Dec. 14, 2015
Colagiovanni wins West Central Division of MTNA composition competition
Mizzou’s Ben Colagiovanni has advanced to the next level in this year’s Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) composition competition, winning the “Young Artist” award in the West Central Division. Colagiovanni, a senior pursuing a bachelor’s degree in music composition, previously was recognized as a state winner for “Forest Park Rhapsody.” Now, as a division winner, his work automatically advances to the national competition, the results of which will be announced by the end of January. The national MTNA composition competition offers a first place prize of $3,000, plus a performance at the Winners Concert during the…
Nov. 20, 2015
Dustin Dunn featured in Mizzou alumni magazine
Composition major Dustin Dunn is featured in the latest issue of Mizzou magazine, which was mailed to alumni and other subscribers earlier this week. Dunn, a sophomore from Annapolis, Missouri, is attending Mizzou on a full Sinquefield Scholarship from the Mizzou New Music Initiative. “My future changed with a letter that said, ‘Congratulations! You have a full-tuition scholarship to the University of Missouri for the next four years,” he told reporter Dale Smith. “That’s when I knew that I was going to get an undergraduate experience that no one in my family had ever gotten before.” You…
Nov. 16, 2015
Creating Original Music Project (COMP) to recognize original music
from Missouri student composers with awards, cash
2015 COMP award winnersFor ten years, the Mizzou New Music Initiative’s Creating Original Music Project (COMP) has encouraged the musical dreams and aspirations of hundreds of K-12 students across Missouri, offering positive recognition and prizes, performance and educational opportunities, and more. Some past winners of the annual statewide competition sponsored by the University of Missouri School of Music and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation have even gone on to earn to full college scholarships or launch professional careers in music. Now, heading into its second decade, COMP once again is looking for new, original music from student composers and songwriters…
Nov. 9, 2015
Erin Gee to serve as distinguished guest composer
for 2016 Mizzou International Composers Festival
The Mizzou New Music Initiative announced today that Erin Gee will be a distinguished guest composer at the 2016 Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF), scheduled for Monday, July 25 through Saturday, July 30 on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia. Currently an assistant professor of music at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Gee (pictured) is known for her series of compositions entitled “Mouthpieces,” which “use non-traditional vocal techniques, devoid of semantic language, to construct intricate and subtle patterns of a diverse array of vocal sounds.” Her works are taught in the composition and musicology…
Nov. 4, 2015
Ben Colagiovanni wins statewide composition competition
University of Missouri composition student Ben Colagiovanni has won this year’s award in the “Young Artist” category of the Missouri state division of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) composition competition. Colagiovanni, a senior pursuing a bachelor’s degree in music composition at Mizzou, was recognized for “Forest Park Rhapsody.” The work originally was one of four commissioned in 2014 by the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation for the Mizzou New Music Ensemble to perform at an event for members of Forest Park Forever’s Leffingwell Society. “Forest Park Rhapsody” now will be entered in the national MTNA composition competition,…
Nov. 4, 2015
Erin Höerchler featured in Columbia Daily Tribune
Mizzou composition major Erin Höerchler was the subject of a feature article last week in the Columbia Daily Tribune. Reported by the Daily Tribune‘s Amy Wilder, the profile is part of the paper’s weekly “Niche” series highlighting artists in the Columbia area. Höerchler (pictured), a junior who’s originally from Jefferson City, used the opportunity to talk briefly about her compositional process, telling Wilder, “When I write, it’s like each part is a character, and there’s drama in between those characters…I’m not just writing sounds and music. It’s a story. There’s a whole aesthetic and a time period…
Oct. 27, 2015
Missouri Composers Orchestra Project seeks
orchestral, choral works for performance in March
For the past four years, the Missouri Composers Orchestra Project (MOCOP) has been providing performance opportunities for new orchestral music written by Missouri residents. For its fifth year, MOCOP is expanding, both musically and geographically. The 2016 competition will include both choral and orchestral works in five categories, three for Missouri composers and two added specifically for composers currently studying at schools in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). MOCOP is a collaborative effort involving the Mizzou New Music Initiative, Columbia Civic Orchestra (pictured), and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. Each year, recently composed works are selected through a…
Oct. 23, 2015
University Singers to premiere new work by Chen Yi
This weekend, the Mizzou New Music Initiative and the University of Missouri School of Music will have the honor of welcoming Chen Yi for a brief residency on the MU campus and a world premiere. Chen (pictured) currently is a distinguished professor of composition at the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. A finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition “Si Ji” (“Four Seasons”), she was born and raised in Guangzhou, China and is known as a prolific composer who blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural…