Making Missouri a major center for the music of tomorrow

The Mizzou New Music Initiative is most grateful to Robert Morris for agreeing to serve as one of the two distinguished guest composers at the 2018 Mizzou International Composers Festival.

Morris, a composer and professor at Eastman School of Music, graciously re-arranged his summer schedule on short notice to come to Columbia after composer Chen Yi had to withdraw for medical reasons.

Festival-goers will be able to hear two of Morris’ works during the MICF.  As part of their concert on Thursday night at the Missouri Theatre, resident ensemble Alarm Will Sound will perform Morris’ “In Concert,” and Friday’s “Mizzou New Music” concert will include his electronic piece “Mountain Streams.”

While at the festival, Morris also will give a public presentation about his music; teach the seven resident composers in individual and group sessions; and consult with Alarm Will Sound on their performance of his music.

Morris was born in Cheltenham, England and received his musical education at the Eastman School and at the University of Michigan, where he earned his masters and doctoral degrees in composition and ethnomusicology.

He has taught at Eastman since 1980, serving as chair of the composition department from 1999 to 2005 and again from 2008 to 2011. Before his appointment at Eastman, Morris taught composition, electronic music, and music theory at the University of Hawaii; at Yale University, where he was chairman of the composition department and director of the Yale Electronic Music Studio; and at the University of Pittsburgh, where he directed the Computer and Electronic Studio.

Morris has composed more than 160 musical works, which have been performed in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and recorded on labels including CRI, New World, Music Gallery Editions, Neuma, Music and Arts, Fanfare, Centaur, Open Space, Innova, Yank Gulch, Albany, and Attacca.

In addition to his music and teaching, Morris has written four books and more than 50 articles and reviews on subjects including musical analysis and aesthetics; compositional design; electronic and computer music; the Carnatic music of south India; and more.

He is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the A. Whitney Griswold Foundation, the American Music Center, the Hanson Institute of American Music, and the American Council of Learned Societies. In 1975 he was a MacDowell Colony fellow, and in 2008, a Djerassi artist.

Morris has been guest composer at many festivals and series of new music, including the ISCM Festival of Contemporary Music,  International Conferences of Computer Music, Composer to Composer, Composer’s Symposium, Kobe International Modern Music Festival, Heidelberg Contemporary Music Festival, Western Illinois University New Music Festival, Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology,  MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music’s  New Music Festival, New Music on the Point, University of South Florida at Tampa New Music Festival, and more.

He has received numerous awards and commissions from organizations and ensembles including the Pittsburgh Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Yale University, Speculum Musicae, Brave New Works, JACK Quartet, Momenta String Quartet, The Society for New Music, Alienor Harpsichord Society, Hartt College Festival of Contemporary Organ Music, National Flute Association, and more.

For more about Robert Morris, read the interview with him published in 2010 by New Music Box, and watch a video in which he discusses his work SOUND/PATH/FIELD, one of series of works inspired by his enjoyment of hiking that are intended to be performed outdoors. You can hear some samples of Robert Morris’ music in the embedded players below.

“Mysterious Landscape [excerpt],” recorded live by Robert Morris at Eastman School of Music’s Hatch Recital Hall.

“Entelechy 2012” (version p100g250) for piano with electronic modification

“Still,” performed by Solungga Fang-Tzu Liu (piano)

“Oracle,” performed in March 2011 at Lettuce Lake Park in Tampa, FL by the University of South Florida New-Music Consortium, conducted by Baljinder Sekhon

Over the past nine years, the Mizzou International Composers Festival has had portfolios submitted from all over the world, and this year, resident composer Gemma Peacocke became the first New Zealander ever to be part of the MICF.

Now living in the USA and working toward a PhD at Princeton University, Peacocke grew up in Hamilton, New Zealand in a home once occupied by another creative individual – Richard O’Brien, who wrote the book, lyrics. and music for The Rocky Horror Show.

Before attending Princeton, she did undergraduate work at New Zealand School of Music and earned her master’s degree in composition at New York University Steinhardt.

Writing works that use acoustic instruments, voices, and electronics, Peacocke says she enjoys “finding ways to seamlessly combine and move between electronic and acoustic sound worlds.” She has collaborated with directors, filmmakers and choreographers, often addressing social, political or historical themes, and also is co-founder of the composer collective Kinds of Kings.

For the MICF, she has written a new piece called “Skirl,” which will be performed by Alarm Will Sound as part of the grand finale concert on Saturday, July 28 at the Missouri Theatre.

Some of her other recent projects include “Wreak,” a percussion and electronics work for Kaylie Melville; new songs for Fresh Squeezed Opera and Iarla Ó Lionáird; “Disbelief,” a percussion quartet for choreographer Mari Takeda; and a saxophone quartet called “Dwalm” for ~Nois.

In 2017, her song cycle “Waves + Lines,” based on female Afghan folk poems called landays and adapted from Eliza Griswold’s book I Am the Beggar of the World, premiered at Roulette in Brooklyn with the support of a Jerome Foundation commission. It subsequently had its Australian premiere in April 2018 as part of the Metropolis Festival at the Melbourne Recital Centre.

