Oct. 15, 2018

Tenth annual Mizzou International Composers Festival set for July 22-27, 2019; applications for resident composers now open

The Mizzou New Music Initiative is accepting applications for resident composers to take part in the tenth annual Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF), which will be held Monday, July 22 through Saturday, July 27, 2019 on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia. In celebration of the festival’s tenth year, Donnacha Dennehy and Amy Beth Kirsten (pictured) will return to the MICF to serve as the two distinguished guest composers for 2019, teaching and consulting with the resident composers and ensemble. Dennehy was a guest composer at the MICF in 2012, while Kirsten was…

Aug. 3, 2018

MICF alumni win commissions from Barlow Endowment, Chamber Music America

Clockwise from top left: Cuong, Peck, Stark, McLosky As this year’s Mizzou International Composers Festival was ending, news broke that several MICF alumni have won commissions in annual competitions sponsored by the Barlow Endowment and by Chamber Music America. This year’s winners of general commissions from the Barlow Endowment include past MICF resident composers Viet Cuong (MICF 2018), Charles Peck (MICF 2017), and Christopher Stark (MICF 2015). In addition, Lansing McLoskey, who visited the Mizzou campus as a guest composer in 2015, also won a Barlow commission for 2018. The Barlow Endowment for Music…

Nov. 23, 2011

Kirsten, Podgursky win commissions from Harvard’s Fromm Foundation

Congratulations to Amy Beth Kirsten and Jeremy Podgursky, both resident composers at the inaugural Mizzou New Music Summer Festival in 2010, for winning $10,000 commissions this year from Harvard University’s Fromm Music Foundation. The Fromm Music Foundation has been located at Harvard since 1972, and has commissioned more than 300 new compositions and their performances, as well as sponsoring hundreds of new music concerts and concert series. Kirsten and Podgursky are among 12 winners of commissions this year.

Aug. 25, 2011

Mizzou New Music Summer Festival resident composers earn new honors

Several of the Mizzou New Music Summer Festival’s resident composers recently have received additional honors for their work. Clint Needham (pictured), who was one of the resident composers for the 2011 Mizzou New Music Summer Festival, was awarded the prestigious Barlow Prize for 2011. A total of 170 composers from around the world applied for this award, which carries a $12,000 commission to write a new work for woodwind quintet. In addition, three resident composers were recognized among the 15 members of the last round of competition for the new music ensemble eighth blackbird‘s…

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…