Dr. Kari Besharse, a lecturer of music, guitarist and composer has recently been chosen to compose a piece to be performed at the Mizzou New Music Summer Festival in Columbia, Missouri.

The festival, which will take place on July 11-16 at the University of Missouri, is a concert competition. Hundreds of composers worldwide submitted entries and only eight of them, including Besharse, were selected to create new works to be performed by acclaimed music group, Alarm Will Sound.

“I was very excited to be selected for the Mizzou New Music Summer Festival,” said Besharse. “It is a prestigious program and Alarm Will Sound, the ensemble that will be performing my piece, is one of the top new music groups in the country. The festival is a week long, and I will also be attending other concerts, attending talks, giving presentations of my music, working with the musicians and meeting with the other resident composers.”

“Rails” is the title of the piece that Besharse has composed for Alarm Will Sound to perform at the festival. The railroads and the trains that pass through Hammond inspired the piece. In her program note, Besharse describes the trains of Hammond as “too loud to simply ignore.” However, she looks past the annoyances and uses their sounds to create a unique piece of music.

“Each time a train passes, a unique and intriguing sonic experience is created,” said Besharse. “The conductors of these trains tend to lay on the horn as they are passing through town, creating a long and varied sound as the train whistles are warped by their own mechanism, the atmosphere and by speed and distance.”

According to Besharse, each of these trains has its own unique rhythmic profile, its own pattern of creaks, clicks and knocks and speed.

“When I was asked to write a piece for this festival, I decided to incorporate these sounds,” said Besharse. “I recorded the whistles and noise of the trains and analyzed them on the computer. Then I used elements from these sounds to compose the pitches and rhythms for the traditional instruments in my piece”

Back home, Besharse will continue to teach music appreciation and aural skills in the fall. She hopes to work with other faculty composers to set up concerts to showcase students and faculty as well as to introduce to the campus community works from living composers around the world.

“We are also hoping to collaborate on a concert with Richard Schwartz, the saxophone professor that showcases new music written for saxophone,” said Besharse. “These concerts at the music department will be free and open to the public, so check for information about these events this fall.”

More information on Besharse can be found on her Web site, www.karibesharse.net, and more information on the Mizzou New Music Summer Festival can be found on the University of Missouri Web site at www.newmusicsummerfestival.missouri.edu.