The Mizzou New Music Initiative has awarded the 2019 Sinquefield Composition Prize to graduate student Niko Schroeder.
Schroeder, in his first year MU studying music composition, submitted “Genealogy I” for the competition. The piece was written for piano, violin, and cello.
“Genealogy I” was selected from a pool of submissions by the Mizzou New Music Initiative and brought forth, with two other competitors’ pieces, to a group of adjudicators from three universities.
Jacob Gotlib, Managing Director of the Mizzou New Music Initiative, judged the first round of submissions. Gotlib praised Schroeder’s piece for its “sensitivity to sound and tambour.”
“The way that he explored the more sensitive sounds of the instruments he was writing for and the delicacy and detail with which he treated his musical materials, it displayed a sophistication in his musical thinking that we thought was outstanding,” Gotlib said yesterday.
Schroeder will write an original piece for the University Philharmonic Orchestra to perform and record. The original work will be played at the Chancellor’s Arts Showcase in April 2019. Schroeder also received a scholarship for his work.
Schroeder is the 14th awardee of the Sinquefield Composition Prize. Schroeder is from Iowa and graduated from grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich. He also plays tuba in his polka quartet, the Bierkeller Boys.