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 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…

July 2, 2010

Spotlight on Moon Young Ha

Here’s another in our series of profiles of the resident composers taking part in this year’s Mizzou New Music Summer Festival: Moon Young Ha (pictured) combines classical instruments, video and electronics to create ethereal contemporary concert music. His work has been presented at festivals and concerts in France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Serbia, Lithuania, Canada and the United States, including the International Computer Music Conference, Bang on a Can Marathon, Vilniaus Veidai Festival, NoiseFloor Festival, KoMA Festival, the Society of Composers Inc. conference and others. Recently,  Ha has collaborated…

June 30, 2010

Spotlight on Christopher Dietz

Here’s another in our series of brief profiles of the eight resident composers who will be part of the inaugural Mizzou New Music Summer Festival: The music of Milwaukee native Christopher Dietz (pictured) has been recognized with honors and awards from the Camargo Foundation, the Banff Centre, Copland House, ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, the Minnesota Orchestra Reading Sessions and Composer Institute and several other institutions. Dietz earned a Ph.D. in Composition and Theory from the University of Michigan, as well as degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Wisconsin.  He currently…

June 29, 2010

Spotlight on Francisco Cortez-Alvarez

The inaugural Mizzou New Music Summer Festival will feature the world premieres of new works from eight resident composers selected to be part of the event from a group of more than 120 applicants from around the world. Here’s the first in a series of brief profiles of those composers: Pianist/composer Francisco Cortes-Alvarez (pictured) was born in Mexico City and received a degree in music composition with honorific mention and the Gabino Barreda Medal from the National School of Music (ENM), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He currently is pursuing  a master’s of music…