Eight composers have been selected to participate in the inaugural Mizzou New Music Summer Festival in Columbia, Missouri, in July 2010. The composers, all Americans, are Jose Francisco Cortez Alvarez, Christopher Dietz, Paul Dooley, Moon-Young Ha, Edie Hill, Amy Beth Kirsten, Jeremy Podgursky, and Zhou Juan. For the festival each of the eight will compose a new composition, up to nine minutes in length, to be performed on July 18 by the chamber ensemble Alarm Will Sound. Faculty-composers in residence from the University of Missouri-Columbia’s School of Music will be Stefan Freund and W. Thomas McKenney; also in residence will be composers Martin Bresnick and Derek Bermel, who will work privately with the eight composers over the course of the weeklong festival. The Mizzou New Music Summer Festival is part of the Mizzou New Music Initiative, an array of programs launched by the University of Missouri’s School of Music and intended to position the university as a leading center for new music. The initiative resulted from a $1 million donation by the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation.
Posted April 8, 2010
