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Eight American Composers Selected for Mizzou New Music Summer Festival

Eight early career American composers have been selected to participate in the inaugural Mizzou New Music Summer Festival from July 12 through 18, 2010 in Columbia, Missouri. At the end of the festival eight new compositions by the composers will be performed by Alarm Will Sound at the Missouri Theatre.

The eight composers are:

• Jose Francisco Cortez Alvarez, from Bloomington, Indiana
• Christopher Dietz, Ottawa Hills, Ohio
• Paul Dooley, Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Moon-Young Ha, Champaign, Illinois
• Edie Hill, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Amy Beth Kirsten, New Haven, Connecticut
• Jeremy Podgursky, Bloomington, Indiana
• Zhou Juan, Kansas City, Missouri

The Inaugural Mizzou New Music Summer Festival is part of the Mizzou New Music Initiative, a diverse array of programs launched by the University of Missouri’s School of Music 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 led by Dr. Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield.

During the festival the eight composers will also receive private composition lessons from resident composers Martin Bresnick and Derek Bermel. Additionally, they will take part in workshops with Alarm Will Sound, participate in master classes, and receive a professional live recording.

Composers selected as resident participants for the festival are expected to compose a work for Alarm Will Sound’s complete instrumentation lasting up to 9 minutes in duration.

(—Condensed from the press release)