July 16, 2018
Robert Morris to serve as guest composer for 2018 Mizzou International Composers Festival; Chen Yi withdraws for medical reasons
Composer Chen Yi, who had been scheduled to be one of the distinguished guest composers later this month at the 2018 Mizzou International Composers Festival, has withdrawn from the festival due to medical reasons. In place of Chen, Robert Morris, composer and professor at the Eastman School of Music, has agreed to serve as a guest composer for the 2018 MICF. “We regret that Chen Yi is unable to participate in this year’s festival. She recently had surgery and though a full recovery is expected, it’s taking longer than originally anticipated,” said Stefan Freund, professor of…
July 12, 2018
Composers Festival spotlight: Viet Cuong
Resident composer Viet Cuong comes to the 2018 Mizzou International Composers Festival from Philadelphia, where he currently is studying in the Curtis Institute of Music‘s Artist Diploma program and finishing his PhD at Princeton University. Born in West Hills, CA and raised in Marietta, GA (near Atlanta), Cuong also holds an MFA from Princeton. He earned his bachelor and master of music degrees from the Peabody Institute at The Johns Hopkins University, where he won the Peabody Alumni Award for being valedictorian and the Gustav Klemm Award for excellence in composition. The piece Cuong has…
July 11, 2018
Composers Festival spotlight: Christine Burke
Like many contemporary composers, Christine Burke does more than write music. Burke, who’s one of the seven resident composers for the 2018 Mizzou International Composers Festival, also is a clarinetist and bandleader of the Christine Burke Ensemble, giving her a ready outlet for new musical ideas. Burke is a fellow Midwesterner, coming to the MICF from Iowa City, IA, where she earned her master’s degree from the University of Iowa and still resides. Previously, the Indiana native in 2014 got her bachelor of music degree in clarinet performance from Duquesne University. While in Pittsburgh, she was actively…
July 11, 2018
Erin Hoerchler wins ASCAP Foundation scholarship
Mizzou alum Erin Marie Hoerchler is the winner of the 2018 ASCAP Foundation Frederick Loewe Scholarship. Hoerchler (pictured), who earned her bachelor of music degree in composition from Mizzou in 2017, is a composer, vocalist, and musical director with a particular interest in musical theater. She will begin work in September on a master of fine arts degree from New York University’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program. The ASCAP Foundation Frederick Loewe Scholarship is presented annually to a student of musical theater composition at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
July 10, 2018
Composers Festival spotlight: Oren Boneh
Originally from Denver, CO, resident composer Oren Boneh comes to the 2018 Mizzou International Composers Festival via California, where he currently is working on a PhD in composition at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Denver, and subsequently has studied at McGill University in Montreal, the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, and, with support from a Fulbright fellowship, in Germany at the Dresden Music Cognition Lab. For the MICF, Boneh has written a new work for Alarm Will Sound called “Unseen Beneath the Ice,” which will…
April 11, 2018
Mizzou New Music Initiative awards postdoctoral fellowship to Yoshiaki Onishi
The Mizzou New Music Initiative (MNMI) and the University of Missouri School of Music have awarded a postdoctoral fellowship to composer Yoshiaki “Yoshi” Onishi. Starting with the Fall 2018 semester and continuing for two years, Onishi will teach private composition lessons, composition seminar, and freshman ear training to Mizzou students; serve as assistant conductor for the Mizzou New Music Ensemble; and assist with various MNMI programs. He also will begin a major research project to be completed during the two years of his fellowship. Onishi (pictured) made news last week when he was awarded a 2018…
April 6, 2018
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra musicians to perform three new works by Mizzou composers on Sunday, April 29 at Powell Hall
Dustin Dunn, Aaron Mencher and Douglas Osmun Members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, led by the SLSO’s resident conductor Gemma New, will perform three new works by student composers from the University of Missouri School of Music at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 29 at Powell Hall in St. Louis. Admission to the performance is free and open to the public, but those wishing to attend are requested to RSVP via the SLSO’s website at https://www.slso.org/en/com/community_concerts/community-events/mizzou-composers/. The event is the culmination of a year-long collaboration between the SLSO and the Mizzou New Music Initiative, with funding from…
April 2, 2018
Composer Jonathan Newman to visit Mizzou for residency
Composer Jonathan Newman is coming to Columbia this month for a residency at the School of Music. Newman (pictured), who is director of composition and coordinator of new music at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA, will visit Mizzou from Wednesday, April 25 through Friday, April 27. While he’s on campus, his activities will include coaching the Mizzou New Music Ensemble in rehearsal; giving composition lessons and a presentation on his works; and attending the concert by the Mizzou Wind Ensemble on Friday at the Missouri Theatre. Wind and educational ensembles around the world frequently perform Newman’s…