Making Missouri a major center for the music of tomorrow

Musicians from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra will premiere a new work by Mizzou alumnae Stephanie Berg in a concert next month at Powell Hall in St. Louis.

Berg’s “Three Prayers” was commissioned by SLSO clarinetist Diana Haskell, and will be performed for the first time as part of of a program of chamber music titled “Equal Play: Celebrating Women Composers” at 7:00 p.m. Friday, March 1 at Powell Hall, 718 N. Grand in St. Louis’ Grand Center district.

Berg (pictured) will introduce her work during the concert, which also will include music by Jennifer Higdon and Rebecca Clarke.

Performers will include Haskell, violinist Kristin Ahlstrom, and cellist Anne Fagerburg of the SLSO, pianists Peter Henderson and Alla Voskoboynikova, and soprano Christine Brewer. Admission to the concert is free and open to the public, but those wishing to attend are asked to RSVP online at SLSO’s website.

This will be the second performance of Berg’s music at Powell Hall, as the SLSO previously performed her work “Ravish and Mayhem” in 2014 as part of a subscription-series concert.

The concert marks the start of what will be a busy month for Berg, as in addition to the Powell Hall performance, she will have another new work premiered by Chamber Project St. Louis in concerts on Saturday, March 2 at Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville, IL and Saturday, March 9 at the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis.

A native of Parkville, MO who now lives in St. Louis, Berg earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Mizzou and was the winner of the 2009 Sinquefield Composition Prize, the University of Missouri’s highest honor for a student composer. She was a resident composer at the 2012 Mizzou International Composers Festival, for which she originally wrote “Ravish and Mayhem” to be performed by resident ensemble Alarm Will Sound.

During her time at Mizzou, Berg also performed on clarinet with the Mizzou New Music Ensemble, University Philharmonic, and Columbia Civic Orchestra, and served for three years as project manager for the Mizzou New Music Initiative’s Creating Original Music Project (COMP).

Composer and pianist Joseph Joubert is coming to Mizzou at the end of this month for a residency that will include the world premiere performance of “Freedom’s Plow,” a new commissioned work written by Joubert for Mizzou’s Concert Chorale.

On Thursday, November 29, Joubert (pictured) will speak at a convocation of the music department, and then take part in a recording session with the Concert Chorale. While he’s in Columbia, he’ll also attend rehearsals of the Chorale and the University Singers, as well as the Concert Chorale’s performance featuring his new work on Saturday, December 1 at First Baptist Church in Columbia.

A native New Yorker and graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Joubert probably is best known for his involvement in musical theater, having served as the conductor of “Motown The Musical” on Broadway; as keyboardist and assistant conductor for “Billy Elliot” and “The Color Purple”; and for two seasons as staff pianist for the Metropolitan Opera Company’s revival of “Porgy And Bess.”

As a pianist, he has appeared in New York City’s major concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Alice Tully Hall, and with the Manhattan Symphony, the Bronx Arts Ensemble, the New Philharmonia, the West Palm Beach Symphony, the Mobile Symphony, the Marin Symphony, and more.  Joubert also has been active as a recording artist, providing arrangements and keyboards for well-known performers including Ashford & Simpson, Patti Labelle, Jennifer Holliday, Nancy Wilson, Diana Ross, Judy Collins, George Benson, The O’Jays, Nnenna Freelon, Boys Choir of Harlem, Dixie Hummingbirds, and more.

Grammy Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty is coming to Columbia for a residency, and the University of Missouri School of Music and the Mizzou New Music Initiative are welcoming him with three concerts featuring his music in October.

Daugherty, who is a professor of composition at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, will be in Columbia for two days. On the first evening of his residency, the MU Wind Ensemble will perform his works “On the Air” and “Niagara Falls” as part of a concert at 7:00 p.m. Monday, October 8 at the Missouri Theatre. Admission to the performance is $5 for the general public, free for MU students, faculty and staff with IDs.

The next evening, seven more of Daugherty’s compositions will be featured a concert devoted entirely to his music, with performances by Mizzou faculty ensembles ZouM and DRAX; the Missouri Saxophone Quartet; the Mizzou New Music Ensemble; and faculty soloists Eli Lara, Leigh Muñoz and Julie Rosenfeld. That concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 9 at Whitmore Recital Hall, and is free and open to the public.

While he’s on campus, Daugherty (pictured) also will make a presentation on his music, give private lessons to composition students, and work with the Mizzou New Music Ensemble, who will complete the concert trilogy when they play two of his works in their first performance of the semester on Monday, October 15, also at Whitmore Recital Hall.

Daugherty is a composer, pianist, and teacher who’s originally from Cedar Rapids, IA. He is one of the most widely performed American concert music composers of his generation, influenced by Romanticism, Postmodernism, and popular culture, and known for referencing in his music iconic figures ranging from Elvis Presley and Superman to Frida Kahlo and Jackie Onassis.

His teachers included notable 20th century composers such as Jacob Druckman, Earle Brown, Bernard Rands and Roger Reynolds from 1980-82 at Yale; Pierre Boulez in 1979 and 1980 at IRCAM in Paris; and György Ligeti from 1982 to 1984 in Hamburg. Daugherty was also an assistant to famed jazz arranger Gil Evans from 1980 to 1982 in New York.

Daugherty’s orchestral music has received six Grammy awards, including “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” in 2011 and 2017, and has been commissioned and premiered by major orchestras such as the Albany Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony (U.K), Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra (London), Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, RAI Symphony Orchestra (Milan), and San Francisco Symphony.

Composer Yevgeniy Sharlat is coming to Mizzou next month for a residency and concert.

Sharlat, who’s an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, will be in Columbia on Monday, October 1 and Tuesday, October 2.

While he’s on campus, he’ll give a presentation and private lessons to composition students and coach the Mizzou New Music Ensemble, who will perform his piece “Divertissement” in their first concert of the semester on Monday, October 15.

Sharlat’s visit will conclude with the premiere of his new work “Trio Contemplating the Moon,” which was commissioned by Trio Séléné with funding from the Mizzou New Music Initiative and will be performed as part of their concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 2 at Whitmore Recital Hall.

Born in 1977 in Moscow, Russia, Sharlat majored in violin, piano, and music theory at the Academy of Moscow Conservatory. Immigrating to the United States in 1994, he studied composition at the Juilliard Pre-College, Curtis Institute of Music, and Yale University, where he earned his masters and doctoral degrees.

He has written music for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo, theater, ballet, and film, and was the recipient of the 2006 Charles Ives Fellowship from American Academy of Arts and Letters. His other honors include a Fromm Music Foundation Commission; ASCAP’s Morton Gould, Boosey & Hawkes, and Leiber & Stoller awards; Yale University’s Rena Greenwald Award; and fellowships from the MacDowell and Yaddo artists’ communities.

Sharlat has received recent commissions from organizations including the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Seattle Chamber Players, Astral Artistic Services, and LA Piano Duo. His music also has been performed by ensembles such as Kremerata Baltica, the Seattle Symphony, the Hartford Symphony, Seattle Chamber Players, Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, and others.