Oct. 1, 2018

Niko Schroeder wins 2019 Sinquefield Composition Prize

The University of Missouri School of Music and the Mizzou New Music Initiative have awarded the 2019 Sinquefield Composition Prize to Niko Schroeder. Schroeder (pictured) is in his first year of study for a master’s degree in composition at Mizzou. He submitted “genealogy I,” a work written for piano, violin, and cello, to the competition and was selected for the prize by a panel of independent judges. The adjudicators for the 2019 competition were Emily Koh, assistant professor of composition at the University of Georgia; Sky Macklay, assistant professor of music at Valparaiso University; and David Werfelmann, assistant professor…

Sep. 21, 2018

Dustin Dunn wins UMSL Young Composers Competition

Dustin Dunn’s composition “In the Shadow of Shepherd Mountain” has been selected as the winner of the 2018 UMSL Young Composers Competition (Wind Ensemble, division 2). The work will be premiered by the UMSL Wind Ensemble as part of a concert at 7:30 p.m.  Wednesday, October 17 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the campus of the University of Missouri – St. Louis. Dunn (pictured), a senior from Annapolis, Missouri, is attending Mizzou on a full Sinquefield Scholarship from the Mizzou New Music Initiative. He previously has received awards for his music from the Music Teachers National…

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…

Aug. 22, 2017

St. Louis Symphony musicians to read works by Mizzou composers

Three student composers from the University of Missouri School of Music will get a chance this academic year to have their orchestral works read, critiqued, and then played again by musicians from the St. Louis Symphony. Under the auspices of the Mizzou New Music Initiative, student composers Dustin Dunn, Aaron Mencher, and Douglas Osmun (pictured) are writing new works for a 40-piece chamber orchestra, which will be read and played by members of the Symphony in a private session this November in St. Louis. The composers then will get a chance to revise their works…

April 18, 2017

Mizzou New Music Ensemble to debut “Eclipse Symphony” with performances in Columbia and St. Louis

The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will commemorate the upcoming solar eclipse of August 2017 with performances in Columbia and St. Louis of the “Eclipse Symphony,” a new collaborative, multi-part work by four Mizzou student composers. The work will be previewed in a concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 29 at the Bond Life Sciences Center on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia, with the official premiere set for 7:00 p.m. Friday, May 5 at the St. Louis Science Center’s James S. McDonnell Planetarium. General admission to the concert in Columbia is $5 for the public, free for…

Jan. 25, 2017

Dustin Dunn wins second place in MTNA’s national composition competition

Mizzou student Dustin Dunn has placed second in the “Young Artist” category of this year’s Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) national composition competition. Dunn (pictured), a junior working on a bachelor’s degree in music composition, was recognized for “Of Stained Glass and Hymnody,” which was premiered in March 2016 by the Mizzou New Music Ensemble. His work became eligible for a national award after winning first place in the Missouri statewide and West Central Division portions of the competition. As the second place winner, Dunn will receive a cash prize. A native of Annapolis, MO and graduate of…

Dec. 7, 2016

Dustin Dunn advances in MTNA national composition competition

Mizzou student Dustin Dunn has won the West Central Division in the “Young Artist” category of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) composition competition. Dunn (pictured), a junior working on a bachelor’s degree in music composition, was recognized for “Of Stained Glass and Hymnody,” which was premiered in March 2016 by the Mizzou New Music Ensemble. His award in the West Central Division is the latest step in a process that began in October, when he was named winner of the Missouri state division of this year’s MTNA competition. Dunn’s work now advances to the…

Oct. 28, 2016

Dustin Dunn wins MTNA’s 2016 statewide composition competition

University of Missouri composition student Dustin Dunn 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. Dunn, a junior working on a bachelor’s degree in music composition at Mizzou, was recognized for “Of Stained Glass and Hymnody,” which was premiered in March 2016 by the Mizzou New Music Ensemble. He’s the third Mizzou student in a row to win the statewide MTNA award, following Ben Colagiovanni last year and Trey Makler in 2014. “Of Stained Glass and Hymnody” now will be entered…