KTRS

Philanthropist and string base player Jeanne Sinquefield could be heard discussing her dream of making Missouri a mecca for new music composition during the 6:00 p.m. Shaw Spotlight on Saint Louis Radio Station KTRS. The Sinquefield Charitable Foundation-sponsored Mizzzou New Music Initiative offers young composers countless opportunities.

Click below to listen.

Find more information on any of the programs referenced in the audio by visiting the New Music Initiative section of the University of Missouri: School of Music website.

To learn more about Jeanne Sinquefield and her passion for making Missouri a mecca for new music composition, read her full bio on the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation website.

KTRS Website

Columbia Tribune - Daily Mid-Missouri Newspaper
February 14, 2010
By Aarik Danielsen

Excursions for the ears and heart

Young Guns Battle for the U.S. Chess Championship Title, Slay and Associates

Sinquefield’s Give $1 Million to Mizzou, St. Louis Business Journal

Sinquefields Give MU $1 Million, Columbia Tribune

Genius Among Us Documentary Follows High School Composers, Columbia Missourian

Neurofeedback Retrain Brain Waves, Slay and Associates

About Mizzou’s COMP, University of Missouri

Columbia Civic Orchestra to Premier A Work Commissioned by Orchestra and the Sinquefield Family Foundation, Slay and Associates

Sinquefield Prize for Creating Original Music Draws 52 Entries (2008), Slay and Associates

Scouting Posting Mile Markers Along the Gasconade River, News Tribune

Creating Original Music Blog

Can Missouri produce another Mozart?  Can Missouri produce a series of great composers?  Can Columbia, Mo., become another Austria, which produced such great composers at Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven?

Those are questions that frequently pass through the mind of Jeanne Sinquefield and invariably the answer she comes up with is, “Yes, it can happen,” and then she tries to make it happen.

Sinquefield is a lady with an abiding interest in music that goes back to her childhood.  She currently plays in three symphonies – Columbia Civic, 9th Street Symphony and the Jeff City Orchestra.  And since 2005 when she and her husband Rex retired to their farm in western Osage County along the Osage River after an extraordinarily successful career in the mutual fund industry, Sinquefield has been devoting more and more time to helping young composers.

In 2005 Sinquefield launched the first of her efforts to support young would-be Mozarts when she came up with COMP – the Creating Original Music Program.  This is a music composition competition for children in kindergarten through high school that offers cash to the winning composer and additional cash to the winner’s music program, which is normally a school.
COMP has been very successful.  In 2006 the second-place Sinquefield Prize winner of the competition here in Missouri went on to take first place in national competition sponsored by the Music Teachers National Association.  The following year the first-place winner in COMP later captured second in the nation.

In 2007 Sinquefield was instrumental in the launch of a high school summer camp for young composers.  That first year there were six students, 10 the second year and 12 this year. Sinquefield’s son Randy, a film-maker who recently moved to Columbia from the state of California, shadowed the students attending the 2008 summer camp and filmed the award-winning documentary “Genius Among Us: Young Composers in Missouri.”

Sinquefield feels both COMP and camp (which is now referred to as “Summer COMP”) have exceeded her expectations and she is greatly impressed with the quality of the students.  “They all say ‘I can hear it in my head,’” she says in amazement at the talent these young people demonstrate.

In addition to encouraging the younger students, at the college level Sinquefield sponsored the $3,000 Sinquefield Prize where the winner is commissioned to write a new symphony for any of Mizzou’s large ensembles – the Philharmonic Orchestra, the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the University Singers.  Past Sinquefield winners have written for all three ensembles over the years.

Spending a lot of time at the university brings Sinquefield into contact with many college students.  Noting what Sinquefield had done for K-12 students, in 2008 some students from Mizzou said, “What about us?”  Her answer was to give UMC $1 million to be used in part to set up eight full scholarships for undergraduate students, a graduate level new music ensemble, support for faculty and plans for expanding concerts and a college-level summer camp.   That program starts next summer, with an extension course in composition being offered this fall.

