Higday Instrument Petting Zoo completes 2023-2024 season

Young students experimenting on instruments at the Higday Instrument Petting Zoo

Odyssey 2024 Pre-Collegiate Concerto Competition Winners!

From left to right:
Brandon Hu, St. Louis Mo – John Burroughs School
Zoe Baldwin, St. Louis MO – Clayton High School
Hayden Baker, St. Louis MO – Ladue Horton Watkins High School
Anya Akmadullina, Columbia MO – Hickman High School
Jerry Chang, St. Louis Mo – John Burroughs School
Photo by Katherine Blake

Competition underwritten by the Higday Mozart Music Trust
Performance took place at the First Baptist Church, April 5, 2024

Landlocked Opera Collaborates with Missouri Symphony In performance of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro

From left to right:
Eric McConnell as Figaro
Sarah Sheldon as Susanna
Anna Mandina as the Countess
André Chiang as the Count
Photo by Andy Newbegin

Production underwritten by the Higday Mozart Music Trust
Performances took place in the Missouri Theatre, September 9 & 10, 2023

Higday Instrument Petting Zoo

Ethan Welker demonstrates the flute to a young patron

Higday Instrument Petting Zoo in collaboration with Compass, Inc.
Spring 2023; 100 participants

Missouri Symphony 2018 Resident Opera Artists

From left to right:
Christine Seitz, Resident Opera Program Director
John David Nevergall, tenor, Resident Opera Artist
Anna Mandina, soprano, Resident Opera Artist
Mun-Tzung Wong, Resident Opera Program Coach and Accompanist
Anna Kozlakiewicz, soprano, Resident Opera Artist
John-Andrew Fernandez, Baritone, Resident Opera Artist
Kirk Trevor, Missouri Symphony Music Director and Conductor

Performance – Mostly Mozart Concert

Presented by: The Missouri Symphony and the Paul D. Higday Mozart Music Trust
Place: First Baptist Church
Date: June 24, 2018
Time: 7:00 p.m.

Performance – La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini

Presented by: The Missouri Symphony and the Paul D. Higday Mozart Music Trust
Place: Missouri Theatre
Date: June 29, 2018
Time: 7:30 p.m.

Fall 2017 Update - Higday Mozart Trust Outreach

From left to right:
Renan Leme and Jesus Gomez, violins, with Joy Martin, Music Teacher
3rd grade music class, Beulah Ralph Elementary School, Sept. 28, 2017

Through the combined efforts of the Paul D. Higday Mozart Trust and the University of Missouri School of Music, the Higday Mozart Outreach Concert Series was developed to provide opportunities for the youth in the community to experience live music of Mozart and other great composers. Since its conception in 2011, thousands of young people in the Boone County region have experienced the thrill of live music performed by the finest musicians in the MU School of Music. Mizzou's students and faculty share their passion for the arts with area youth in creative and interactive concert programs designed to stimulate curiosity and help young students cultivate their own passion for music. During the 2016-17 school year, 25 school concerts were presented to over 800 students spanning grades K-12. Teachers have been overwhelmingly pleased with the quality of the programs, requesting multiple groups to perform throughout the year. One teacher shared "the presentation was very engaging and entertaining for the students and staff."

July 2017 - Higday Mozart Trust Underwrites Programming on Classical 90.5 FM

The Paul D. Higday Mozart Music Trust currently underwrites programming on KMUC radio, 90.5 FM in Columbia, Missouri, for "Lunch with Mozart," a 1-hour weekly radio program featuring works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for "Sunday Baroque," a 4-hour weekly radio program featuring music composed during the Baroque period and the years leading up to it.

Missouri Symphony 2017 Resident Opera Artists

From left to right:
Christine Seitz, Resident Opera Program Director
Samuel Wright, baritone, Resident Opera Artist
Sarah Nordin, mezzo-soprano, Resident Opera Artist
Kirk Trevor, Missouri Symphony Music Director and Conductor
Lacy Sauter, soprano, Resident Opera Artist
Jonathan Ray, tenor, Resident Opera Artist
Mun-Tzung Wong, Resident Opera Program Coach and Accompanist

Performance – Mostly Mozart Concert

Presented by: The Missouri Symphony and the Paul D. Higday Mozart Music Trust
Place: First Baptist Church
Date: June 25, 2017
Time: 7:00 p.m.

Performance – La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi

Presented by: The Missouri Symphony and the Paul D. Higday Mozart Music Trust
Place: Missouri Theatre
Date: June 17, 2017
Time: 7:30 p.m.

