July 9, 2010
More news coverage of Mizzou New Music Summer Festival
The Mizzou New Music Summer Festival is the subject of two more stories published yesterday by Columbia’s newspapers. The Missourian‘s Mallory Benedict wrote a story about the Festival highlighting the contribution of Thomas McKenney, MU professor of composition and music theory. McKenney’s new piece “Thirteen Ways of Looking at A Blackbird” (“loosely inspired” by a Wallace Stevens poem) will receive its world premiere at the Festival’s opening concert on Monday, July 12 at the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts. You can read that article online here. Also, the Tribune‘s Aarik Danielsen continues his extensive coverage…
July 9, 2010
Mizzou New Music Initiative on Facebook, Twitter
In addition to this blog, the Festival website, and the main website for the Mizzou New Music Initiative, we’re also on Facebook and Twitter. You’ll find our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/moNEWmusic. If you’re a Facebook member, click on the “Like” button, and you’ll get updates from the page as part of your Facebook news feed. You can follow the Mizzou New Music Summer Festival’s Twitter feed at: http://twitter.com/MizzouNewMusic.
July 9, 2010
Spotlight on Jeremy Podgursky
Here’s another in our series of profiles of the resident composers taking part in this year’s Mizzou New Music Summer Festival: Jeremy Podgursky (pictured) is a composer and performer of acoustic and electro-acoustic concert music who originally is from Louisville, KY. He currently lives in Bloomington, IN, where he has a Jacobs School of Music doctoral fellowship (D.M.) at Indiana University. Podgursky has studied acoustic composition with Don Freund, Steve Rouse and Marc Satterwhite, and electronic music with John Gibson and Alicyn Warren. After completing his masters degree, Podgursky taught music theory, aural skills and private…
July 9, 2010
Spotlight on Derek Bermel
The Mizzou New Music Summer Festival is privileged to have Derek Bermel (pictured) as one of the guest composers and instructors working with our eight resident composers this year. Described by the Toronto Star as an “eclectic with wide open ears” and by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as “one of America’s finest young composers”, Bermel has been widely hailed for his creativity, theatricality, and virtuosity. His works draw from a rich variety of musical genres, including classical, jazz, pop, rock, blues, folk, and gospel. From 2006 to 2009 Bermel was Music Alive Composer-in-Residence with the American…
July 8, 2010
If you’re coming to Columbia…
If you’re coming to Columbia to attend the Mizzou New Music Summer Festival, you may find some of these links useful: Visitors information: Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau Columbia Regional Airport Hotels in Columbia “Virtual tour” of Columbia I Heart Columbia Vox Magazine’s guide to Columbia restaurants Mid-Missouri Dining Guide Media: Columbia Tribune Columbia Missourian Columbia area radio stations KOMU-TV (NBC) KMIZ-TV (ABC) KRCG-TV (CBS) National Weather Service forecast for Boone…
July 8, 2010
Spotlight on Kirk Trevor
The Mizzou New Music Summer Festival is fortunate to have Maestro Kirk Trevor as one of our guest artists in 2010. Trevor (pictured) will conduct the Festival’s “Composers That Rock” concert featuring pianist Lisa Moore on Thursday, July 15, but audiences in Columbia have known him since the year 2000 as the conductor and music director of the Missouri Symphony. He also was music director of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra from 1985 to 2003, and continues as conductor and music director of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, a post he’s held…
July 6, 2010
Spotlight on Paul Dooley
Here’s another in our series of profiles of the resident composers at the Mizzou New Music Summer Festival: Paul M. Dooley (pictured) is a composer, pianist, and percussionist currently working for his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Michigan, where he is the Graduate Student Instructor in Electronic Music. He was born and raised in Santa Rosa, CA and began composing music at age 12. His work today is inspired by dance, nature and travel, and has earned praise from famed composer Steve Reich, who said Dooley has “clearly learned how to…
July 6, 2010
Spotlight on Amy Beth Kirsten
Here’s another in our series of profiles of the resident composers taking part in this year’s Mizzou New Music Summer Festival: Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, Amy Beth Kirsten grew up in Kansas City and Chicago, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Vocal Jazz Studies from Benedictine University and a master’s degree in Composition from Chicago College of Performing Arts. She currently lives and works in New Haven, CT, and graduated from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in May 2010 with a doctorate in music composition. Kirsten was honored…