Sep. 15, 2016
Missouri Composers Project (MOCOP) seeks new orchestral, choral works for performance in March 2017
Columbia Civic Orchestra For composers of orchestral or choral music, completing a new work often is followed immediately by another formidable challenge: finding an orchestra or choir to perform it. Recognizing this need, the Missouri Composers Project (MOCOP) in 2017 once again is offering performance opportunities for new, large-ensemble music written by Missouri residents. (Founded in 2012 as the Missouri Composers Orchestra Project, MOCOP has been renamed for its sixth year to reflect the inclusion of choral music as well as orchestral works.) MOCOP is a collaborative effort involving the Mizzou New Music Initiative, the Columbia Civic…
Aug. 1, 2016
A look back at the 2016 Mizzou International Composers Festival…
[View the story “2016 Mizzou International Composers Festival” on Storify]…
March 14, 2016
Creating Original Music Project to present award-winning works by Missouri student composers in concert on Saturday, April 16 in Columbia
Audio from the 2016 COMP Festival will stream live online on Saturday, April 16 From classical, jazz, and blues to folk, rock, and hip-hop, Missouri has a rich and varied musical history. The Show-Me State over the years has produced a long list of musical luminaries, from Scott Joplin, Virgil Thomson, and Burt Bacharach to Clark Terry, Chuck Berry, and Sheryl Crow, but what does the future hold? The answer could be in Columbia, where Mizzou’s Creating Original Music Project (COMP) will present performances of award-winning original works by young Missouri composers in grades K-12 at the 11th…
Feb. 1, 2016
$2 million gift provides continued support for new music at Mizzou
In a news conference on Monday, February 1, the University of Missouri announced that Dr. Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield have given a gift of more than $2 million over three years to support the Mizzou New Music Initiative (MNMI). The MNMI brings together a diverse array of programs which position the MU School of Music as a leading national and international center in the areas of composition and new music. This latest gift will support the MNMI through 2019. The Sinquefields are long-time supporters of music and the arts, specifically music composition. The Sinquefields’…
Nov. 16, 2015
Creating Original Music Project (COMP) to recognize original music
from Missouri student composers with awards, cash
2015 COMP award winnersFor ten years, the Mizzou New Music Initiative’s Creating Original Music Project (COMP) has encouraged the musical dreams and aspirations of hundreds of K-12 students across Missouri, offering positive recognition and prizes, performance and educational opportunities, and more. Some past winners of the annual statewide competition sponsored by the University of Missouri School of Music and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation have even gone on to earn to full college scholarships or launch professional careers in music. Now, heading into its second decade, COMP once again is looking for new, original music from student composers and songwriters…
Oct. 27, 2015
Missouri Composers Orchestra Project seeks
orchestral, choral works for performance in March
For the past four years, the Missouri Composers Orchestra Project (MOCOP) has been providing performance opportunities for new orchestral music written by Missouri residents. For its fifth year, MOCOP is expanding, both musically and geographically. The 2016 competition will include both choral and orchestral works in five categories, three for Missouri composers and two added specifically for composers currently studying at schools in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). MOCOP is a collaborative effort involving the Mizzou New Music Initiative, Columbia Civic Orchestra (pictured), and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. Each year, recently composed works are selected through a…
Oct. 23, 2015
University Singers to premiere new work by Chen Yi
This weekend, the Mizzou New Music Initiative and the University of Missouri School of Music will have the honor of welcoming Chen Yi for a brief residency on the MU campus and a world premiere. Chen (pictured) currently is a distinguished professor of composition at the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. A finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition “Si Ji” (“Four Seasons”), she was born and raised in Guangzhou, China and is known as a prolific composer who blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural…
April 10, 2015
$10 million donation kicks off campaign for new music building at Mizzou
Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield have given a $10 million gift to the University of Missouri to help fund the proposed new School of Music building. The gift, the largest ever in support of the arts at MU, was announced in a news conference on Friday April 10 at the Reynolds Alumni Center on the Mizzou campus. Through the generous gift, the Sinquefields will help begin the fundraising efforts for the new School of Music building, which will be located at the northeast corner of Hitt Street and University Avenue on the MU campus. The new School…