Missouri Composers Project

The Columbia Civic Orchestra and Columbia Chamber Choir seek orchestral and choral works for the 2024 Missouri Composers Project (MOCOP) competition, with the goal of promoting music for larger forces written by Missouri composers. Works can be submitted in one of four categories:

  • Open Orchestral (up to 10 minutes in duration)
  • Open Choral (up to 8 minutes in duration)
  • High School Orchestral (up to 10 minutes in duration)
  • High School Choral (up to 8 minutes in duration)

The open categories include any composer, of any age, who is either a resident of Missouri or whose submitted work was written while the composer was living in Missouri. The high school categories include any composer enrolled in grades 9-12 in a Missouri high school. Instrumentation for orchestral submissions should not exceed: 2+pic, 2+EH, 2+B.Cl, 2, 4, 3, 3, 1, Timp+2 perc, strings.

One winner will be chosen from each of the four categories. The four selected composers will receive a performance and professional recording of their winning work by the Columbia Civic Orchestra (directed by Stefan Freund) or Columbia Chamber Choir (directed by Emily Edgington Andrews), as well as a $500 honorarium. Winning composers must be present during the premiere of the work in order to receive their cash award and MNMI is not responsible for travel costs.

Previous MOCOP winners are not eligible to apply. 

To apply for the 2023 competition, please click here to fill out your information and upload your materials. Submissions are due by December 4, 2023.

The 2024 concert will take place at Broadway Christian Church on Sunday, March 10, 2024 at 7:30pm. The concert is FREE and open to the public. A dress rehearsal with the composers present will take place in the church from 2:30-6:15pm that afternoon. Columbia Civic Orchestra Music Director Stefan Freund and Columbia Chamber Choir Artistic Director Emily Andrews, along with several guest conductors, will conduct the concert.

Missouri High School & Open Composer Categories

One piece will be selected from an open category in the state of Missouri. The piece must be a recent work for orchestra up to 10 minutes in duration. The piece must have been composed while the composer was living in Missouri. The winning composer will receive a $500 honorarium. The maximum instrumentation for submissions will be 2+pic, 2+ EH, 2+b cl,2 4,3,3,1 Timp+2 Perc Strings.

One piece for orchestra or string orchestra will be selected from a high school category in the state of Missouri. The maximum instrumentation for submissions will be 2+pic, 2+ EH, 2+b cl,2 4,3,3,1 Timp+2 Perc Strings.  The piece must be a recent work for symphony orchestra up to 10 minutes in duration. The piece must have been composed while the composer was living in Missouri. The winning composer will receive a $500 honorarium.

We encourage High School applicants to be in touch with our distance learning instructor, Niko Schroeder (n.d.schroeder@mail.missouri.edu).

One piece will be selected from an open category in the state of Missouri. The piece must be a recent work for SATB choir (with or without piano) up to 8 minutes in duration. The piece must have been composed while the composer was living in Missouri. The winning composer will receive a $500 honorarium.

One piece will be selected from a high school category in the state of Missouri. The piece must be a recent work for SATB choir (with or without piano) up to 8 minutes in duration. The piece must have been composed while the composer was living in Missouri. The winning composer will receive a $500 honorarium. 

We encourage High School applicants to be in touch with our distance learning instructor, Niko Schroeder (n.d.schroeder@mail.missouri.edu).

Application process

  • Complete the online application form
  • PDF score (with no name or other identifying marks)
  • Recording (MP3, WAV, AIFF) or MIDI Realization of the work
  • Brief biographical sketch (250 words or less)

The maximum instrumentation for orchestral submissions will be 2,2,2,2 4,3,3,1 Timp+2 Perc Strings. Only completed applications will be accepted.

*Please make sure there are no identifying marks other than the title of the composition on the submitted score. Do not put the name of the composer(s) or school on the score or recording. Recordings must include either a live recording or MIDI realization of the work.

