keith Fitch, who heads the composition department at the prestigious Cleveland Institute of Music, will be in Columbia that weekend for a residency at Mizzou, and the Ensemble’s concert will include his 1994…
Sep. 15, 2016
Missouri Composers Project (MOCOP) seeks new orchestral, choral works for performance in March 2017
Columbia Civic Orchestra For composers of orchestral or choral music, completing a new work often is followed immediately by another formidable challenge: finding an orchestra or choir to perform it. Recognizing this need, the Missouri Composers Project (MOCOP) in 2017 once again is offering performance opportunities for new, large-ensemble music written by Missouri residents. (Founded in 2012 as the Missouri Composers Orchestra Project, MOCOP has been renamed for its sixth year to reflect the inclusion of choral music as well as orchestral works.) MOCOP is a collaborative effort involving the Mizzou New Music Initiative, the Columbia Civic…
Sep. 15, 2016
Jacob Gotlib profiled in Columbia Daily Tribune
The Mizzou New Music Initiative’s new managing director Jacob Gotlib (pictured) recently was profiled in the Columbia Daily Tribune. Gotlib, who earned his Ph.D in composition in 2015 from the State University of New York at Buffalo and also holds a master’s degree in composition from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a B.M. in music technology from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, began work at Mizzou in August. You can read the article, written by the Tribune‘s Aarik Danielsen, here.