Making Missouri a major center for the music of tomorrow

A native of Toronto, Christopher Mayo is the first Canadian to be a resident composer for the Mizzou International Composer Festival.

A composer of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and electronic music, Mayo (pictured) received his bachelor of music degree with honors at the University of Toronto, where he was awarded the Glenn Gould Composition Prize and the William Erving Fairclough Scholarship. He relocated to London in 2003 to study at the Royal College of Music, where he earned a master of music in 2004 and a Ph.D in composition in 2011.

His time there resulted in a number of opportunities, including appearing in the BBC Two television documentary Classic Goldie, helping UK drum and bass musician Goldie to write a commission for the London Symphony Orchestra. The LSO has gone on to record two of Mayo’s own works, releasing their version of “Therma” in 2013, and Mayo’s contribution to the multi-composer Panufnik Variations project in 2016. (While in London, Mayo also was a member of the Camberwell Composers Collective, which included 2012 MICF resident composer Charlie Piper.)

Since moving back to Toronto, Mayo has continued to collaborate occasionally with popular musicians, penning string arrangements for performers including Carly Rae Jepsen, Drake and Tanya Tagaq for the Polaris Music Prize awards ceremony, and writing orchestral arrangements of a number of Jepsen’s hits for her debut performance last month with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Other recent projects include “Streets become Liars,” which was premiered in March by Crash Ensemble at New Music Dublin 2017, and, of course, “Beast (for Hugo Ball),” the work Mayo has written for Alarm Will Sound to perform at the MICF’s “Eight World Premieres” grand finale on Saturday, July 29 at the Missouri Theatre.

Characterized by a distinctive rhythmic language and a wide range of influences, Mayo’s music has been performed by orchestras including the LSO, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and others.

He has had chamber works commissioned by London Sinfonietta, MATA Festival, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Ensemble contemporain de Montreal +, Motion Ensemble, and more. His chamber music also has been played by new music groups including ACME, L’arsenale, Aurora Orchestra, Aventa and Land’s End Ensemble; at festivals including the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, the Cheltenham Festival, and the Marrakech Biennale; and at venues ranging from Le Poisson Rouge to Wigmore Hall.

Mayo’s vocal works include “Death on Three-Mile Creek,” commissioned in 2011 by Carnegie Hall, and “Under Dark Water,” commissioned by Esprit Orchestra.

He frequently collaborates with artists from other disciplines, and in recent years has created new dance scores for Rambert Dance Company, New Movement Collective, and for the English National Ballet’s performance at the Coronation Gala at Buckingham Palace. Mayo’s chamber opera “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered,” was cited as a “deft mix of documentary, pulsating drones, electric guitar and sparing percussion” in 2014 by BBC Music Magazine.

Christopher Mayo was interviewed by the Columbia Tribune‘s Aarik Danielsen for a feature story about the 2017 MICF, which you can read here. You can hear samples of Mayo’s music on his SoundCloud page and in the embedded players below.

“Pike and Shot” (2008), performed by Paul Widner (cello) and Philip Thomas (piano) at Continuum Contemporary Music’s performance on April 25, 2013 at the Music Gallery in Toronto.

Excerpts from various works

“First Screening” for orchestra and film, recorded September 25th, 2016 by the Victoria Symphony, conducted by Tania Miller.

Dan Visconti, one of the two distinguished guest composers at the 2017 Mizzou International Composers Festival, is known both for his music and for his work as a speaker, writer, and activist seeking “to address social issues through music by re-imagining the arts as a form of cultural and civic service.”

Visconti’s biography describes his compositions as “rooted in the improvisational energy and maverick spirit of rock, folk music, and other vernacular performance traditions,” and the Cleveland Plain Dealer has characterized his work as “both mature and youthful, bristling with exhilarating musical ideas and a powerfully crafted lyricism.”