MOCOP 2022-23

The winners for 2022-2023 are:

  • Open Orchestral: Jiaqi Wang (Kansas City), The Call of Life
  • Undergraduate Orchestral: Jaylin Vinson (Oklahoma City), Scissor-Tailed
  • High School Orchestral: Ovya Diwakaran (St. Louis), Carnival
  • Open Choral: JD Daniel (Kansas City), May I Be at Ease
  • Undergraduate Choral: Ryan Oldham (Prairie Village), Where
  • Open Orchestral, Honorable Mention: Harry Gonzalez (Columbia), 2020

Read more about the winners

Live-stream concert

Past Winners

The winners for 2021 were:

  • Open Orchestral: Devin Cholodenko, Mountains in the Distance
  • High School Orchestral: Henry Rusten, Themes of Imagination
  • Open Choral: James Davidson, O Oriens
  • High School Choral: Thomas Libbert, Fire Doesn’t Always Have to Burn

Read more about the 2021 winners

Last year full concert is available in this link.

Open Orchestral: Dan Viggers, New Elegance

Open Orchestral Honorable Mention: 

  • Luke Carlson, Creations 

  • Lan Shi, Sprout

  • Aubrie Powell, Nightmares and Dreams

High School Orchestral: David McCaulley, 'Till the End of Time

High School Orchestral Honorable Mention: Kyle Yerby, Requiem
 

Open Choral: Jiyoun Chung, My Beautiful One, Come Away With me

High School Choral: Robyne Sieh, Peace

Choral Honorable Mention: Cole Reyes, Good Night

Open Orchestral Category Winner: The Social Justice Warrior by Ben Rouder

Missouri Student Orchestral Winner: Imagination by Olivia Bennett

Missouri Student Orchestral Honorable Mention: Shades of a Hero by David McCaulley

Open Choral Winner 1: O Magnum Mysterium by Ed Frazier Davis

Open Choral Winner 2: Swallow by Guanyu Cao

Open Orchestral Category Winner: Antrios by Aaron Mencher

Open Orchestral Category Honorable Mention: Dance and Sunrise by Ian David Coleman

Missouri Student Orchestral Winner: The Fall of Númenor by Devon Bollin

Missouri Student Orchestral Honorable Mention: March of the Trees by Ben Rouder

Open Choral Winner: Clap Your Hands by Carlyle Sharpe

Missouri Student Choral Winner: Silence by Brandon Thibodeau

Open Orchestral Category Winner: Dangerously Slick by Robert Fruehwald

Missouri Student Orchestral Winner: The Hare by Olivia Bennett

Open Choral Winner: The Land of Nod by Zachary Cairns

Open Choral Winner: Crucifixus by William Hooper

SEC Student Orchestral Category Winner: A Cypress Prelude by Christopher Lowry

SEC Student Choral Winner: When I Am Dead, My Dearest by Ryan Stennes

Missouri Student Orchestral Category Winner: Nightmare Waltz by Emily Shaw

Missouri Student Choral Winner: Solar Flare by Ethan Forte

Missouri Open Orchestral Category Winner: Wafting Mists by Daniel Morel

Missouri Student Orchestral Category Winner: Impression on a Theme by Hans Heruth

Missouri Open Orchestral Category Winner: Refracted Moonlight by Zachary Cairns

Missouri Student Orchestral Category Winner: Firelight by Alex Williams

Missouri Open Orchestral Category Winners:

  • FE 700° C by Patrick David Clark
  • From the Book of the Dead by Robert Strobel

Missouri Student Orchestral Category Winner: Appalachian Rhapsody by Dustin Dunn

Missouri Open Orchestral Category Winners: Ravish and Mayhem by Stephanie Berg

Honorable Mentions:

  • flourishes by Nicholas S. Omiccioli
  • FE 700° C by Patrick David Clark

Missouri Student Orchestral Category Winner: The Tragedy of the Hero by Edward Crouse

Missouri Open Orchestral Category Winners:

  • Euphoria Overture by Michael Blackwood
  • This Is the Garden by Joseph Eidson
  • Menuet Macabre by Warren Gooch

Honorable Mention: I Jest by Ryan Jesperson

Special Mentions: Erebus: Fantasia for Guitar & Orchestra by Michael Strausbaugh

Listen to works by previous MOCOP winners here:

2024 Missouri Composers Project (MOCOP) Application Form

Applications for the 2023-24 Missouri Composers Project open on October 6, 2023 and will close on December 4, 2023.