Peacocke’s music also has been performed by The Tudor Consort, JACK Quartet, Third Coast Percussion, Rubiks Ensemble, Schiele Quartet, and more. Her awards and honors include composition fellowships from Eighth Blackbird Lab and Bang On A Can; the Creative New Zealand Edwin Carr Scholarship, and the NYU Steinhardt Prize.

For more about Gemma Peacocke, read the interview with her just published by the Columbia Daily Tribune; her recent conversation with Classical 90.5 FM’s Aaron Hay for the station’s “Mizzou Music” program; and the interview with her published earlier this year on the website of National Sawdust. You can listen to some samples of her music via the embedded players below.

“disbelief,” performed by percussionists Russell Fischer, Tatevik Khoja-Eynatyan, Mari Takeda, and Wanyue Ye. Choreography by Mari Takeda for JHUBalletCompany dancers Erika Belitzky, Natalie Campbell, Georgia LaMacchia, and Isabella Perone

“Koràh,” recorded in 2016 at the JCC Manhattan

The University of Missouri’s representative among this year’s group of resident composers at the Mizzou International Composers Festival is Douglas Osmun, who recently earned his M.M. in composition from Mizzou.

Originally from Zeeland, MI, Osmun previously received his bachelor’s degree in music from Western Michigan University, where he was named a Beulah and Harold McKee Scholar.

He is a composer of both acoustic and electronic music who describes his work as “deeply concerned with elements of sound embodiment, spatialization, and perception.” Osmun’s new work for the MICF is called “in effigies,” and it will be performed along with new music from the six other resident composers by resident ensemble Alarm Will Sound on Saturday, July 28 at the Missouri Theatre.

Osmun also recently has written works for SPLICE Ensemble and for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, which performed his composition “ghost. receding. (unto a shaded landscape)” along with music from fellow Mizzou students Aaron Mencher and Dustin Dunn this spring at Powell Hall as part of a year-long collaborative project involving SLSO and the Mizzou New Music Initiative.

In addition, his music has been heard at the BGSU Graduate Conference in Music, the SEAMUS National Conference, the Society of Composers Inc. National Conference, NYCEMF, the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, and the St. Louis Science Center.

Osmun’s honors include the 2016 Sinquefield Composition Prize, the University of Missouri’s top award for a student composer, and the 2014 Ron Nelson Composition Award.

For more about Douglas Osmun, listen to his interview aired last week on KMUC’s “Mizzou Music” program, and read the feature story about him published in 2016 by the Columbia Missourian. You can hear some of his music via the embedded players below.

“spaces of an absent voice,” performed by Douglas Osmun

“Three Short Conversations,” recorded during the 2014 fresh inc festival at Bedford Concert Hall at University of Wisconsin-Parkside, and performed by The Magic Deuce, featuring Caitlin Phillips (flute) and Eric Salazar (clarinet)

Composer Chen Yi, who had been scheduled to be one of the distinguished guest composers later this month at the 2018 Mizzou International Composers Festival, has withdrawn from the festival due to medical reasons.

In place of Chen, Robert Morris, composer and professor at the Eastman School of Music, has agreed to serve as a guest composer for the 2018 MICF.

“We regret that Chen Yi is unable to participate in this year’s festival. She recently had surgery and though a full recovery is expected, it’s taking longer than originally anticipated,” said Stefan Freund, professor of composition and artistic director of the Mizzou New Music Initiative and the MICF. “We hope she’ll be feeling better soon, and we’re very grateful to Bob Morris for being willing to come to Columbia on such short notice.”

Morris (pictured) was born in Cheltenham, England and received his musical education at the Eastman School and at the University of Michigan, where he earned his masters and doctoral degrees in composition and ethnomusicology.

He has taught at Eastman since 1980, serving as chair of the composition department from 1999 to 2005 and again from 2008 to 2011. Before his appointment at Eastman, Morris taught composition, electronic music, and music theory at the University of Hawaii; at Yale University, where he was chairman of the composition department and director of the Yale Electronic Music Studio; and at the University of Pittsburgh, where he directed the Computer and Electronic Studio.

Morris has composed more than 160 musical works, which have been performed in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and recorded on labels including CRI, New World, Music Gallery Editions, Neuma, Music and Arts, Fanfare, Centaur, Open Space, Innova, Yank Gulch, Albany, and Attacca.

For MICF ticket buyers, the change in guest composers means that they’ll hear a slightly different program during the concert by Alarm Will Sound on Thursday, July 26 at the Missouri Theatre, as the festival’s resident ensemble will perform Morris’ “In Concert” in place of the Chen Yi work that had been announced previously. In addition, “Mountain Streams,” an electronic work composed by Morris, will be added to the program for the “Mizzou New Music” concert on Friday, July 27.

For the MICF’s seven resident composers, Morris’ participation in the festival will give them a chance to work with a composer and teacher who has written for many musical forms and types of media. Spanning the gap from academic to experimental, his compositions range from orchestral and chamber works to computer and improvisational music to works heavily influenced by non-Western music from Asia and the Middle East.

In addition to his music and teaching, Morris has written four books and more than 50 articles and reviews on subjects including musical analysis and aesthetics; compositional design; electronic and computer music; the Carnatic music of south India; and more.

During the MICF, he will give a public presentation about his music; teach the seven resident composers in individual and group sessions; and consult with Alarm Will Sound on the performance of “In Concert.”