As a distinguished guest composer for the MICF, Visconti (pictured) will work with the eight resident composers and Alarm Will Sound, and give a public presentation on his music. The festival will include performances of two of his works – “Psychedelia,” a brand new piece composed for Alarm Will Sound that they’ll play during their concert on Thursday, July 27 at the Missouri Theatre, and “Fractured Jams,” which the Mizzou New Music Ensemble will perform on Friday, July 28.

Visconti recently completed three years as the California Symphony’s Young American Composer in Residence, during which he wrote works including “Tangle Eye,” a concerto for cello and orchestra inspired by folk recordings collected by Alan Lomax that debuted in May of this year, and 2016’s “Living Language,” a concerto for guitar and orchestra featuring Grammy-winning soloist Jason Vieaux.

Other recent projects include “Amplified Soul,” a showpiece written specifically for Venezuelan piano virtuoso Gabriela Martinez; “ANDY: A Popera,” an opera/cabaret hybrid commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and inspired by the life, work, and philosophy of pop artist Andy Warhol; and the interactive video game opera “Permadeath,” a collaboration with acclaimed Pulitzer-winning librettist Cerise Jacobs and director Michael Counts.

Visconti also has written commissioned works for the Kronos Quartet, Branford Marsalis, Eighth Blackbird, the JACK Quartet, Da Capo Chamber Players, Scharoun Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic, Silkroad percussionist Shane Shanahan, soprano Lucy Shelton, and many others.

His honors include the Rome Prize, Berlin Prize, and awards from the Koussevitzky Foundation at the Library of Congress, Fromm Foundation, Naumburg Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In addition to his composer residency with the California Symphony, he recently completed a multi-year residency with opera companies including the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, New York City Opera, and the Glimmerglass Festival as recipient of the Douglas Moore Fellowship in American Opera.

Visconti’s music has been performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Los Angeles’s Disney Hall, London’s Barbican Theatre, and Sydney Opera House.

He currently serves as director of artistic programming at Chicago’s Fifth House Ensemble, and works with young musicians at the ensemble’s annual Fresh Inc Festival on cultivating musical careers in line with their own unique vision and values. Visconti also recently was named artistic advisor at Astral Artists, a nonprofit intensive mentoring program that specializes in developing the early careers of extraordinary classical musicians.

A sought-after speaker on music and social topics, Visconti was awarded a 2014 TED Fellowship and delivered a TED talk at the conference’s thirtieth anniversary. Other recent appearances include speeches at the Clinton School for Public Service, the National Archive, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is a contributing writer for the Huffington Post and his writing also has appeared in NewMusicBox, ArtsJournal, Medium, The 21st-Century Musician, and Symphony magazine.

Dan Visconti was interviewed last week on KMUC’s “Mizzou Music” program, and you can listen to that conversation here. For more, read his 2016 interview with 21cm.org, and watch the accompanying video of his talk about “Music and Community” at DePauw University.

You can hear samples of Visconti’s music on his SoundCloud page and via the embedded players below.

“Lonesome Roads” performed in May 2017 by Fifth House Ensemble.

“Black Bend” from “Hitchhiker’s Tales,” performed by Sybarite5, with Sami Merdinian and Sarah Whitney (violins), Angela Pickett (viola), Laura Metcalf (cello), and Louis Levit (double bass), for the 2013 International Society of Double Bassists Convention at the Eastman School Of Music’s Kilbourn Hall.

“Amplified Soul,” written for and performed by Gabriela Martinez on her first album.

“Fractured Jams,” recorded by Scharoun Ensemble Berlin.

It’s been a busy year so far for Charles Peck. In addition to being one of the eight resident composers for the 2017 Mizzou International Composers Festival, in the past two months he was selected for the Minnesota Orchestra’s Composers Institute, and also won the Boston New Music Initiative‘s annual commissioning competition.

Just this week, Peck’s oboe and tape piece “Fade” was performed at the NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival, a couple of days after his audiovisual work “Ferrous” was featured at the Caz Counterpoint Festival in Cazenovia, NY.

