Alumnus Nikolaus Schroeder awarded Barlow General Commission

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Oct. 10, 2024

University of Missouri graduate Nikolaus Schroeder recently received a 2024 Barlow Endowment General Commission to write a new intermedia work for Kali Ensemble, a contemporary music collective based in the Hague, the Netherlands. Schroeder graduated from Mizzou in 2020 with a Master of Music in Composition degree.

The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, one of the premier commissioning organizations for new concert music in the U.S., was established in 1983 through the generosity of Milton A. and Gloria Barlow and is administered by Brigham Young University.

Schroeder was one of 10 composers selected from 197 applications for General Commissions.

The award is for a new commission: a piece for chamber ensemble, interactive electronics, and video, of approximately 25 minutes in length. The premiere performance will be given by members of Kali Ensemble in 2026. According to Schroeder, the topic of the work will be the protracted economic and cultural death of the Rust Belt.

"I'm extraordinarily thankful to the Barlow Endowment for this commission, and for their support of adventurous and innovative music-making," Schroeder said.

Schroeder was a Resident Composer at the 2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival, where his piece Contrapunctus // Song was premiered.

"Niko Schroeder's Barlow Commission for the Kali Ensemble of the Netherlands is another example of the national and international impact of the Mizzou New Music Initiative," said MNMI Artistic Director Stefan Freund.

Another 2022 MICF Resident Composer, Pascal Le Boeuf, also won a General Barlow Commission to compose a new work for [Switch~Ensemble], which includes Dr. Megan Arns, Director of Percussion Studies at Mizzou.

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