Music Director Stefan Freund
Stefan Freund received a BM with High Distinction from the Indiana University School of Music and an MM and DMA from Eastman School of Music. His primary composition teachers included Pulitzer Prize winners Christopher Rouse and Joseph Schwantner, as well as Augusta Read Thomas, Frederick Fox, Claude Baker, David Dzubay, and Don Freund, his father. He studied cello with Steven Doane, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, and Peter Spurbeck, among others. He is presently Associate Professor of Composition and Music Theory at the University of Missouri. Previously, he was Assistant Professor of Composition at Eastman School of Music.
Freund is the recipient of two William Schuman Prizes and the Boudleaux Bryant Prize from BMI, five ASCAP Morton Gould Grants, ten ASCAP Plus Awards, a Music Merit Award from the National Society of Arts and Letters, and the Howard Hanson Prize. He was selected as the 2004 Music Teachers National Association-Shepherd Distinguished Composer of the Year. In 2006 he was awarded the MU Provost’s Outstanding Junior Faculty Research and Creative Activity Award. Freund has received commissions from the New Spectrum Foundation, Carnegie Hall Corporation, Phoenix Symphony, New York Youth Symphony, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Verdehr Trio, Seattle Town Hall, Louisville String Quartet, and SCI/ASCAP. His music has been performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Weill Recital Hall, NPR's St. Paul Sunday Morning, the National Gallery of Art, Aspen Music Festival, and the Art Institute of Chicago. International performances include the Berliner Philharmonie, International Performing Arts Center (Moscow), Glinka Hall (St. Petersburg), Queen's Hall (DK), the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre, and other concert halls in Europe. His works have been recorded on the Innova, Crystal, and Centaur labels.
Active as a performer and producer of new music, Freund is the founding cellist of the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound. His cello performances include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Hermitage Theatre (RU), the Muzikgebouw (ND), and the World Financial Center. He has recorded on the Nonesuch, Cantaloupe, and I Virtuosi labels, as well as Sweetspot Music DVD. In addition, Freund is the director of Mizzou’s Creating Original Music Project and co-directs the Mizzou New Music Initiative. Since 2003 Freund has directed the Columbia Civic Orchestra.
Freund is the recipient of two William Schuman Prizes and the Boudleaux Bryant Prize from BMI, five ASCAP Morton Gould Grants, ten ASCAP Plus Awards, a Music Merit Award from the National Society of Arts and Letters, and the Howard Hanson Prize. He was selected as the 2004 Music Teachers National Association-Shepherd Distinguished Composer of the Year. In 2006 he was awarded the MU Provost’s Outstanding Junior Faculty Research and Creative Activity Award. Freund has received commissions from the New Spectrum Foundation, Carnegie Hall Corporation, Phoenix Symphony, New York Youth Symphony, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Verdehr Trio, Seattle Town Hall, Louisville String Quartet, and SCI/ASCAP. His music has been performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Weill Recital Hall, NPR's St. Paul Sunday Morning, the National Gallery of Art, Aspen Music Festival, and the Art Institute of Chicago. International performances include the Berliner Philharmonie, International Performing Arts Center (Moscow), Glinka Hall (St. Petersburg), Queen's Hall (DK), the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre, and other concert halls in Europe. His works have been recorded on the Innova, Crystal, and Centaur labels.
Active as a performer and producer of new music, Freund is the founding cellist of the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound. His cello performances include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Hermitage Theatre (RU), the Muzikgebouw (ND), and the World Financial Center. He has recorded on the Nonesuch, Cantaloupe, and I Virtuosi labels, as well as Sweetspot Music DVD. In addition, Freund is the director of Mizzou’s Creating Original Music Project and co-directs the Mizzou New Music Initiative. Since 2003 Freund has directed the Columbia Civic Orchestra.