July 18, 2014
Composers Festival Spotlight: Mizzou New Music Ensemble
Mizzou New Music Ensemble One week from tonight, the Mizzou New Music Ensemble will take the stage at the Missouri Theatre as part of the “Mizzou New Music” concert of the 2014 Mizzou International Composers Festival. Comprised of graduate students on scholarship, the Ensemble is directed by faculty composer and Alarm Will Sound member Stefan Freund. They serve as the flagship group of the Mizzou New Music Initiative, collaborating with student, faculty and visiting composers throughout the year to perform a variety of new works. The Ensemble’s members for the 2013-14 season are Rachel Czech,…
July 17, 2014
Composers Festival Spotlight: Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang
Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang is another of the resident composers helping to put the “international” into this year’s Mizzou International Composers Festival. A native of Taiwan, Ashley comes to the MICF via the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she’s studying for a Doctor of Musical Arts degree. Ashley also holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and SooChow University, and her work draws on an eclectic musical palette, ranging from Western and non-Western classics to jazz and pop. In a statement on her website, she says she seeks to “capture the…
July 17, 2014
Composers Festival Spotlight: Nicholas Omiccioli
Nicholas Omiccioli Although this year’s Mizzou International Composers Festival is in one sense the most international to date, with resident composers who were born in Australia, Colombia, South Korea and Taiwan in addition to the USA, it’s also the first MICF with two resident composers currently living in Missouri. One is José Martínez, who came to Columbia, MO from Colombia to study for his masters degree, and is representing Mizzou in this year’s festival. (More about him in this space soon.) The other is Nicholas Omiccioli, who will be making the trip to Mizzou from Kansas…
July 16, 2014
Composers Festival Spotlight: Prometheus
Prometheus: An American Vocal Consort will be the guest performers for the 2014 MICF’s “Mizzou New Music” concert on Friday, July 25 at the Missouri Theatre. The 12-member ensemble “aims to inspire, enlighten, heal, and share through intimate performances of blazingly communicative a cappella music from the renaissance to the brightest examples of music from today’s leading composers.” Prometheus is conducted by artistic director R. Paul Crabb, who in his “day job” serves as the University of Missouri’s Director of Choral Activities. Now six years old, the group was founded by Kyle Stegall,…
July 16, 2014
2014 Mizzou International Composers Festival to include free events
In addition to the ticketed concerts at the Missouri Theatre, the 2014 Mizzou International Composers Festival once again will include a number of events that are free of charge. All the presentations by the Festival’s guest, resident and faculty composers are free and open to the public, and will take place in Room 145 of the Fine Arts Building on the MU campus. The resident composers will give presentations on their work from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Monday, July 21; and from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday,…
July 15, 2014
Composers Festival Spotlight: Texu Kim
Texu Kim A native of South Korea, 2014 MICF resident composer Texu Kim currently is pursuing a doctorate in composition with minors in electronic music and music theory at Indiana University, where he also serves as an associate instructor in music theory. Before coming to the USA, Texu earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in composition from Seoul National University. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the same university, and in 1998 was a silver medal winner at the International Chemistry Olympiad in Melbourne, Australia. In March, he was appointed composer-in-residence for the Korean…
July 15, 2014
Composers Festival Spotlight: Ian Dicke
Ian Dicke Resident composer Ian Dicke comes to this year’s Mizzou International Composers Festival from the University of California, Riverside, where he just completed his first year as an assistant professor of digital composition. A native of New Jersey, Ian earned degrees in music from the University of Texas at Austin (D.M.A), University of Michigan (M.M.), and San Francisco Conservatory of Music (B.M.). In addition to teaching and composing, he also helps run two presenting organizations, founding and curating the Outpost Concert Series in Riverside while also continuing to co-direct the annual music festival…
July 14, 2014
Composers Festival Spotlight: Holly Harrison
Holly Harrison Holly Harrison is the first-ever MICF resident composer to come from Australia, where she was was born and raised, and currently is studying for a Doctorate of Creative Arts in Composition at the University of Western Sydney. She previously graduated from the University’s bachelor of music program with the University Medal for outstanding academic achievement. Holly’s music is “driven by the nonsense literature of Lewis Carroll, embracing stylistic juxtapositions, the visceral energy of rock, and whimsical humour.” The first and last of those qualities certainly are reflected in the name of the piece she’s…