April 20, 2016

Student Composers Concert set for Sunday, April 24 at Whitmore Recital Hall

The spring 2016 edition of the University of Missouri School of Music’s bi-annual Student Composers Concert will showcase new works written and performed by students at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 24 at Whitmore Recital Hall on the Mizzou campus. Admission is free for Mizzou students, faculty and staff with ID, $5 for the general public. The program will include: “Four Jazz Moods” by Benedetto Colagiovanni “That I Have Not Lived” by Dustin Dunn “Ever Yours, l. Paris, 1 August 1890” by Travis Herd “Musings of Sky” by Hans Bridger Heruth “Ballroom Blues”…

April 11, 2016

Mizzou New Music Ensemble making moves with compositions inspired by chess in concert Monday, April 25 at Whitmore Recital Hall

Three new works by Mizzou student composers inspired by the game of chess will be given a “sneak preview” in a concert by the Mizzou New Music Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 25 at Whitmore Recital Hall on the University of Missouri campus. Admission is free for Mizzou students, faculty and staff with ID, $5 for the general public. All three pieces were composed for the Ensemble’s upcoming concert on Saturday, April 30 at the World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis. “Love Your Enemy” is by Henry Breneman Stewart, a first-year master’s student majoring in…

April 6, 2016

Mizzou’s fine arts departments to celebrate Shakespeare at Chancellor’s Arts Showcase Monday, April 11 at Missouri Theatre

The fine arts departments at the University of Missouri will join together to celebrate the works of William Shakespeare at the annual Chancellor’s Arts Showcase, starting at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 11 at the Missouri Theatre, 203 S. Ninth St. in Columbia. The event will feature the world premiere of “Sonnet 73: De Profundis,” a musical setting of a Shakespeare poem composed by this year’s Sinquefield Composition Prize winner, Henry Breneman Stewart (pictured), and performed by the University Singers. In addition to the world premiere and other selections from the University Singers, the showcase also will include…

March 14, 2016

Creating Original Music Project to present award-winning works by Missouri student composers in concert on Saturday, April 16 in Columbia

Audio from the 2016 COMP Festival will stream live online on Saturday, April 16 From classical, jazz, and blues to folk, rock, and hip-hop, Missouri has a rich and varied musical history. The Show-Me State over the years has produced a long list of musical luminaries, from Scott Joplin, Virgil Thomson, and Burt Bacharach to Clark Terry, Chuck Berry, and Sheryl Crow, but what does the future hold? The answer could be in Columbia, where Mizzou’s Creating Original Music Project (COMP) will present performances of award-winning original works by young Missouri composers in grades K-12 at the 11th…

March 3, 2016

Mizzou New Music Ensemble to perform works by four award-winning composers Tuesday, March 22 at Whitmore Recital Hall

The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will play works from four award-winning composers in a concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 22 at Whitmore Recital Hall on the University of Missouri campus. Admission is free for Mizzou students, faculty and staff with ID, $5 for the general public. The program will include two pieces from composers visiting Mizzou this year and two from undergraduate students majoring in composition at the university. “Rhapsodies” by David Liptak is a three-movement work from 1992 that showcases contrasting timbral colors in the ensemble. Liptak, a composition professor at the Eastman School of Music…

Feb. 29, 2016

William Lackey leaving Mizzou New Music Initiative; Andrew Worden named interim managing director

The Mizzou New Music Initiative is undergoing what might be called a change of the administrative guard. William J. “Billy” Lackey, who has served as managing director of the Initiative since it was founded in 2009, is leaving Mizzou on March 4 and moving to Minnesota to take a job with American Composers Forum (ACF). Lackey (pictured, top left), who also is an assistant teaching professor of composition at the university, will become vice president of programs for ACF. A search for a permanent replacement at the Mizzou New Music Initiative will begin immediately. In the meantime, Andrew Worden,…

Feb. 16, 2016

Deviant Septet to present world premiere of David Liptak’s “Focusing” in concert Friday, February 26 at Whitmore Recital Hall

The new music group Deviant Septet will present the world premiere of “Focusing,” a new work by composer David Liptak, as part of their concert at 7:30 p.m., Friday, February 26 at Whitmore Recital Hall, 151 Fine Arts Building on the University of Missouri campus. Admission is free and open to the public. The performance will be the final event of simultaneous residencies that week at Mizzou for Liptak and Deviant Septet (pictured), with the premiere of “Focusing” representing the culmination of a three-year process that began in 2013 with a commissioning grant from the…

Feb. 10, 2016

Missouri Composers Orchestra Project selects six works for concert on March 20

For many young composers, writing for orchestra or chorus represents a significant pinnacle of achievement, offering artistic satisfaction and enhancing credibility and career opportunities. Reaching that pinnacle, however, also requires getting that new, large ensemble work played in public, which is not always an easy task when resources are scarce and many music directors tend to rely on familiar favorites. Now, six up-and-coming composers are getting a boost from the Missouri Composers Orchestra Project (MOCOP), as their orchestral and choral works will be performed by the Columbia Civic Orchestra (CCO) and the Columbia Chamber Choir at a…