July 6, 2022

MICF Update: Laraaji replaces William Basinski — joins Katina Bitsicas and Onishi-Beis Duo for July 29 concert

Due to health-related issues, William Basinski will not perform at the July 29th Dismal Niche / Mizzou Interational Composers Festival concert at Studio 4 at McKee Gymnasium. Celestial-ambient music pioneer Laraaji will now headline the 7:30 pm concert, which will also feature new media artist and Mizzou Assistant Professor Katina Bitsicas, and the Onishi-Beis Duo. The general admission concert is free to the public. Laraaji Laraaji, one of modern experimental music’s most distinctive, prolific and charismatic artists, has been creating radiant, luminous long-form compositions for electronically treated zither, kalimba, piano and…

May 30, 2022

Mizzou New Music Ensemble and composition graduates reflect on positive MNMI experiences

Seven members of the Mizzou New Music Ensemble (NME) and five composition majors received degrees or completed their coursework at the Mizzou School of Music in May 2022. 2021-22 Mizzou New Music Ensemble members, with Director Yoshiaki Onishi (third from front) and Dr. Stefan Freund, Artistic Director of MNMI (fifth from front) NME members receiving Master of Music degrees included: Daniel Fitzpatrick, pianist – composition; Stephen Landy – percussion; Andy Lewis – cello; Jordan Nielsen – percussion; Eve Werger – piano; and Andrew Wiele – clarinet. Johanny Veiga Barbosa, violinist, completed her coursework for a…

April 7, 2021

[Switch~ Ensemble] virtual residency at Mizzou will include presentations plus a free online concert on Sunday, May 2

The new music group [Switch~ Ensemble] will do a “virtual residency” this spring for the Mizzou New Music Initiative, culminating in a online concert featuring works by Mizzou student composers. The concert at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 2 will include new works by Mizzou’s Santiago Beis, Luis Bezerra, and Oswald Huynh, as well as music by Chris Chandler and Zachary James Watkins. The performance will be available to view on the University of Missouri School of Music’s YouTube channel and on the Mizzou New Music Facebook page. The [Switch~ Ensemble] residency also will include a presentation…

March 25, 2021

Sheldon commissions to be available for online viewing

New works written on commission by Mizzou student composers for premiere at the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis soon will be available for everyone to view via The Sheldon’s YouTube channel. The first three pieces that will go online at 8:00 p.m. Thursday, March 25 are “The Grace of Falling” by Santiago Beis, “Aubade with Ashen Clouds, Scarlet Sky“ by Oswald Huynh, and “Poem of the Phantom Queen” by Daniel Fitzpatrick. All three works were written as the result of a partnership between The Sheldon (pictured) and the Mizzou New Music Initiative that since 2012 has commissioned new…

Oct. 12, 2020

Santiago Beis wins 2021 Sinquefield Composition Prize

The University of Missouri School of Music and the Mizzou New Music Initiative have awarded the 2021 Sinquefield Composition Prize to Santiago Beis. Beis is a first-year graduate student working toward a master’s degree in composition at Mizzou. He submitted “La sed y el Agua” (“Thirst and Water”), a work for piano and string orchestra, to the competition and was selected for the prize by a panel of independent judges. The adjudicators for the 2021 competition were Yigit Kolat, composer and lecturer at the University of Washington; Wendy Richman, violist with the International Contemporary Ensemble and The Rhythm Method; and…