Posts Tagged ‘New Music Initiative’


Sinquefield Music Composition News in Print and on Air Last Weekend

by mkubot@slayandassociates.com

Jeannie SinquefieldKTRS - Saint Louis Talk Radio
February 13, 2010
5:05

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.

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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

Bruce Gordon is a soft-spoken, unassuming gentleman. Consequently, when a steady stream of superlatives rolls off his tongue — in the service of saying he’s more excited about the Columbia Civic Orchestra’s upcoming concerts than he’s been in his entire 15-year station with the group — it’s worth finding out why.

For the orchestra’s manager and a member of its French horn section, joy springs from the one-two programming punch CCO is poised to deliver. Starting with Saturday’s set of “Modern Excursions,” Gordon said the cumulative creative effect of this season’s final two gigs will potentially be greater and more electrifying than any pairing he can remember.

A CCO-guided jaunt through works from the past 100 years, the concert begins with an incredibly recent offering — Alex Blanton’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” Commissioned for the CCO by the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation, the MU graduate’s piece “alternates between languid, slow sections and driving, fast passages” in “schizophrenic” fashion, a CCO news release said.

German master Paul Hindemith’s “Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Weber” follows; based on themes from 19th-century predecessor Carl Maria Von Weber, Hindemith’s piece “has the distinction of being as loved by musicians that play it as by audiences,” Gordon said. The evening concludes with MU faculty member Natalia Bolshakova at the piano for Prokofiev’s “Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major.”

“This is the kind of piece where audiences generally stand up and shout,” Gordon said. “Unconventional” harmonies resolve in the “glowing” finale of a piece that’s “so exciting … beautiful … strange in its own way,” he said.

CCO’s final performance of the season — slated for April 23 — includes a work whose magnitude is unparalleled. In tandem with the MU Choral Union and with Paul Crabb on the conductor’s podium, the orchestra will present Bach’s “Mass in B Minor.” Gordon said he unequivocally believes the masterwork, written between 1724 and 1749, to be the single most important piece of sacred music ever composed. NPR’s Ted Libbey seemed to agree when he wrote last year, “The Mass in B minor is as lofty in design, scope and expression as anything written by the hand of man.”

Pulling off the piece Gordon called “a pillar of light” will require a collaboration between hundreds of musicians and the procurement of at least one very rare instrument — Bach’s score calls for two oboes d’amore, which Gordon described as something of an ancient hybrid of the oboe and English horn. The piece also employs three piccolo trumpets, also atypical. “It’s a tremendous undertaking — the scope of this has not been attempted in the volunteer musical segment in this town ever, as far as I can tell,” he said.

“Modern Excursions” begins at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts, 203 S. Ninth St. For more information on this program and the rest of the CCO season, visit cco.missouri.org or call 442-1042.

Find this article in the Sunday paper or on the Columbia Daily Tribune Website

Monday
15
February 2010
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Initiative Seeks to Make Mizzou a ‘Mecca’ for Young Composers

by mkubot@slayandassociates.com

The University of Missouri at Columbia has created the Mizzou New Music Initiative, a diverse array of programs intended to position the school as a leading center for music composition and new music. The initiative is a direct result of a $1 million donation by the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation, headed by Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield.

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.

Tuesday
29
September 2009
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