“There are very few full rides given anywhere,” Sinquefield said of the college scholarship program.  “This will attract the best and even those who do not receive scholarships will want to go to Columbia to study with the best.”

From 2005 when Sinquefield initially made her interests known and offered financial support, the university has been cooperative and responsive, Sinquefield says.  The music department tapped two of their faculty members to help implement Sinquefield’s ideas.  Dr. Stefan Freund and Dr. Tom McKenney were chosen to run COMP, and later to conduct the summer camp.  Freund and McKenney, both of whom are award-winning composers, have taught the high school summer camp and will teach next year’s summer camp for college students.

To make the summer camp more meaningful for the young composers, at the end of the camp their compositions are played at a concert.  This year the 12 high school composers had their works performed on July 18 at MU’s Whitmore Recital Hall.
To showcase the talent of the composers and also to help with next summer’s high school and college summer camps, Sinquefield has enlisted the help of 20 of the country’s most talented musicians, most of whom are graduates of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., and who perform and record together under the name Alarm Will Sound.  Freund is one of the founders of the group.

Six members of the group performed the high school composers’ works at the July 18 performance.  The others in the group assembled at Sinquefield’s house at Folk July 17 through 19 for a performance at her home and also to prepare for a concert in New York on July 22.

Next summer Alarm Will Sound will be in Columbia for 10 days.  The first few days will be spent performing the high school composers’ works, while the remainder of the time will be spent working with those attending the college summer camp.  Sinquefield is delighted Alarm will be in Columbia to help with the summer camps.  “The college kids can get a lot of good advice from Alarm,” she said.

What is Sinquefield’s ultimate goal?  “Wherever in the world there is a great young composer, I want that person to want to come to Columbia, Mo., because he or she feels that is the Mecca for composers,” Sinquefield said.  “I want Columbia and the University of Missouri at Columbia to be where young would-be-composers from all over the world come to write their great music.

“We have great teachers in Dr. Freund and Dr. McKenney and with the Alarm group we have great musicians to help those great teachers.  This is a personal dream that I hope to see become a reality.”

The above story appeared in the Sept. 2, 2009, issue of the Unterrified Democrat, a weekly newspaper published since 1866 at Linn, Mo.

The Sinquefield Charitable Foundation has donated $100,000 to Teach For America, a non-profit group that recruits top college graduates to teach for two years in low-income communities.Run by Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield, of Westphalia, Mo., the foundation has long been involved in funding innovative efforts to improve education opportunities for children in Missouri and beyond. The Sinquefields are strong supporters of Teach For America, which accepts teacher applicants from all academic disciplines – not just education.

“Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield are incredible advocates for state-wide education reform and we are thrilled that they are supporting Teach For America as an integral part of that effort,” said Scott Baier, executive director of Teach For America-St. Louis. “We operate with a shared sense of urgency to improve students’ academic outcomes by going above and beyond traditional means to ensure dramatic progress through recruiting and supporting outstanding teachers. We are incredibly thankful for their support.”

Formed in 1990, Teach For America has more than 7,300 individuals teaching about 450,000 students in 35 urban and rural regions across the country. Teach for America has about 200 teachers in the St. Louis area, and about 125 in Kansas City.

The program has been highly successful in part because Teach For America places high-quality graduates into schools. A recent study conducted by the Urban Institute showed that Teach For America teachers are more effective on average, as measured by student exam performance, than non-Teach For America teachers. The study, which used seven years of data, found that a Teach For America teacher had two to three times the impact of a teacher with three or more years of experience.

“Teach For America’s overwhelming success in very difficult education environments is something that needs to be repeated throughout this country,” said Jeanne Sinquefield. “We’re hopeful that with our gift many more children will get the opportunity to be inspired and instructed by the terrific corps of Teach For America teachers.”