In addition, in June the Albany Symphony performed Peck’s “Mosaic” during the American Music Festival at EMPAC Concert Hall in Troy, NY as part of their Composer to Center Stage program. And in May, he had the debut performance of his work at Carnegie Hall, as members of the New York Youth Symphony played his new piano quartet “Sunburst” at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.

With all this going on, Peck (pictured) also found time to complete “Vinyl,” which Alarm Will Sound will perform as part of the MICF’s “Eight World Premieres” grand finale on Saturday, July 29 at the Missouri Theatre.

A Philadelphia native, Peck currently is a doctoral candidate at Cornell University, where he has received the Otto R. Stahl Memorial Award in composition. Previously, Peck earned a bachelor’s degree in music industry from Drexel University, and a master’s in music from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

His works have been performed by groups and soloists including the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Symphony in C, the New York Youth Symphony, the JACK Quartet, Sandbox Percussion, ensemble mise-en, the Locrian Chamber Players, sTem, Derek Bermel, Ji Hye Jung, Rachel Calloway, Xak Bjerken, and Holly Roadfeldt.

Peck’s music also has been featured at the Aspen Music Festival, the Lake George Music Festival, the New Music Gathering, and the highSCORE Festival.

His honors and awards include winning the Lake George Music Festival’s Composition Competition, the NC New Music Initiative’s Orchestral Composition Competition, the Frame Dance Music Composition Competition, and the Symphony in C’s Young Composers’ Competition; taking part in the Castleton Festival’s Young Composer’s Forum; and winning grants from the McKnight Foundation, the American Composers Forum, and the Cornell Council for the Arts.

You can find out more about Charles Peck in the interview he did a couple of weeks ago on KMUC’s “Mizzou Music” program, and you can listen to his music on his SoundCloud page and in the embedded players below.

“Rift & Shade” performed by the JACK Quartet

“Mosaic,” world premiere performance by Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra on September 18, 2016 at First Presbyterian Church in Santa Monica, CA.

“Fade” for oboe and tape, performed by Mattie Peck

Resident composer Clare Glackin comes to the 2017 Mizzou International Composers Festival from the West Coast via Houston, Texas, where she recently graduated with an MM degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.

A native of Mount Vernon, Washington, Glackin (pictured) previously earned a BM from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, where she was named a Discovery Scholar and Outstanding Graduate of the composition program.

Her primary teachers have been Stephen Hartke, Frank Ticheli, Pierre Jalbert and Richard Lavenda. She also attended the Aspen Music Festival and School in the summer of 2016, where she studied with Chris Theofanidis.

Glackin writes instrumental and vocal concert works, seeking “to craft music that is engaging, unique, and fulfilling for both performers and audiences.” Her music has been performed by the Culver City Symphony, USC Thornton Symphony, Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra, and others.

Her composition “Sammy Saguaro” will be included on the upcoming CD 16×16: The Rice Encores Project, which compiles sixteen new short works for violin and piano written by composition students at Shepherd School of Music.

Also an oboist, Glackin has been a member of the USC Concert Orchestra (receiving the USC Concert Orchestra Award in 2015), and Rice University’s Campanile Orchestra, and has played in various premieres of student compositions in performances at USC, Brevard Music Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, and more. When not composing, she also enjoys running, biking, kayaking, and baking desserts.

You can find out more about Clare Glackin by listening to the interview she did earlier this summer for KMUC’s “Mizzou Music” program, and you can hear some examples of her music on her SoundCloud page and in the embedded players below.

“Concertino for Oboe and Orchestra” (2014), performed on October 23, 2014 at Bovard Auditorium on the USC campus in Los Angeles by Rachel Van Amburgh, oboe, and the USC Thornton Symphony, conducted by Donald Crockett.

“Sonata for Violin and Piano” (2015)

“Poetic Study” (2015)