About the Missouri Symphony

Welcome to the Missouri Symphony! Our organization is dedicated to enhancing and increasing the cultural awareness of classical music in mid-Missouri by presenting high-caliber performances by professional musicians while encouraging and education young performing artists.

We are home to the Missouri Symphony Orchestra, the Missouri Symphony Conservatory and the Missouri Symphony League. Our rich history and exciting future continually inspires our organization to strive to provide our community with a one-of-a-kind musical experience.

Identity Statement:

The Missouri Symphony is dedicated to educating young musicians and engaging professional artists through exceptional symphonic
music performance. We strive to enhance and increase the cultural awareness of symphonic music in Mid-Missouri. MOSY is home to
the Missouri Symphony Orchestra, the Missouri Symphony Conservatory, and the Missouri Symphony League. We strive to create an environment that is accessible to diverse audiences who come together as one community in the shared experience of symphonic music.

Mission Statement:

The Missouri Symphony is committed to educating young artists and engaging diverse audiences through exceptional and transformative symphonic performances.

Vision Statement:

We want to collaborate with professional musicians in a moving, shared orchestral experience.
We want to educate and inspire young musicians through performance opportunities to become lifelong music advocates.
We want to build community by offering exciting volunteer opportunities in support of our musical endeavors.

Musicians - Hot Summer Nights Musicians - Symphony of Toys

Our Staff

Trent Rash

Executive Director

Trent has been pleased to be serving as the Executive Director of The Missouri Symphony since August 2019. Music has always been such an integral and meaningful part of his life and he is honored to continue to support the mission of MOSY to ignite a passion for music in the Columbia community. As a driving goal, Trent wants to cultivate excitement about MOSY, what it is doing, and where it is going. His is door is always open , so if you have questions on MOSY’s administration operations, feel free to stop by the office or contact Trent by emailing trent@themosy.org.

Monica Senecal Palmer

Director of Development

Monica’s relationship with The Missouri Symphony began when she was still waking up Mid-Missouri as the Monica half of “Chris and Monica in the Morning” on 101.5 KPLA. She quickly fell in love with the passionate MOSY artists, volunteers and supporters. Monica joined the staff in August of 2019, and she considers it an honor to help develop the resources and support necessary to keep MOSY thriving for generations to come. For any questions about our development or fundraising, contact Monica at monica@themosy.org.

Rachael Norden

Office Manager

Bringing to the table her extensive backgrounds in music, accounting, and customer service, Rachael has a passion for the arts and arts administration and has been contributing her skills as part of the MOSY team since April of 2018. Happy to answer any questions you may have about payments, invoices, donations, memberships, upcoming MOSY events, or just general inquiries, feel free to reach out to Rachael any time by emailing office@themosy.org.

Brianna Trainor

Director of Education & Outreach

A long standing musician with the Symphony, Brianna holds a Master’s Degree in Percussion Performance and a Graduate Certificate in Music Entrepreneurship – both from the University of Missouri – where she now teaches as and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music for the School of Music. Brianna is a proud Wisconsin native, an avid lover of the color purple, and has been contributing her skills as part of the MOSY team since November 2019. Feel free to reach out to Brianna if you have any questions regarding the Conservatory or other education and outreach programs, such as our Young Peoples Concert event, by emailing education@themosy.org.

Brianna Frieda

Conservatory Assistant Music Director

Having graduated from Mizzou with a Bachelors in Music in 2013, Briana moved on to pursue a Masters in Musicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, of which she achieved in 2015. Today, Briana continues to contribute to the artistic and musical community of Columbia teaching not only as Assistant Director for MOSY, but as the Orchestra Director at Oakland Middle School and Director of the Chamber Orchestra at Battle High School.

Kirk Trevor

Music Director & Conductor

Kirk Trevor has made a global impact in the area of orchestral recording and conducting teaching, as well as leading the musical lives of three major American cities over the past thirty years.

Maestro Trevor became Music Director of the Missouri Symphony Orchestra in 2000. He has led MSO in the summer music festival since 2001 and in 2004 transformed the Festival into Hot Summer Nights, expanding the number of performances as well as the diversity of the program. In 2011, he created and conducted the first Symphony of Toys Holiday Concert, a program now held annually.

Born and educated in England, he graduated cum laude in cello performance and conducting. He came to the United States in 1975 on a Fulbright grant and subsequently became Resident Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He then served as Music Director of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra for eighteen years.

His lifelong philosophy has been one of how to make classical music relevant within current culture. To that end he has tried to make programs that are engaging and entertaining for audiences as well as identify, train and mentor new generations of young musicians through the various educational programs he has established.

In 2007, Maestro Trevor founded the Missouri Symphony Conservatory, a new initiative to train, educate and inspire young musicians in a variety of activities and the three orchestras. He strives to create a program that nurtures the joy and creativity within young musicians, while inspiring them to achieve extra-musical and communicative goals rather than just performance ones.
It has been through Maestro Trevor’s involvement in the training and development of new generations of listeners, players and conductors that he has developed an international following. Winner of the 1990 Leonard Bernstein Conducting Competition, he is widely recognized as one of the leading conducting teachers in the world. He is a regular teacher around the world as well as his own conducting summer school now in its’ thirtieth year. In the spring of 2019, he held a semester position at the famed Eastman School of Music as Director of Orchestras and Conducting.

Maestro Trevor is one of the world’s most recorded conductors of the past fifty years with more than 120 albums to his name. He has recorded for all the major record labels, and has also recorded symphonic music for movies, documentaries (Ezekial, Terezin in Israel), TV, (Mozart in the Jungle) and video games (Diablo, Warcraft).

As a guest conductor, Maestro Trevor has conducted more than 40 orchestras in 15 countries. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2007. From 1995 to 2000 he was Music Director of the Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra in the Czech Republic and from 2002 until 2005 was Principal Guest Conductor of the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. He and his wife Maria and their three children; 14 year-old Sylvia, 12 year-old Daniel and 8 year-old Aidan make their home in Columbia and Bratislava. His daughter Chloe is a renowned violin soloist and appears worldwide, sometimes with her father on the podium with her.