Dec. 23, 2015
2016 Mizzou International Composers Festival
gets applications from 18 countries
The numbers have been tallied, and the 2016 Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF) has received submissions from a total of 229 individuals hoping to be among the fest’s eight resident composers, including 129 who applied for the first time. The 2016 MICF will take place from Monday, July 25 through Saturday, July 30 in Columbia. Resident composer submissions were received from a total of 18 different countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Each resident…
Dec. 14, 2015
Colagiovanni wins West Central Division of MTNA composition competition
Mizzou’s Ben Colagiovanni has advanced to the next level in this year’s Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) composition competition, winning the “Young Artist” award in the West Central Division. Colagiovanni, a senior pursuing a bachelor’s degree in music composition, previously was recognized as a state winner for “Forest Park Rhapsody.” Now, as a division winner, his work automatically advances to the national competition, the results of which will be announced by the end of January. The national MTNA composition competition offers a first place prize of $3,000, plus a performance at the Winners Concert during the…
Nov. 27, 2015
Mizzou New Music Ensemble, Exit 128 Orchestra
to perform Sunday, December 6 at Missouri Theatre
The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will join forces with the Exit 128 Chamber Orchestra to present “Electric New Music” at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, December 6 at the Missouri Theatre, 203 South 9th St. Admission is free for Mizzou students, faculty and staff with ID, $5 for the general public. The first half of the concert will feature Exit 128, a student-run ensemble conducted by music director and Mizzou senior Travis Herd. They’ll perform three selections, starting with “Assembly Lines” by Ian Dicke, who was a resident composer at the 2014 Mizzou International Composers Festival Resident Composer and is assistant…
Nov. 20, 2015
Dustin Dunn featured in Mizzou alumni magazine
Composition major Dustin Dunn is featured in the latest issue of Mizzou magazine, which was mailed to alumni and other subscribers earlier this week. Dunn, a sophomore from Annapolis, Missouri, is attending Mizzou on a full Sinquefield Scholarship from the Mizzou New Music Initiative. “My future changed with a letter that said, ‘Congratulations! You have a full-tuition scholarship to the University of Missouri for the next four years,” he told reporter Dale Smith. “That’s when I knew that I was going to get an undergraduate experience that no one in my family had ever gotten before.” You…
Nov. 16, 2015
Creating Original Music Project (COMP) to recognize original music
from Missouri student composers with awards, cash
2015 COMP award winnersFor ten years, the Mizzou New Music Initiative’s Creating Original Music Project (COMP) has encouraged the musical dreams and aspirations of hundreds of K-12 students across Missouri, offering positive recognition and prizes, performance and educational opportunities, and more. Some past winners of the annual statewide competition sponsored by the University of Missouri School of Music and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation have even gone on to earn to full college scholarships or launch professional careers in music. Now, heading into its second decade, COMP once again is looking for new, original music from student composers and songwriters…
Nov. 9, 2015
Erin Gee to serve as distinguished guest composer
for 2016 Mizzou International Composers Festival
The Mizzou New Music Initiative announced today that Erin Gee will be a distinguished guest composer at the 2016 Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF), scheduled for Monday, July 25 through Saturday, July 30 on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia. Currently an assistant professor of music at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Gee (pictured) is known for her series of compositions entitled “Mouthpieces,” which “use non-traditional vocal techniques, devoid of semantic language, to construct intricate and subtle patterns of a diverse array of vocal sounds.” Her works are taught in the composition and musicology…
Nov. 4, 2015
Ben Colagiovanni wins statewide composition competition
University of Missouri composition student Ben Colagiovanni 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. Colagiovanni, a senior pursuing a bachelor’s degree in music composition at Mizzou, was recognized for “Forest Park Rhapsody.” The work originally was one of four commissioned in 2014 by the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation for the Mizzou New Music Ensemble to perform at an event for members of Forest Park Forever’s Leffingwell Society. “Forest Park Rhapsody” now will be entered in the national MTNA composition competition,…
Nov. 4, 2015
Erin Höerchler featured in Columbia Daily Tribune
Mizzou composition major Erin Höerchler was the subject of a feature article last week in the Columbia Daily Tribune. Reported by the Daily Tribune‘s Amy Wilder, the profile is part of the paper’s weekly “Niche” series highlighting artists in the Columbia area. Höerchler (pictured), a junior who’s originally from Jefferson City, used the opportunity to talk briefly about her compositional process, telling Wilder, “When I write, it’s like each part is a character, and there’s drama in between those characters…I’m not just writing sounds and music. It’s a story. There’s a whole aesthetic and a time period…