April 23, 2024

Mizzou music students will have their works performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

At 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30, three University of Missouri School of Music students will have their compositions performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at the Touhill Performing Arts Center in St. Louis. Seda Balci, Giovanni Porfirio, and Mahbod Shrivani were selected to participate in an annual composer’s workshop which is a collaboration between the SLSO and the Mizzou New Music Initiative. The program is funded by the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. The April 30 performance is the culmination of a process that began last fall in which composers’ early drafts were critiqued by conductor…

Feb. 19, 2024

Mizzou New Music Initiative releases 2023 activity summary

The Mizzou New Music Initiative has released its summary of 2023 activities for the Mizzou New Music Ensemble, composition students and Mizzou International Composers Festival. MIZZOU NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE The NME performed concerts including music by Maria Disandro, Santiago Beis, Sam Whitty, Franco Donatoni, Kevin Day, Gabe Evers, Sofia Fiorino, and Atticus Schlegel in the spring semester. A March residency with Elizabeth A. Baker resulted in a video performance. The ensemble performed during the Latin American Music Festival in Columbia on April 10 and at UMKC on…

Feb. 5, 2024

The Mizzou New Music Initiative announces its schedule of events being held in St. Louis, MO, during the spring 2024 semester

Today, the Mizzou New Music Initiative (MNMI) announced its schedule of events being held in St. Louis, MO, during the spring 2024 semester. Feb. 7, 2024, 7:30 p.m. Robyne Sieh’s Sheldon Commission Premiere, “The Art of Dreaming,” is part of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra chamber music concert “Ravel and Dvorák: Strings with Piano,” curated by SLSO Concertmaster David Halen and Principal Second Violin Alison Harney. A senior from O’Fallon, MO, Sieh says the inspiration for the piece was “a story about someone who is wrongly imprisoned and then later released” and calls it, “an allegory to…

Dec. 28, 2022

End of Fall ’22 semester highlighted by artist residency, SLSO collaboration, Mizzou New Music Ensemble concert

The latter part of the fall 2022 semester has been a busy one for the University of Missouri School of Music and the Mizzou New Music Initiative. Here is a summary of what has been going on. Abstract sound artist Maria Chavez had a five-day residency at Mizzou (Nov. 7-11). The Peruvian turntablist spent time with the Mizzou New Music Ensemble, talking about listening practices and the various influences that inform her work. Chavez demonstrated her turntable skills for students using records that were generously donated by Columbia’s Hitt Street Records. Chavez shared her…

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 28, 2022

May 11 Sheldon Concert Hall Performance features world premiere of string quartet by Mizzou composer María Laura Disandro

On Wednesday, May 11 at 8 p.m., The Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis will present the final “Sheldon Classics” performance of the 2021-22 season. Violinist and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra assistant concertmaster Erin Schreiber will lead a string quartet featuring fellow Symphony members violinist Shawn Weil, violist Leonid Plashinov-Johnson, and cellist Bjorn Ranheim. The quartet will play Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major and a new work for string quartet by Mizzou composer María Laura Disandro, Burning Matchstick House (2022). The quartet will be joined by pianist Peter Henderson for a performance of Brahms’…

March 28, 2022

April 6th Sheldon Classics Concert to premiere composition by Mizzou School of Music student Emily Shaw

At 8 pm on Wednesday, April 6, the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis will present a Classics Concert featuring musicians of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) performing Felix Mendelssohn’sOctet, Richard Strauss’ Sonata for Violin and Piano, and The Sun Spins Out of Place to Warm You, a new work for violin and piano by Mizzou composition student Emily Shaw. Shaw’s composition is part of an ongoing initiative supported by the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation and the Mizzou New Music Initiative (MNMI) to introduce new and emerging composers from Mizzou to St.

Feb. 4, 2022

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to perform works by three Mizzou composers on February 16 at Powell Hall

Three University of Missouri student composers will have their works played at Powell Hall by musicians of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) at 7:30 pm Wednesday, February 16th, 2022 by SLSO musicians under the direction of SLSO Assistant Conductor Stephanie Childress. The performance is part of a joint educational venture between the SLSO and the Mizzou New Music Initiative that began in 2017. Here are the three composers and pieces that the SLSO will perform on Wednesday, Feb. 16: Holden Franklin, Club FOMO Daniel Fitzpatrick, Ritual and Sacrifice Oswald Huynh, Gia Đình Left to Right: Holden Franklin, Daniel Fitzpatrick,…