July 16, 2013
Composers Festival Spotlight: Eric Guinivan
Eric Guinivan Today, we train our virtual spotlight on Eric Guinivan, a percussionist and composer who’s another of the eight resident composers at the 2013 Mizzou International Composers Festival. A native of Wilmington, Delaware, Guinivan earned bachelor’s degrees in composition and percussion performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He then relocated to Los Angeles, receiving a master’s degree and, in 2011, a D.M.A. in composition from the University Of Southern California Thornton School Of Music. Most recently, he has relocated across the country once again, as in June of this year…
July 15, 2013
Composers Festival Spotlight: Augusta Read Thomas
Augusta Read Thomas It is a pleasure for everyone associated with the Mizzou New Music Intiative to welcome Augusta Read Thomas as one of the guest composers for the 2013 Mizzou International Composers Festival. Thomas, 49, is University Professor of composition at the University of Chicago, and is only the 16th person ever to hold the title of University Professor. She was composer-in-residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from May 1997 through June 2006, a residency that culminated in the premiere of Astral Canticle, one of two finalists for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Music. One…
July 15, 2013
Composers Festival Spotlight: Greg Simon
Greg SimonWe start the week with a look at another of the resident composers for the 2013 Mizzou International Composers Festival. Greg Simon holds a B.A. from the University of Puget Sound and an M.M. from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and currently is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Michigan. Before arriving in Michigan, he served on the faculty at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. Simon has studied composition with Kristin Kuster, Carter Pann, Daniel Kellogg, and Robert Hutchinson; and with Kevin Puts and Robert Aldridge at the Brevard Music Institute, where he…
July 15, 2013
Follow the MICF on Facebook and Twitter
As the 2013 Mizzou International Composers Festival gets closer, you can get the latest news right up to the minute by following the Mizzou New Music Initiative on Facebook and Twitter. The Missouri New Music Facebook page will have behind-the-scenes photos, links to media coverage of the Festival, and much more. To get updates from the page in your Facebook news feed, go to http://www.facebook.com/moNEWmusic and click the “Like” button on the right-hand side near the top. Meanwhile, we’ll also be posting frequent updates, schedule information, and relevant links to the Mizzou New Music Twitter account. You…
July 12, 2013
Composers Festival Spotlight: Alarm Will Sound
Continuing with our series of posts focusing on various participants in the 2013 Mizzou International Composers Festival, today we catch up with the latest from Alarm Will Sound. As the resident ensemble for the Festival since it began in 2010, AWS plays a crucial role in bringing to life the new works created by the resident composers. Not many groups would be willing or able to take on the challenge of premiering eight new pieces in one night with limited rehearsal time, but Alarm Will Sound has accomplished the task each year of the MICF…
July 11, 2013
Composers Festival Spotlight: David Witter
David Witter Today, let’s get acquainted with David Witter, another of the eight resident composers at this year’s Mizzou International Composers Festival. A native of Holt’s Summit, MO (near Jefferson City) and current resident of Columbia, Witter has studied composition with W. Thomas McKenney and Stefan Freund, earning his bachelor’s degree in music from Mizzou in 2010 and an M.M. degree in 2012. While working this past academic year toward his K-12 teaching certification, he was awarded the 2013 Sinquefield Composition Prize, resulting in a new commission to write a work for the University Philharmonic.
July 11, 2013
MICF on TV
This week, a TV commercial promoting the 2013 Mizzou International Composers Festival began airing in Columbia, Jefferson City, St. Louis and Kansas City. The commercial is part of an extensive campaign that also includes ads in daily newspapers and on radio in central Missouri; in Missouri Life, Inside Columbia and the St. Louis Business Journal; and online, as well as posters, social media, a direct mailing of the Festival brochure to music lovers across the state, and more. Astute listeners may recognize the music in the :30 TV spot as an excerpt from Stephanie Berg’s “Ravish and Mayhem,” written when…
July 10, 2013
Composers Festival Spotlight: Elizabeth A. Kelly
Elizabeth Kelly Today, we begin a series of posts featuring the composers who will be taking part in the 2013 Mizzou International Composers Festival. Our first subject is Elizabeth A. Kelly, one of this year’s eight resident composers, and someone who shares with MU’s Stefan Freund and many of the members of the Festival’s resident ensemble Alarm Will Sound a connection to the Eastman School of Music. Born in New York and raised in the Los Angeles suburb of Los Altos Hills, Kelly earned her Ph.D. in composition from Eastman with the support of a Jacob Javits…