UCM Alumna to Kick Off Spring Piano Concerts with ‘Fifteen Minutes of Fame’ Premiere

 

The University of Central Missouri (UCM) Division of Music will highlight the work of pianists with four concerts this spring.

The first concert will feature UCM alumna Kari Johnson Barroso, DMA, at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 5 at Hart Recital Hall in the Utt Building on the Warrensburg campus. Admission is free. 

The central work of her program is the premiere of “Fifteen Minutes of Fame,” a collection of 15 miniature pieces, each lasting up to one minute, written by 15 different composers specifically for Johnson Barroso. Other works will include “Desdémona,” written in 1913 by Mélanie Hélène Bonis, and “Vignette, Op. 105: Floating Andante,” written in 2008 by Takashi Yoshimatsu. 

Johnson Barroso has been featured as a performer at Electronic Music Midwest, the Thailand International Composition Festival, SEAMUS, the Seoul International Computer Music Festival, and Electronic Music Midwest in Kansas City. She has graduate degrees from the University of Illinois and Bowling Green State University and a doctorate from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She has a bachelor's degree from UCM, where she studied under Mia Kim, DMA, professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy.

Johnson Barroso’s program is the first of four concerts this spring hosted by UCM Music that will highlight pianists. Upcoming concerts include Angela Kim on March 25, Lucy Tan on March 30 and the 2026 UCM Keyboard Showcase on April 11. 

For more information, contact Mia Kim at 660-543-8900 or mkim@ucmo.edu.