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STUDIO Z Blog

A PROJECT OF ZEITGEIST NEW MUSIC

Scotty Horey's "Signs of New Vitality"

3/16/2015

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Percussionist Scotty Horey will present Signs of New Vitality at Studio Z this Saturday, March 21 at 10 p.m. We talked with Scotty last week for a preview of this collection of pieces that celebrate the uplifting energy of travel. 


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Tell us about what you’ll be performing at Studio Z on March 21. 

I will be performing a concert with a variety of pieces that fall into the styles of contemporary classical, jazz/fusion, progressive rock, and new age. Many people know me for my concerts of very intense percussion pieces in the modernist tradition and experimental circles, however this concert is more attuned to the jazz, rock, and new age sides of my work. The concert also involves more group collaboration than I usually do in my feature solo artist concerts. I, of course, will be performing on my two main instruments: drum kit and marimba. 

Many of the pieces on this concert are original works that you have composed. In writing these works, were you imagining other percussionists playing this repertoire as well, or are they intended to be performed exclusively by you? 

Good question, especially to an artist who is knee-deep in both working with dead and living composers and involved in songwriting on a daily basis. 

Well, first of all, let me start by saying that I am not a trained composer, or a composer with a capital "C!" I simply write music in an endeavor to express myself through my performances. I have no intension of publishing my pieces or asking other performers to "interpret" or "cover" them. When I write music, I combine all of my influences and passions and imagine myself performing, while I write. It's my sincere position that my naivety and lack of experience as a composer gives it a fresh life and raw character. In fact, the theme of my original compositions has been individualism, and each piece tells a different story, or poignant feeling, from my experience. In fact, it is my opinion that people all too often separate "performance" from "composition", because in the moment they end up being a single presentation. I sure hope that people do not think I am "contributing to the repertoire" (or something like that) with my compositions, because that certainly isn't my point!  

Signs of New Vitality celebrates the uplifting energy of travel. Where have you been traveling lately? 

I have had some very inspiring trips to Costa Rica and Brazil in recent years sharing my performing and teaching, but to be honest I also stop at a gas station I have never been to before on the highway and feel the same way. The theme of this concert is the idea that the world carries so much more energy that awaits us, and awakens potential within us. I believe is it easy for us to get stuck in a routine and feel empty, when all we need to do is embrace the air around us, and open our eyes to what is only a step further on the horizon. As the recent years have passed, and now I am out of school, I am becoming more open to the joy and invigoration that comes from meeting new people and traveling to share my work. New places and new cultures. I continue to feel new gobs of energy and continue to learn more. I also believe this connectivity, if we embrace it, can have metaphysical and spiritual meaning. 

What pieces will guest artists Bethany Gonella and Trent Baarspul be joining you on? Have you collaborated with them before? 

The other exciting thing about this concert is the musicians I have asked to join me on stage this time! Let's start with Bethany (flute). Most know that I have a serious love affair with the flute. It's a little bit of an obsession. So, Bethany... What a fabulous musician and a truly sweet person! Bethany has been very active as professor of flute at Winona State University, as well as performing with the Minnesota Orchestra and in various chamber music and recital capacities. Her tone, technique, rhythm, and attention to detail are truly astounding, and she helps bring out the best in me, too. She's also very joyful, easy going, and a great team player. Bethany and I have played some recitals together, and have working in orchestras together, but this is the first time we have gone full force to play two concerts together this month. She approached me wanting to learn Garreth Farr's beautiful 1991 composition Kembang Suling- Three Musical Snapshots from Asia for marimba and flute, and I said yes. The piece serves as a beautiful opening to the theme of the concert, ironically depicting three places I have never been to before. This, I feel symbolizes the spiritual reality that I have been there before, but not physically, somehow channeling the energy of the places through this performance. As a retaliation to her invitation, threw all my original compositions on her music stand. Thankfully, she also said yes! 

Trent Baarspul (guitar) has been a local musician that as intrigued me and inspired me a lot this year. I have attended a handful of his own performances, both with New Sound Underground (his former jazz/funk band), Trio of Life (with Kevin Gastonguay), and several of his acoustic shows. His playing is a beautiful mix between jazz, fusion, rock, and even some bluegrass and country. He plays finger and pick style, and get's some very fascinating sounds out of the electric guitar. His solo lines and chord voicings are extremely tasteful and interesting. Although I was a bit nervous, I wanted to ask him if we could work together in some way, hoping that there might be some interesting chemistry. Thankfully, he said yes, and has done a great job learning my original compositions while adding his own flavor. I was also excited when he felt inspiration to bring one of one his own compositions to our rehearsals (which we will be playing at the show!). 

