COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Mizzou New Music Ensemble will commemorate this summer's solar eclipse with performances in Columbia and St. Louis of the "Eclipse Symphony," a new collaborative, multi-part work by four University of Missouri student composers.
The work will be previewed in a concert at 7:30 p.m. April 29 at the Bond Life Sciences Center at the university's campus, with the official premiere set for 7 p.m. May 5 at the St. Louis Science Center's James S. McDonnell Planetarium.
General admission to the concert in Columbia is $5 for the public, and is free for Mizzou faculty, students and staff.
Admission to the performance in St. Louis is free, but will require a ticket. Tickets will be available for pickup at any Science Center box office starting at 6 p.m. on the day of the concert.
The "Eclipse Symphony" has four sections, each written by a different composer to correspond to a different stage of eclipse taking place on Aug. 21. The work was composed specifically for the Mizzou New Music Ensemble with funding from the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation.
The first section, Hans Bridger Heruth's "In the Shadow of the Moon," heralds the coming of the eclipse, followed by Dustin Dunn's "Now That Daylight Fills the Sky" to mark the event's inception. Douglas Osmun's "Convergences" then describes the point of total eclipse, with Jake Smucker's "But You Have So Much to Live For" serving as a celebratory conclusion.
For the concert at the Planetarium in St. Louis, a backdrop of images, photos, and projections inspired by the eclipse will add a visual element to the Ensemble's performance.
The seven-member Mizzou New Music Ensemble is made up of University of Missouri graduate students under the direction of Stefan Freund, a cellist, composer, professor of composition and artistic director of the Mizzou New Music Initiative. The Ensemble's members for the 2016-17 season are Victoria Hargrove, clarinet; Daniel Keeler, cello; Kelariz Keshavarz, flute; Renan Leme, violin; Rebecca McDaniel, percussion; Gyumi Rha, piano; and Panagiotis Skyftas, saxophone.
The Mizzou New Music Ensemble serves as the repertory group for the Mizzou New Music Initiative, an array of programs positioning the University of Missouri School of Music as a leading center in the areas of composition and new music. In that capacity, they work with faculty, students, and visiting composers, and give public performances on campus and in the community.
The Mizzou New Music Initiative is the direct result of the generous support of Dr. Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield and the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation.
For more information about the Mizzou New Music Initiative, go to www.mizzounewmusic.missouri.edu. For more about the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation, please visit www.sinquefieldcharitablefoundation.com.
'Eclipse Symphony' to be performed
April 20, 2017 at 2:40 a.m. | Updated April 20, 2017 at 2:26 p.m.