April 29, 2015

Tom McKenney featured in Columbia Daily Tribune, on KBIA

W. Thomas “Tom” McKenney, who has taught composition and music theory at Mizzou for 47 years and has served as co-artistic director of the Mizzou New Music Initiative since it began in 2010,  is retiring from full-time teaching after the Spring 2015 semester. Although Professor McKenney (pictured) will still be around Columbia, teaching some classes, composing, and no doubt offering wise counsel to all who seek it (while being freed from those pesky meetings and administrative duties), it nevertheless seems very appropriate that the Columbia Daily Tribune paid tribute to him last week with an short feature about his…

April 10, 2015

$10 million donation kicks off campaign for new music building at Mizzou

Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield have given a $10 million gift to the University of Missouri to help fund the proposed new School of Music building. The gift, the largest ever in support of the arts at MU, was announced in a news conference on Friday April 10 at the Reynolds Alumni Center on the Mizzou campus. Through the generous gift, the Sinquefields will help begin the fundraising efforts for the new School of Music building, which will be located at the northeast corner of Hitt Street and University Avenue on the MU campus. The new School…

April 9, 2015

Mizzou New Music Ensemble to highlight works
by Hans Abrahamsen, Andrew Norman in concert
on Sunday, April 26 at Whitmore Recital Hall

The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will highlight works from the two guest composers for this summer’s Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF) in a concert at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, April 26 in Whitmore Recital Hall, 135 Fine Arts Building on the University of Missouri campus. Admission is free for Mizzou students, $5 suggested donation for the general public. The concert will feature performances of “Zwei Schneetänze,” two works by Dutch composer Hans Abrahamsen from 1985 that foreshadow his extended tour-de-force “Schnee,” and four movements of “The Companion Guide to Rome,” written by Andrew Norman in 2010…

April 6, 2015

MNMI, COMP featured on St. Louis Public Radio

Mizzou New Music Initiative managing director William Lackey, junior composition major Ben Colagiovanni and composer, clarinetist and Mizzou alum Stephanie Berg were guests this past Friday, April 3 on St. Louis Public Radio’s program “CityScape.” In the segment, they talked with host Steve Potter about the Creating Original Music Project, the annual statewide competition for Missouri student composers in grades K-12. The annual COMP Festival showcasing the original compositions of this year’s winners will take place on Saturday, April 18 at Whitmore Recital Hall on the Mizzou campus. Colagiovanni was a two-time COMP winner while a student…

March 17, 2015

Creating Original Music Project celebrates 10 years
of original works from Missouri student composers
with concert on Saturday, April 18

Multiple COMP winner HyunJun Yoo with Jeanne Sinquefield of the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation Mizzou’s Creating Original Music Project (COMP) will mark 10 years of showcasing the works of Missouri student composers in grades K-12 with the 2015 COMP Festival, which will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Saturday, April 18 in the Fine Arts Building on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia. Admission to the festival is free and open to the public. The junior division concert, featuring works from elementary and middle school winners, begins at 10:30 a.m., with the senior division…

Feb. 18, 2015

Mizzou students are winners in young composers competition

Erin Hoerchler Mizzou composition students Erin Hoerchler and Gus Knobbe are among the winners of the Community Music School of Webster University‘s 11th Annual Young Composers Competition. Hoerchler, a 19-year-old freshman from Jefferson City, won first place in the 17-21 age division for her work “Flight of the Hang Gliding Nightingale Nurses.” Knobbe, who’s also 19 and a freshman from Webster Groves, MO, took second place in the same division with his composition “Murmurations.” Before enrolling at Mizzou, both Hoechler and Knobbe also were winners in the annual Creating Original Music Project (C.O.M.P.) statewide competition for…

Feb. 12, 2015

Mizzou New Music Ensemble to perform
new works by visiting and student composers
Sunday, March 8 at Whitmore Recital Hall

The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will play works by two visiting composers and three Mizzou students in their first concert of the new year at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, March 8 in Whitmore Recital Hall, 135 Fine Arts Building on the University of Missouri campus. Admission is free for Mizzou students, faculty, and staff with MU ID, $5 for the general public, with tickets available at the door. The Ensemble (pictured) will perform “The Gargoyles of Notre Dame” by Andrew List, who will be visiting the Mizzou campus that week to work with them, as well as select…

Feb. 11, 2015

St. Louis Symphony to perform Stefan Freund’s “Cyrillic Dreams”

Original music from Mizzou will be heard once again next year at Powell Hall in St. Louis, as the St. Louis Symphony’s announcement last Tuesday of their 2015-16 season schedule included the news that they’ll perform Stefan Freund’s “Cyrillic Dreams” as part of a concert on Friday, April 29, 2016. Stefan Freund Freund is associate professor of composition and music theory at the University of Missouri and co-artistic director of the Mizzou New Music Initiative. The Memphis native also is a cellist and founding member of the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, and is…