MIZZOU'S CLASSICAL MUSIC RENAISSANCE: Wealthy benefactors bring back orchestral composing

Seeking "resident composers"

COLUMBIA, Mo 10/17/18 (PSA) -- The idea of a next Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart may seem strange in a world of pop music that rarely gets closer to its classical counterparts than Rock Me Amadeus or the occasional sampling job.

But for the last decade,  Dr. Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield have been giving classical music a contemporary makeover, right here in mid-Missouri.

Better known for their political activism and mutual fund fortune, the Sinquefields are as passionate about the advancement of classical music in their home state. They designed the Mizzou New Music Initiative (MNMI) to "position the University of Missouri School of Music as a leader in composition and new music." 

The Sinquefields gave Mizzou $1 million in 2009 to establish MNMI, following that donation in 2015 with the university's largest gift ever:  $10 million toward construction of a new music building.

Applications for eight resident composer slots just opened for an MNMI initiative program, the Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF). 

The tenth annual festival features three contemporary classical music concerts, workshops, master classes, and other events.  The grand finale at the Missouri Theatre -- a dream venue if there ever was one -- presents the world premieres of new works from the resident composers performed by resident ensemble Alarm Will Sound.

For any kid who dreams of dazzling an orchestral audience like Amadeus or setting violin music on fire like Mendelssohn (there are more of these dreamers than you might think), the idea of a "resident composer" with his/her own resident ensemble may seem too good to believe.  Add the time, money, commitment, staff, university environment, publicity, performance venues, and most of all, musician camaraderie, and Mizzou's classical music renaissance is that dream come true. 

The MICF even features "distinguished guest composers" --  this year Donnacha Dennehy and Amy Beth Kirsten -- who teach and consult with the eight residents and the musicians playing their compositions.

One of Ireland's top composers and associate professor of music at Princeton University, Dennehy has seen his work performed at Carnegie Hall, The Barbican in London, and other worldwide venues. His opera The Last Hotel premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2015.  The Second Violinist won the 2017 Fedora Prize for Opera and premiered in July 2017 at the Galway International Arts Festival.

 

Kirsten is a composition professor at Bard College's Longy School of Music. Her work fuses composition, language, voice, and theatre with musicians’ instruments, bodies, and voices, which she considers "equal vehicles of expression." 

 

Kirsten has composed concerts for her own ensemble, HOWL, and musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and the American Composers Orchestra.  She has received artist fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations.

 

MICF resident composers start with an online portfolio application.  The eight honorees take composition lessons from the distinguished guest composers and Mizzou faculty; rehearse with Alarm Will Sound; and receive professional live recordings of their work.

 

The 2019 MICF resident composer application deadline is 5:00 p.m. Central time, Friday, November 16, 2018. 

Click here for more information or to submit an application.