SACKVILLE, NB — The Mount Allison University Music Department will welcome renowned composer Missy Mazzoli as its fourth Bragg Artist-in-Residence this fall. Mazzoli will be on campus between Nov. 15-18.
 
“We are delighted to welcome Missy Mazzoli to Mount Allison as our fourth Bragg Artist-in-Residence this November,” says Dr. Stephen Runge, Music Department Head. “This residency gives our students, faculty, as well as the wider community unique learning and performance opportunities with world-renowned musicians, scholars, performances, and composers such as Missy. We look forward to having her on campus and are thankful to the Bragg Family for their continued support in music education.”

Missy Mazzoli is the Mead Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and her music has been performed all over the world by renowned symphonies, quartets, operas, and musicians. In 2018 she made history when she became one of the two first women (along with composer Jeanine Tesori) to be commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. In 2019 she was nominated for a Grammy in the category of “Best Classical Composition” for her work Vespers for Violin, recorded by violinist Olivia De Prato.

Having attended Yale School of Music, the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, and Boston University, Mazzoli has received considerable acclaim for her operatic compositions. Over her career, Mazzoli was Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia, Gotham Chamber Opera and Music Theatre-Group, Composer/Educator in residence with the Albany Symphony, and a visiting professor of music at New York University. She was also part of the composition faculty at the Mannes College of Music and served was Executive Director of the MATA Festival in New York. In 2016, co-founded Luna Composition Lab, a mentorship program and support network for female-identifying, non-binary and gender nonconforming composers ages 12-18.

Mazzoli is an active TV and film composer, and recently wrote and performed music for the Amazon TV show Mozart in the Jungle. She also contributed music to the documentaries Detropia and Book of Conrad and the film A Woman, A Part. 

A pianist and keyboardist, Mazzoli often performs with Victoire, a band she founded in 2008 dedicated to her own compositions. Their debut full-length CD, Cathedral City, was named one of 2010′s best classical albums by Time Out New York, NPR, the New Yorker and the New York Times, and was followed by the critically acclaimed Vespers for a New Dark Age, a collaboration with percussionist Glenn Kotche. In the past decade they have played in venues all over the world including Carnegie Hall, the M.A.D.E. Festival in Sweden, the C3 Festival in Berlin and Millennium Park in Chicago. 

Mazzoli is the recipient of multiple awards and  honours including a 2019 Grammy nomination, the 2017 Music Critics Association of America Inaugural Award for Best Opera, the 2018 Godard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a 2015 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award, four ASCAP Young Composer Awards, a Fulbright Grant to The Netherlands, the Detroit Symphony’s Elaine Lebenbom Award, and grants from the Jerome Foundation, American Music Center, and the Barlow Endowment. She has been awarded fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Ucross, VCCA, the Blue Mountain Center, and the Hermitage.

Bragg Artist-in-Residency public events  

As part of the 2022-2023 Bragg Artist Residency, Missy Mazzoli will take part in several classes and events in Mount Allison’s Marjorie Young Bell Music Conservatory. Events open to the public are listed below. Please note masks are required inside university buildings.

Wednesday, Nov. 16, 4 p.m.
Brunton Auditorium
Colloquium musicum: “Dark with Excessive Bright: The Instrumental works of Missy Mazzoli.”  
Mazzoli discusses her life as a composer and performer, with a special emphasis on her instrumental music. 

Thursday, Nov. 17, 7 p.m.
Brunton Auditorium
Public talk: From MTV to the Metropolitan Opera: Operatic works by Missy Mazzoli
Mazzoli discusses her dramatic works for the stage. 

Friday, Nov. 18, 7:30 p.m.
Brunton Auditorium
Chamber Music recital: This year’s Bragg Residency concludes with a concert of solo and chamber works by Missy Mazzoli, including her Vespers for a New Dark Age for voices and chamber ensemble and a solo piano performance by the composer herself.

The Bragg Artist-in-Residency is made possible with the Bragg Women in Music Opportunities Fund, established in 2017 by John Bragg, Mount Allison alumnus and past Chancellor, and his wife Judy, also a Mount Allison graduate. The fund honours five women in the Bragg family who made significant contributions to music education including: Zillah Bragg, Sylvia Bragg, Kathleen (Bragg) Sherman ('52), Carolyn (Bragg) Glennie ('58), and Lorraine (Bragg) Moore ('70). It helps support performance and experiential learning opportunities for Music students and brings artists of international calibre to campus through the Artist-in-Residence program.