Missouri Symphony 2016 Resident Opera Artists

From left to right:
Christine Seitz, Resident Opera Program Director
Darrell J. Jordan, baritone, Resident Opera Artist
Lacy Sauter, soprano, Resident Opera Artist
Mary Kettlewell, soprano, Resident Opera Artist
Nathanael Hein, tenor, Resident Opera Artist
Kirk Trevor, Missouri Symphony Music Director and Conductor

Performance – Mostly Mozart Concert

Presented by: The Missouri Symphony and the Paul D. Higday Mozart Music Trust
Place: Missouri Theater
Date: July 7, 2016
Time: 7:30 p.m.

Performance – Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, Jr.

Presented by: The Missouri Symphony and the Paul D. Higday Mozart Music Trust
Place: Missouri Theater
Date: June 24, 2016 and June 26, 2016
Time: 7:30 p.m.

Performance ­- the Juilliard String Quartet ­ 11/20/2015

Presented by: The Paul D. Higday Mozart Music Trust
Place: Missouri Theater
Date: November 20, 2015
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Tickets: oss.ticketmaster.com/aps/muconcerts/EN/buy/details/6RM1120

Performance - The King's Singers – 1/30/2014

Presented by: The Paul D. Higday Mozart Music Trust
Place: Missouri Theater
Date: January 30, 2014
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Tickets: www.concertseries.org/event/the-kings-singers

Visit The King's Singers website at kingssingers.com

Columbia Area Students Will Have Access to Mozart

Left to right: Smith, O'Hagan, Baughmann, Knight, Shay

Paul D. Higday, a Columbia resident, was deeply inspired by the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, so much so that he created a trust to make the music of Mozart and other great composers readily available to other Columbia residents. In a new partnership with the School of Music at the University of Missouri, the trust is looking to expand its audience and broaden its reach.

Terry Smith, executive vice-president and dean for academic affairs at Columbia College and trustee of the Paul D. Higday Mozart Trust, contacted Robert Shay, director of the School of Music, to propose an assistantship that would help facilitate outreach programs in K-12 schools and other settings. The purpose of the assistantship is to carry out the mission of the trust, which is "to make the pleasure of [classical] music more readily available to the general public in Columbia and surrounding areas." The other directors of the trust are Dave Knight, attorney, and David O'Hagan, professor emeritus of music, Columbia College.

"When it became clear that the Missouri Theatre would not be available indefinitely for the big concerts we usually sponsor, we identified this partnership with the School of Music as a way to use trust funds to achieve the mission," says Smith.

Melissa Baughman will begin her doctoral studies in music education at MU in fall 2011 and has been chosen for the assistantship. Baughman has bachelor's and master's degrees in music education from Bowling Green State University and previously taught K-12 choir, show choir, general music, and musical theater for six years in Ohio.

"I plan to create as many opportunities as possible to carry out the trust's mission with the help of students from the School of Music as well as assistance from area schools and the community," says Baughman.

She will be making connections through the use of ensembles, student composers, and opera workshop singers. These groups will visit schools to showcase the music of Mozart and other great composers. This program is a way to incorporate music where it typically doesn't exist.

"This is a great fit for us because it will provide opportunities for students," says Shay. "One of the goals of the School of Music is to expand outreach activities, so it was a timely offer to get our students out in the community."

The program is funded for two years. If it is successful, the funding could be extended or the program could expand.

"We believe this is important work, especially because the fine arts are often the first cuts made to school budgets," says Smith.

Paul Higday's Commentary on the Trust

My first attachment to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is recalled as clearly as though the experience had happened earlier today. I was in my car driving, listening to classical music. I recall parking at home, listening to the remainder of the selection being played. I realized how truly unusual and beautiful it was, and it created an emotional experience for me unlike any other I had ever had.

I loved nearly all types of music, but from the moment the selection had ended and the composer was announced as being Mozart, I was a total captive and lover of his music. This love has continued until the present. We have discovered the precious quality in his music that is not to be found in that of any other composer. It is this feeling for the music and for the man that I wish for every person to experience.

It is a feeling which is indescribable and it had to be an ultimate of human experience.

- Paul D. Higday
(1909-1984)

Reflections on Paul Higday

Paul Higday and his family came to Columbia in 1923 in order for him and his brother to have access to a university education. His parents had visited two or three schools and towns, and then selected Columbia as their home because they liked the school and the town, and because they thought Columbia provided the best business opportunities for his father. That fall his brother enrolled at the university and Paul enrolled as a freshman at the old Columbia High School on North Eighth Street.

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