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…
Jan. 24, 2014
Alarm Will Sound to perform free concert on Friday, February 7 at Missouri Theatre
Alarm Will Sound, the acclaimed chamber orchestra dedicated to contemporary classical music, is returning to Columbia to perform a concert at 7:30 p.m., Friday, February 7 at the Missouri Theatre. The group (pictured) has served since 2010 as the resident ensemble for the Mizzou International Composers Festival, which takes place each year in July, but this will be their first performance here during the regular academic year. The February 7 concert is presented by the Mizzou New Music Initiative and the University of Missouri School of Music, and is free and open to the…
Jan. 13, 2014
St. Louis Symphony performs Stephanie Berg’s “Ravish and Mayhem”
Mizzou alumna Stephanie Berg‘s composition “Ravish and Mayhem” was performed by the St. Louis Symphony on January 10 and 11 at Powell Hall in St. Louis to standing ovations from the audiences and rave reviews from local critics. Writing for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, classical music critic Sarah Bryan Miller found “Ravish and Mayhem” to be “a really delightful work…It’s a fun, creative piece, and (guest conductor Andrey) Boreyko and the orchestra rendered it with accuracy and elan.” Miller also called Berg “a promising new compositional voice,” concluding, “We can trust that this won’t be the last…