The Sinquefield Charitable Foundation has amassed a long list of organizations and schools that support children, including: neurofeedback and autism research at University of Missouri-Columbia; Creating Original Music Competition or C.O.M.P.; New Music Initiative, coordinated through University of Missouri-Columbia; St. Vincent Home for Children in St. Louis; Bishop DuBourg High School in St. Louis; Father Augustine Tolton Regional Catholic High School in Columbia; Special Learning Center in Jefferson City; the MBA programs at Saint Louis University; Boy Scouts of America; Children’s Education Alliance of Missouri; and Giant Steps, which helps children with autism.

Defending U.S. Champion Anna Zatonskih, of Long Island, N.Y., finished off the tournament in style with a positional crush of Yun Fan, of Greencastle, Ind. She won the record $15,000 first place prize fund. Zatonskih ended with eight wins and one draw in nine games, and her 8.5 points were tied for the best result in the championship in more than 20 years. She said the championship was the best performance of her career.

“I think it was the strongest U.S. Championship I ever played,” Zatonskih said.

She scoffed at the idea of taking a short draw today.

“I had nothing to lose,” she said. “I had such a good position out of the opening.” She added that the superior quality of the tournament organization and conditions “made me feel like I was doing something important.”

The battle for second place, which began with three women mathematically eligible, crystallized when 42-year-old Camilla Baginskaite, the tournament’s oldest participant, rebounded from a rough eight loss. Baginskaite, of Sioux Falls, S.D., finished with six wins and one draw after beating Sabina Foisor, of Baltimore, Md., in the longest game of the day to pull one point ahead of both Alisa Melekhina and Irina Krush.

Melekhina, of Philadelphia, Pa., found a late checkmate tactic to beat Battsetseg Tsagaan, of Ellicott City, Md., and briefly pulled into a tie with Baginskaite, whose game was still in progress.

Krush, of Brooklyn, N.Y., failed to keep pace. She began the round on equal second with Baginskaite but could not stay tied, as she lost to Tatev Abrahamyan, of Glendale, Calif. Krush’s loss ended her streak of three consecutive wins.

With the win, Baginskaite won $12,000 and avoided a complicated tiebreaker system that would have left second place highly in doubt. This was especially important because the top two finishers in the tournament qualified for the next Women’s World Chess Championship, to be held in Istanbul, Turkey.

Zatonskih and Baginskaite are the only two American women to gain births so far to the 64-player knockout event. Krush may still qualify based on her high rating.

Baginskaite said she noticed that Krush lost and all she needed to do was draw her position to clinch second place. But judging that her game was better, she risked thousands of dollars in prize money and her world championship qualification to play for the win.

“I couldn’t see any way for (Foisor) to hold. Why should I play for a draw?” she said. “It’s about self-respect. You have to win this position.”

After more than 30 years of playing chess, Baginskaite also earned her first international master “norm,” a title she will acquire with two more norms.

Melekhina, the youngest player in the event, finished in a tie for third place with Krush at 5.5 points. They will both take home $7,500.

All five games were decisive in the last round. The last draw was in round five, more than 20 games ago. In many men’s events, more than half of the games end in draws. At this championship, fewer than a quarter ended peacefully.

For final standings, go to www.saintlouischessclub.org/US-Womens-Championship-2009/standings.

SCIFEST CHESS EVENT

Almost 80 students joined seven of the 10 competitors and Evelyn Moncayo, a WIM from Ecuador, for a massive simul at the Saint Louis Science Center. The event, Queens’ Chess Express, was just one of many events going on during Sci-Fest at the Saint Louis Science Center. Camilla Baginskaite and Battsetseg Tsagaan stayed behind at the CCSCSL to put on a simul with the chess club from Sperreng Middle School, and Alisa Melekhina could not attend Sci-Fest due to a test in Cognitive Psychology test she had scheduled through her university.

The event was informative and entertaining for tournament competitors, students and teachers alike. Check out the photos from this fun-filled community event!

