CL - Mizzou International Composers Festival

The Mizzou New Music Initiative is excited to announce the 12th Annual Mizzou International Composers Festival, July 26 – 31, 2021 on the campus of the University of Missouri. Activities for resident composers begin in the evening on Friday, July 23.

Four composers from around the world will be selected through a portfolio application process to compose a work to be performed by the internationally acclaimed new music ensemble, Alarm Will Sound. Composers will take part in discussions and lessons with guest composers Chen Yi and David T. Little; take part in workshops with Alarm Will Sound and receive a professional live recording of the premiere performance of their work.

We acknowledge that COVID makes future conditions difficult to predict. If it is not safe to host the festival in-person on our campus, we will offer resident composers a virtual experience: presentations, lessons, and workshops over Zoom; an online reading/recording session by Alarm Will Sound; and live-streamed concerts. The festival is exploring hybrid online/in-person options as well. Should we need to host the festival entirely online, all selected resident composers will be invited to return to the festival in 2022 or a future year.

The four selected resident composers will be expected to compose a work for Alarm Will Sound’s complete instrumentation, see below, lasting up to 8 minutes in duration. Each selected resident composer must submit a finished preliminary score by April 20, 2021 for review by Alarm Will Sound, and professionally prepared scores (2) and parts of the final work are due by May 11, 2021.

Festival tuition, room, and board for each selected composer will be provided through the generous contributions of the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. Selected composers will need to pay for transportation to and from Columbia, MO.

Please direct questions regarding the festival to Jacob Gotlib, Managing Director, phone 573-884-9478 or e-mail gotlibj@missouri.edu.

Please visit the festival's website here.

Alarm Will Sound's Instrumentation:


• Flute/Piccolo

• Oboe/English horn

• E-flat Clarinet/B-flat Clarinet

• B-flat Clarinet/Bass Clarinet

• Bassoon


• Horn

• Trumpet

• Trombone


• Percussion: Two players with standard multi-percussion, mallet percussion, and drumkit. 


• Piano


• Violin 1

• Violin 2
• Viola

• Cello

• Double Bass

For technical questions, please check out Acceptd's Help Desk for frequently asked questions.