July 9, 2021
Composers Festival spotlight: Shuying Li
Resident composer Shuying Li comes to the 2021 Mizzou International Composers Festival from Spokane, WA, where since 2020 she has served as assistant professor of composition and music theory at Gonzaga University. Yet her musical journey actually began years ago and much further away, at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in her native China. In her sophomore year there, Shuying (pictured) won a scholarship to continue her undergraduate studies at The Hartt School in Connecticut. She went on to earn doctoral and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan, She continues to be a research…
July 8, 2021
Composers Festival spotlight: Paul Mortilla
When Paul Mortilla began his studies at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music in 2014, he already had more experience and training as a composer than most undergraduates. That’s because Mortilla, a Florida native who is one of nine resident composers for the 2021 Mizzou International Composers Festival, actually began writing original music on his own at the precocious age of 11, drawing on a eclectic variety of influences ranging from church hymns to electronic dance music. A couple of years later, he began studying formally with faculty members from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. Mortilla…
July 7, 2021
Composers Festival spotlight: Yu Kuwabara
The music of composer Yu Kuwabara explores connections between the personal and the traditional, the past and the present, and Japan and the rest of the world. One of the nine resident composers for the 2021 Mizzou International Composers Festival, Kuwabara (pictured) is from Tokyo, and completed her master’s degree at Tokyo University of the Arts (TUA). She now is a lecturer at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music, and also teaches composition courses to children for the Yamaha Music Foundation. For several years, she has been researching and learning traditional Japanese music and arts. Toward that end,…
July 6, 2021
Composers Festival spotlight: Ana Paola Santillán Alcocer
Resident composer Ana Paola Santillán Alcocer comes to the 2021 Mizzou International Composers Festival from Mexico City, Mexico. She earned her doctoral degree in composition from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where she was composer-in-residence for the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble and also worked with electronic media at the McGill Digital Composition Studios. Previously, she earned her Master of Music degree from Rice University and received her LTCL Licentiate in music composition from Trinity College London. Alcocer (pictured) enjoys exploring multimedia and visual arts elements, adopting abstract and/or narrative components in order to combine…
April 29, 2021
Springfield Symphony to perform Stefan Freund’s “Ragfare” in concerts on Saturday, May 8
The Springfield Symphony will perform “Ragfare,” a work written by University of Missouri professor of composition Stefan Freund, in a pair of concerts on Saturday, May 8 at the Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts in Springfield, MO. Freund (pictured), who’s also a cellist, conductor, and the artistic director of the Mizzou New Music Initiative, originally composed “Ragfare” for the Columbia Civic Orchestra to play at the reopening in 2008 of the renovated Missouri Theatre in Columbia. Inspired for the occasion by the music of Scott Joplin, Freund says that he “wanted to write a…
Jan. 30, 2020
Aaron Perrine to visit Mizzou for residency, concert
Composer Aaron Perrine is coming to the University of Missouri in February for a residency and concert featuring the premiere of a new commissioned work he wrote for the Mizzou Wind Ensemble. Perrine (pictured) will arrive in Columbia on Thursday, February 13. While he’s on campus, he’ll give lessons to composition students; make a presentation about his music; and coach the Wind Ensemble and the Symphonic Band, which will perform two of his older works at a concert later in the month. His visit will conclude with a performance by the Wind Ensemble and All-Juniors Honor Band at…
Sep. 25, 2019
Amy Williams coming to Mizzou in October for residency and concert
Composer and pianist Amy Williams is coming to Mizzou next month for a residency and concert. Williams, who is an associate professor teaching composition and music theory at the University of Pittsburgh, will be on campus in Columbia on Wednesday, October 9 and Thursday, October 10. While she’s at Mizzou, Williams (pictured) will make a presentation to composition students, give private lessons, and perform in a free concert featuring excerpts from John Cage’s “Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano” at 3:00 p.m. Thursday at Whitmore Recital Hall. The daughter of two professional musicians, Williams…
July 21, 2019
Composers Festival spotlight: Donnacha Dennehy
Donnacha Dennehy returns to the Mizzou International Composers Festival in 2019 as a distinguished guest composer, having previously served in the same capacity in 2012, and thereby making MICF history by becoming the only composer to play that role twice. Considered one of Ireland’s top living composers, Dennehy (pictured) is a founder of the new music group Crash Ensemble and an associate professor of music at Princeton University. His music has been featured at major festivals and venues around the world, including the Edinburgh International Festival; Carnegie Hall; the Tanglewood Festival; the Kennedy Center; The Barbican, Wigmore…