CHESS FOR LIFE PARTNERSHIP

The Chess for Life kick-off event featured the unveiling of five chess tables donated to the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. The program is designed to brighten the lives of cancer patients and their families by providing them intellectiual stimulation and a welcome distraction from the effects of their treatment.

To read more about the program and kick-off event, click here!

SIMUL AT CCSCSL

Twelve lucky students from the Sperreng Middle School Chess Club (a feeder school for Lindbergh High School) got the opportunity to compete against tournament competitors WIM Battsetseg Tsagaan and WGM Camilla Baginskaite.

Read the article about the event here!

Jeanne Sinquefield has long envisioned turning the university into a “mecca” for new music. In addition to the donation, she and the foundation fund and sponsor a statewide competition for young composers called C.O.M.P., or Creating Original Music Competition. The competition is aimed at students from kindergarten through 12th grades.

“I see the Mizzou New Music Initiative as a truly ground-breaking effort to help spur creativity among young composers,” Jeanne Sinquefield said. “I couldn’t be more excited about this initiative and what it means for so many talented young people. I think Missouri could become the hub for turning out world-class fine arts composers.”

The components of the New Music Initiative include:

• Starting in 2010, two full-tuition scholarships will be awarded each year to incoming freshmen seeking a bachelor’s degree in composition. The recipients of the scholarships will have an opportunity to work with the young people in the C.O.M.P. program.
• Three graduate assistantships will be offered each year to talented performers dedicated to promoting new music. The graduate assistants will play in the New Music Ensemble under the direction of faculty composer Stefan Freund. The assistantships include a full tuition waiver and an annual stipend of about $5,000.
• The Sinquefield composition prize, which is eligible to all undergraduate or graduate students at the University of Missouri who submit a fine art composition. The winner is given the opportunity to have his or her work performed by one of the university’s large ensembles.
• The New Music Summer Festival, which will feature eight to 10 composers from around the world creating a composition to be performed by Alarm Will Sound, an internationally acclaimed new music ensemble.
• The C.O.M.P. program.
• Composer Connection, a program that allows young composers from throughout Missouri to receive instruction from a graduate student in composition at University of Missouri. Under this distance-learning program, young composers can email works in progress and questions about composing to the graduate student.

For more detailed information, please check out a website devoted to the New Music Initiative: http://music.missouri.edu/newmusicinitiative.html.

Fourth-grade students from City Academy in north St. Louis squared off against fourth graders from King of Glory Lutheran School in south St. Louis from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The King of Glory team won and was awarded a trophy.

The children were given a tour of the facility by Matt Lodge of the Chess Club, who also instructed them about tournament etiquette and how to use tournament clocks. The students not only were able to play their games at the U.S. Chess Championship competition tables on the Central West End facility’s second floor, but were allowed to view the action on the closed-circuit televisions at the Chess Club. Each child also was given an official nameplate to use at the tables.

Teacher Anthony Lemons (filling in for teacher and chess tutor Matt Virgil) accompanied five students from City Academy, while six students from King of Glory Lutheran School were joined by teacher Joel Gilbert. Chess Club scholastic director Frank Van Bree filled out the City Academy team so that each child could participate.

All of the students participate in Classroom Chess, a fourth grade through sixth grade curriculum developed by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The students participate in Classroom Chess for one hour each week for nine weeks.

“Chess can be an important tool in helping children grow academically, but it also can be a lot of fun,” said Van Bree. “It was pretty cool to watch these kids playing in their own tournament on the very site where the nation’s best players are competing for the U.S. Chess Championship, and to give them a flavor of that excitement.”

The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis wants to provide that a chess curriculum can improve academic performance of students.

Dr. Jeanne Sinquefield celebrated Mother’s Day last weekend at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, the host of the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship.  She is pictured with Rex, and their eldest son, Randy Sinquefield.  Randy is currently filming a documentary about the Championship, scheduled to be released early this summer.  (5/14/09)  (Betsy Dynako, Official Event Photographer)