All this week, Alarm Will Sound has been featured as the resident ensemble of the inaugural Mizzou New Music Summer Festival, which runs through Sunday at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. The school’s Mizzou New Music Institute selected eight composers from around the world to participate in the weeklong festival, receive composition lessons with resident composers Martin Bresnick and Derek Bermel, and have their work performed by Alarm Will Sound, whose Nonesuch debut album, a/rhythmia, was released last year.

Alarm Will Sound opened the festival Monday evening with a concert featuring works by John Adams, Aphex Twin, and Harrison Britwistle, as well as world premieres of works by W. Thomas McKinney and Alarm Will Sound pianist John Orfe. Each day of the week, the composers attend master classes and presentations by the artists-in-residence, followed by individual lessons with Bresnick and Bermel, and rehearsals of their works with Alarm Will Sound. The days have concluded with evening presentations and concerts at the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts, open to the public and featuring Alarm Will Sound; the Missouri Symphony Society Music Ensemble; Stefan Freund, a member of both Alarm Will Sound and the University of Missouri faculty; and resident pianist Lisa Moore, who performed a solo recital featuring works of Bresnick, Janáček, Sam Adams, Timothy Andres, and Don Byron.

This Sunday, this festival will culminate in the world premieres of the eight festival composers' works in a final concert at the Missouri Theatre by Alarm Will Sound. In a recent interview with the Columbia Daily Tribune, the ensemble's artistic director, Alan Pierson, discusses his hopes for the week's events, they they will help spark further interest in the Midwest for the type of music being created at the festival. Pierson also explains what attracts him to new music: "There are certain pieces which have a sense of infinite depth, music which makes me feel that there's always more of great real significance to learn, hear, and understand. Delving into music like that is always enormously exciting." Read more at columbiatribune.com.

For more information on the festival, visit music.missouri.edu.