Mizzou fest premieres great new music each summer. This ensemble will play selections in NYC

Through Columbia's various concert series and one-off dates, often the great art, theater and music of New York comes to us. Next week, a vanguard ensemble will take some of Columbia's great music back.

Alarm Will Sound , one of the true standard-bearers in contemporary chamber music, will perform a retrospective program of music written for the Mizzou International Composers Festival Thursday, Aug. 22 during the Time:Spans Festival at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City.

Alarm Will Sound long has functioned as a sort of distinguished house band for MICF, and enjoys a close connection with MU, counting professor and cellist Stefan Freund among its cornerstone members.

"For the past 15 years, the Mizzou International Composers Festival has been a remarkable gathering of composers, performers, and audiences that has greatly enriched the Alarm Will Sound community," artistic director and conductor Alan Pierson said in a news release.

"We have had the privilege of premiering over a hundred new works, some of which have since been performed globally. We are delighted to share some of our favorite pieces from the MICF at the Time:Spans Festival this summer."

The Aug. 22 program features:

• "Try" by Andrew Norman
• "Carmen Infernarum Machinarum Fugax" by Claude Baker
• "Hexactinellida" by Chelsea Komschlies
• "Enjambres" by Felipe Tovar-Henao
• "splitting to collapse" by Kelley Sheehan
• "Code-Switching" by Marcos Balter

Of course, not all these composers are from Columbia, but each piece was nurtured and premiered here, save Norman's work, which has been played at two different iterations of MICF.

The Time:Spans fest, which dates back to 2015, stretches over two weeks this month. Past seasons have included performances by JACK Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Deerhoof and Sō Percussion. Learn more at https://timespans.org/ and keep up with all things MICF at https://newmusic.missouri.edu/micf .

Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. He's on Twitter/X @aarikdanielsen.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Mizzou fest premieres great new music each summer. This ensemble will play selections in NYC