Minneapolis resident Katie Condon is the Education Specialist for Classical MPR and the Narrator/Education Consultant for the Friends of Minnesota Orchestra's Kinder Konzerts program. She also teaches general music, piano, and musicianship at MacPhail Center for Music. She occasionally improvises live scores for silent movies at the various movie theaters around town.

Katie is one of four winners of Zeitgeist's 25th annual Eric Stokes Song Contest. Named in memory of late composer Eric Stokes, the contest is designed to encourage and celebrate amateur composers throughout the Twin Cities. Katie's winning composition, Insomnia, will be performed by Zeitgeist at their annual Playing it Close to Home concert, March 6-8 at Studio Z. 

Katie's musical background as a pianist and improvisor eventually led her to composing:
"I was trained in just about every area of music except composition. But I think it's always sort of the thing I wanted to do. Over the years, I've dabbled a bit--mostly writing songs for a children's theater in my hometown (Watertown, MN) and writing songs that I use when teaching young children in the classroom. A little while back, I attended the Walden Creative Musicians Retreat in New Hampshire in order to get some time away to prepare for a film score improvisation. I ended up starting to put pencil to paper a bit, and that's the origin of this piece (Insomnia)."

"When I was a kid, I sometimes struggled with falling asleep at night. My mom taught me a game- go through the alphabet and think of a place you'd like to visit for each letter. 'A' for Argentina, etc. It always worked. As an adult, I still use this trick if I'm having trouble sleeping. One particularly rough night, I decided to try to spell out the letters of each place using some sort of musical device--a melodic line, the letters of the destination on the staff, etc. It might not make a whole lot of sense in the light of day, but it gave me a starting point. So far, I've done four letters: A, C, D, and F. Not sure if I'll ever get to all 26." 

The music of Samuel William Novak casts traditional musical principles in a 21st century vernacular, applying lyrical melody, colorful harmony, textural ingenuity, timbral intrigue, and formal clarity in an idiom that embraces both free chromaticism and neotonality. Samuel's primary goal as a composer is "to give back the irreplaceable spiritual, emotional, and intellectual nourishment my favorite music gives me." Samuel began composing at age 17 and his earliest pieces were songs for voice and guitar. In May 2019 he graduated with a BFA in Music Composition & Technology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he studied with Amanda Schoofs, Kevin Schlei, Jon Welstead, Jonathan Monhardt, and William Heinrichs.

Samuel is one of four winners of Zeitgeist's 25th annual Eric Stokes Song Contest. Named in memory of late composer Eric Stokes, the contest is designed to encourage and celebrate amateur composers throughout the Twin Cities. Samuel's winning composition, Two Self-portraits, will be performed by Zeitgeist at their annual Playing it Close to Home concert, March 6-8 at Studio Z. 

Two Self-portraits by Samuel William Novak features two starkly contrasting movements. The first movement begins with material from a piano study Samuel composed in 2016, which is then developed as the ensemble enters and joins the piano. The second movement’s pensive opening phrase is transformed into a morose, uglified reflection. This transformation is explored through the lens of volatility and explosion across moments of high intensity and others bordering silence, where even the softest sounds bear tremendous gravity.

March 6-7, 7:30 p.m.   •   March 8, 2 p.m.
Studio Z: 275 East Fourth Street, Suite 200, St. Paul
$15 / $10 students & seniors
Tickets/Info

With winning songs from the 25th annual Eric Stokes Song Contest plus music by local composer Randy Bauer, Zeitgeist’s Playing it Close to Home concert celebrates the wealth of musical creativity found right here in our own backyard. The program includes music by Eric Stokes Song Contest winners Katie Condon, Kirsten Hanninen, Samuel William Novak and Iris Hu, plus the world premiere of Holding Patterns, a new multi-movement work composed for Zeitgeist by Randy Bauer.