Post Archive

April 15, 2014

Mizzou New Music Ensemble to perform works
by Furrer, McKenney, and five student composers
on Sunday, April 27 at Whitmore Recital Hall

The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will present their final on-campus concert of the 2013-14 academic year at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, April 27 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 program will include new works from five Mizzou students, plus music from Mizzou professor W. Thomas McKenney and from Swiss composer Beat Furrer, who will be one of two guest composers at this summer’s Mizzou International Composers Festival. Furrer’s “Aer,” written for clarinet, cello, and piano, is…

April 9, 2014

Mizzou International Composers Festival 2014 launch event
on Tuesday, April 22 at Ragtag Cinema to feature
live music, film, and a chat with composer Nico Muhly

The Mizzou International Composers Festival will launch ticket sales for 2014 with a FREE public event on Tuesday, April 22 at Ragtag Cinema featuring live music, refreshments, a film screening, and a live-by-Skype video chat with Nico Muhly, who will be a guest composer at this year’s festival. Doors will open at 5:00 p.m., and single tickets and festival passes for the 2014 MICF will be on sale at special discounted prices throughout the event. The Mizzou New Music Ensemble (pictured) will perform at 5:45 p.m., followed a screening of the film “Choking Man,”…

April 8, 2014

New oratorio by Mizzou’s Stefan Freund reveals
Missouri’s Civil War history through music

Though the Civil War ended nearly 150 years ago, it remains a continuing subject of fascination for historians and in pop culture, inspiring poems, songs, novels, films and more. Now the war’s divisive effects on the state of Missouri are the subject of a new oratorio by Stefan Freund, an associate professor of composition and music theory at the University of Missouri and co-artistic director of the Mizzou New Music Initiative. The world premiere of “The War Amongst Families and Neighbors: The Civil War in Missouri” will be presented by the University of Missouri School of…

March 25, 2014

Creating Original Music Project concert to present award-winning works
from Missouri student composers on Saturday, April 19

Listen online to the 2014 C.O.M.P. Festival New award-winning works by Missouri student composers will be performed at the 2014 Creating Original Music Project Festival, which will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Saturday, April 19 in the Fine Arts Building on the Mizzou campus. Admission to the concert is free and open to the public. The concert also will be streamed live online at http://music.missouri.edu/concert_streaming.html. For nine years, the annual Creating Original Music Project (C.O.M.P.) competition has championed Missouri’s youngest composers, awarding cash prizes and performance opportunities to elementary, middle school, and high school…

March 20, 2014

MICF resident composers in the news

Here’s the latest news and updates from some of the resident composers at past Mizzou International Composers Festivals: * Jeremy Podgursky, MICF 2010, is one of six winners this year of a Charles Ives scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The $7,500 scholarships are awarded to composition students of great promise, as selected by a committee of academy members including MICF 2010 guest composer Martin Bresnick, Joan Tower, Samuel Adler, Mario Davidovsky, John Harbison, Stephen Hartke, Tania León, and Tobias Picker. The Ives scholarships and the academy’s other awards in music will be presented at…

March 20, 2014

MNMI News included in Missouri Arts Council’s
“Snapshots of the Missouri Arts Blogosphere”

The Mizzou New Music Initiative News blog was one of the sites mentioned in the Missouri Arts Council’s recent “Snapshots of the Missouri Arts Blogosphere.” You can read the article rounding up the best of Missouri’s arts blogs through the end of the month (and perhaps a bit longer) by going to their website at https://www.missouriartscouncil.org/ and clicking on the link in the middle of the page. Thanks to MAC’s Barbara MacRobie for the mention!…

Feb. 24, 2014

Missouri Composers Orchestra Project chooses works
by Clark, Strobel and Williams for performance on Sunday, March 16

For a composer of orchestral music, getting a new work performed by a live orchestra represents not only the culmination of many hours of hard work but also the realization of a dream. Now, three Missouri composers will see their work rewarded and hear their dreams realized, as the Columbia Civic Orchestra (CCO) and the Mizzou New Music Initiative have announced the selection of three orchestral works written by Missouri residents to be performed by the CCO at a concert on Sunday, March 16 in Columbia. The winning compositions were chosen in a statewide competition conducted under the auspices…

Feb. 21, 2014

Mizzou New Music Ensemble to perform works by Fox, Cypret, Henderson, Hoercler and Herd on Sunday, March 9 at Whitmore Recital Hall

The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will present their first concert of 2014 at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, March 9 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 program will include new works from four current Mizzou composition students plus one by the late Frederick Fox, former professor of composition at Indiana University. Described as “a dark sonic fantasy” employing innovative instrumental techniques and creative percussion writing, “Devils Tramping Ground,” was written in 1991 by Fox, a jazz-influenced composer and teacher…