The UMKC Conservatory has earned national and international recognition through its music and dance performance, composition, teaching and scholarship. The most comprehensive music and dance educational center in the Midwest since 1906, the Conservatory boasts more than 80 faculty widely recognized as world-class scholars, artists, teachers and leaders in their fields.

The Conservatory attracts many of the finest students in the world with more than 600 musicians and dancers currently enrolled. The students are nearly equally divided between undergraduate and graduate degree programs. The Conservatory consists of six divisions including Composition, Music Theory and Musicology, Dance, Instrumental Studies, Keyboard Studies, Music Education/Music Therapy, and Vocal Studies.

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Recent Submissions

  • Music theory pedagogy: melding Dalcroze Eurhythmics with Brain Gym® 

    Miller, Phaedra A. (Phaedra Arlene), 1968- (University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2008)
    Dalcroze Eurhythmies was developed early in the twentieth century as a pedagogical model to teach well-rounded musicians. Ongoing research to further develop this teaching technique was Dalcroze's passion until his death ...
  • God of Some Things for Ensemble 

    Clark, Nicholas Perry (2024)
    God of Some Things takes sculptures and collages of artist Huma Bhabha and creates sonic illustrations of her uncanny work. In twelve movements, each representing a different art piece, the work takes a kaleidoscopic and ...
  • Three deaths 

    Zheng, Xu (2024)
    Three Deaths is composed for flute, French horn, detuned-cello, and percussion, comprised of three movements, each dedicated to a specific death in chronological order. These three tragic stories are all associated with ...
  • Life and death are wearing me out 

    Li, Yun (Composer) (2024)
    Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out is an orchestral composition inspired by Mo Yan's novel of the same name, which explores themes of existence, resilience, and socio-political turmoil in China during a specific period. ...
  • Geotemporal Dreams (or, the Prophet) 

    Tesch, Zachary Edward (2024)
    Geotemporal Dreams (or, the Prophet) is an experiment in creating a concert work that ties in elements of theatre and surrealist storytelling, resulting in an evening-length piece for a quartet of flute, clarinet, percussion, ...
  • Water play for chamber ensemble 

    Wang, Mengyuan (2024)
    Water Play is a musical piece that integrates traditional Chinese elements, drawing inspiration from ancient Chinese culture's praise and depiction of water. It aims to present the rich imagery of water in Chinese culture. ...
  • Baltering: Music for the contemporary ballet class 

    Thomas, Jacob Ross (2024)
    The ballet pianist often serves as the main source of “Classical” or art music to the modern ballet dancer, and their choice of repertoire— along with the technical exercises that the dancers are given— naturally reflect ...
  • Melting the candle holder 

    Wang, Leyou (2024)
    My piece Melting the Candle Holder consists of three sprechgesang arias accompanied by symphony orchestra, each written for a character in the story Melting the Candle Holder, a traditional Chinese monologue cross-talk ...
  • Over the Desolation of Wildness Caresses the April Breeze 

    Wang, Siqi (2024)
    Over the Desolation of Wildness Caresses the April Breeze is a music composition that serves as an artistic response to the theme of pacifism, drawing inspiration from ancient Chinese philosophy and the ongoing chaos caused ...
  • Jujube 

    Mi, Yimian (2024)
    Jujube is a septet written for a jazz combo. The work is intended to explore the unique music language that combines Chinese Shanxi folk song singing style and jazz instrumental performing manner. The alto saxophone and ...
  • Xuanwumen Coup d'état 

    Tian, Songfeng (2024)
    Xuanwumen Coup d'État is a large chamber ensemble work that draws inspiration from the pivotal historical event of the Xuanwumen coup d'état orchestrated by Li Shimin in 626 AD. This coup not only marked Li Shimin's triumph ...
  • Crossroads of the Earth 

    Wang, Jiaqi (2024)
    Crossroads of The Earth is a single-movement mixed quartet in five sections, set for flute/piccolo, alto saxophone, violoncello, and piano. My inspiration for this composition stemmed from the environmental awareness film ...
  • Cross-cultural musical encounters: Muslim Mediterranean in the Enlightenment imagination 

    Snyder, Alexandria Lynn (2023)
    The rise of Enlightenment thinking during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries prompted many thinkers to search for new knowledge in varied ways. This shift motivated travelers to journey to places farther outside of ...
  • The Invisible Band: Cultural, Economic, and Societal Issues in Harmoniemusik 

    Pogorelova, Anya (2023)
    The phenomenon of harmoniemusik is unique in that it represents the richest emperors, the old and new aristocracy, and the poorest street beggars of Vienna all at the same time. Employing a harmoniemusik ensemble was so ...
  • This is All It Is for Treble Voice and Fixed Media 

    Hedrick, Katheryn Mae (2023)
    This is All It Is for treble voice and fixed media was born of the composer’s mission to combine her most admired genres of music. All five songs feature homages toward both pop music and electroacoustic traditions, however, ...
  • What Pain Calls to Witness for Mezzo-soprano, Clarinet, Piano, and Fixed Media 

    Caggiano, Gracie Christine (2023)
    What Pain Calls to Witness is an extended song cycle for mezzo-soprano, clarinet, piano, and fixed media, that contemplates aspects of disability. The work sets seven poems from Travis Chi Wing Lau’s Vagaries, which explores ...
  • Dispatches 

    Clay, Jack Henry (2023)
    Dispatches is an eight-movement work that focuses on the very human emotions of love and desire, including the darker side of these, as well as the effects of separation on the heart and mind. Using a small chamber ensemble ...
  • ORATORIO No. 1 

    Baker, Benjamin (2023)
    “ORATORIO NO. 1” is a multimedia polyptych for solo instrumentalist, live electronics, fixed media, short film, and interactive video. This work focuses on confusion of personal identity and the representation of self ...
  • The Autumn Leaves Swirl in Crisp October Wind 

    Lester, Ian (2023)
    The Autumn Leaves Swirl in Crisp October Wind is a programmatic work for wind ensemble consisting of five sections. Each section of the work takes the listener on a journey through my own childhood memories of autumn in ...
  • Ludwig Senfl's Psalm Motets and Their Influence, Use, and Musical Value in Politics and Religious Reformation 

    Roberts, Brittany Grace (2023)
    Within a culture of rapidly shifting religious ideas, music of the German-speaking lands began to slip into obscurity in the sixteenth century. It took the work of a few key players in an often dangerous climate of reformation ...

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