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…

Dec. 17, 2013

Mizzou International Composers Festival announces resident composers for 2014

With resident composers originally from Australia, Colombia, South Korea, Taiwan, and across the USA, the 2014 Mizzou International Composers Festival will bring a world of music to mid-Missouri next year. Scheduled for Monday, July 21 through Saturday, July 26 in Columbia, the fifth annual MICF will present world premieres of new works from eight resident composers who were announced today by the University of Missouri School of Music and the Mizzou New Music Initiative. Listed with their current places of residence, they are: * Ian Dicke, Riverside, CA * Holly Harrison, Sydney, Australia…

Nov. 25, 2013

Mizzou New Music Ensemble to perform five new works by student composers on Monday, December 2 at Whitmore Recital Hall

The Mizzou New Music Ensemble’s second concert of the 2013-14 season will take place at 7:30 p.m., Monday, December 2 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 a new work from 2014 Sinquefield Composition Prize winner José Guillermo Martínez Rubiano, plus encore performances of four compositions written by Mizzou students for the recent collaboration between the Mizzou New Music Initiative and the Stephens College dance department. Martinez’ “Canciones de la Ausencia” (“Songs of Absence”)…

Oct. 21, 2013

Ninth annual Creating Original Music Project (C.O.M.P.) competition
offers prizes, recognition for Missouri student composers

2013 C.O.M.P. winner HyunJun Yoo gets his award from Jeanne SInquefield of the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation Whether it ends up being played on a synthesizer, a Stratocaster or by a symphony orchestra, every piece of music begins with an idea from a composer – and every composer needs a place to begin. Helping young composers find that place is the purpose of the Mizzou New Music Initiative’s Creating Original Music Project (C.O.M.P.), an annual statewide competition now in its ninth year. Sponsored by the University of Missouri School of Music and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation, C.O.M.P. recognizes Missouri…

Oct. 17, 2013

Mizzou composers, Stephens College choreographers
team up for performances November 15-17

Next month, student choreographers and dancers at Stephens College will perform a recital of new works set to original music written especially for them by student composers from Mizzou. The six Mizzou composers taking part in the project are Benedetto Colagiovanni, Shaun Gladney, Trey Makler, Haley Myers, Justin Pounds, and David Witter. To select their collaborators, the composers and choreographers got together this past summer for what amounted to a creative speed-dating session. After Mizzou’s William Lackey and Stephens’ Carol Estey set the scene, each composer spent a few minutes talking with each choreographer, and then…

Oct. 14, 2013

José Guillermo Martínez Rubiano wins 2014 Sinquefield Composition Prize

The University of Missouri School of Music and the Mizzou New Music Initiative have awarded the 2014 Sinquefield Composition Prize to José Guillermo Martínez Rubiano. Martínez (pictured), a composer and percussionist currently studying for a master’s degree in composition at Mizzou, submitted his orchestral work “Mutaciones I” to the competition and was selected for the prize by a panel of independent judges. The adjudicators for the 2014 competition were: * Warren Gooch, professor of music, theory and composition at Truman State University; * Forrest Pierce, associate professor of composition at the University of Kansas; and *…

Oct. 1, 2013

St. Louis Symphony plays work by 2012 MICF resident composer Patrick Harlin

Patrick Harlin takes a bow on stage at Powell Hall. (Photo courtesy of Adam Crane, St. Louis Symphony) This past weekend, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra performed Patrick Harlin‘s work “Rapture” as a part of their concerts on Friday, September 27 and Saturday, September 28 at Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis. Harlin, who currently is working on a DMA at the University of Michigan, was a resident composer at the 2012 Mizzou International Composers Festival. His work was brought to the attention of the SLSO and music director David Robertson though a new collaborative effort…