The University of Missouri School of Music and the Mizzou New Music Initiative have awarded the 2025 Sinquefield Composition Prize to student composer Giovanni Porfirio. The prize is the top award for a composition student at Mizzou.

Porfirio is a composer from Sao Paulo, Brazil and earned a bachelor’s degree from Sao Paulo State University. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Missouri.

As the Sinquefield Composition Prize winner, Porfirio will receive a $2,500 scholarship and be commissioned to write a new work for the University Philharmonic Orchestra, which will premier to a campus and community audience at the Chancellor’s Arts Showcase on February 21, 2025. Additionally, the new work will be professionally recorded.

Porfirio’s compositional philosophy centers on the fusion of harmonicity (defined pitches) and inharmonicity (undefined pitches), influenced by his experience with electroacoustic music. 

“My intention is to create a fusion of contemporary music and Bossa Nova, a Brazilian genre that incorporates elements of Jazz and Samba,” says Porfirio. “Additionally, the piece will feature influences of French Impressionism and Spectralism, particularly in the orchestration, which echoes the textures and atmospheres characteristic of those styles.”

“Attracting a student with Giovanni’s talent and South American influences to study and compose at Mizzou is another win for making Missouri a mecca in the world of new music,” said Dr. Jeanne Sinquefield of the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. “His works show why music is the joy of life.”