Any other news or events coming up you’d like to share?

I am very excited and grateful to have been asked by Heather Barringer to join Zeitgeist playing percussion in their performance of Stockhausen in April, and I will be recording a work for marimba and saxophone with the Parma Records label in May. The big plan on my horizon is my South America tour in June and July. I will be visiting 7 locations around Brazil and Argentina, including the International Percussion Festival Patagonia, performing solo concerts and clinics. 

To readers: I hope to see you all at the show! 

Scotty Horey
Signs of New Vitality

March 21, 2015 
Studio Z: 275 East Fourth Street, Suite 200, St. Paul

10 p.m. 
$10
$5 for attendees of Jazz at Studio Z at 7 p.m.
Details & Tickets


Interview by Katherine Bergman
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Eric Stokes Song Contest Winner Riona Ryan

3/9/2015

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Each year the winning songs from the Eric Stokes Song Contest are widely varied and always delightful. This year is no different! Today we shine the spotlight on 2015 youth winner Riona Ryan. Hear Riona's winning piece Shell this weekend at Zeitgeist's Playing it Close to Home concerts. 

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Second-time youth winner Riona Ryan is an 18-year-old senior at the Perpich Center for Arts Education. She studies flute with Barbara Leibundguth and composition with Edie Hill, and she hopes to pursue a composition degree in the fall. Her current projects include a horn trio for the Schubert Club Mentorship and a solo EP, to be released this spring, in addition to collaborative projects. 

Her winning composition, Shell, is composed with a graphic score representing circular thought patterns associated with anxiety and stress. 

I wrote this piece during an avalanche of college applications, homework, extracurriculars, late nights, and fear of the future. The circular form came out of the idea of the circular thought patterns associated with anxiety and stress. The graphic score form fit these feelings perfectly because the thoughts are not complex, but relatively unstructured and frantic. The title reflects not only the score’s appearance, but also the crunchy defensive feeling of inwardness caused by stress. 

The Eric Stokes Song Contest contest was designed to encourage and celebrate amateur composers throughout the Twin Cities. The winners receive a $100 prize and a one-year membership to the American Composers Forum, and their winning songs will be performed at Zeitgeist's annual Playing it Close to Home concerts. Charlie Lincoln (17) and two-time winner Riona Ryan (18) are the 2015 youth winners, and Käri Tweiten won the adult category. 

Playing it Close to Home

March 13-14, 7:30 p.m.  
Studio Z: 275 East Fourth Street, Suite 200, St. Paul

March 15, 2 p.m. 
Nazareth Chapel at University of Northwestern
3003 Snelling Ave. North, St. Paul

$10 Friday and Sunday 
$20 Saturday*
free Sunday for UNSP students
Tickets

With winning songs from our Eric Stokes Song Contest plus music by local composer Abbie Betinis, our annual Playing it Close to Home concert celebrates the wealth of musical creativity found right here in our own backyard. The program includes the world premiere of Betinis’s new work commissioned by Zeitgeist plus Nattsanger, her award-winning song cycle featuring guest soprano Alyssa Anderson. 

*Saturday’s performance includes wine, hors d'oeuvres, and a post-concert reception with Abbie Betinis.
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Eric Stokes Song Contest Winner Charlie Lincoln

3/9/2015

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Each year the winning songs from the Eric Stokes Song Contest are widely varied and always delightful. This year is no different! Today we shine the spotlight on 2015 youth winner Charlie Lincoln. Hear Charlie's winning song Cassini Division this weekend at Zeitgeist's Playing it Close to Home concerts. 
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Charlie Lincoln is a 17-year old bassist born and raised in Minneapolis. Inspired by his uncle, Joey Spampinato, bassist of rock group NRBQ, Charlie began playing electric bass in elementary school, eventually transitioning to the upright bass in middle school. He first made himself known to most in the local jazz community when, last May, he was hand-picked by legendary jazz drummer Eric Kamau Gravatt (Weather Report, McCoy Tyner) as the bassist for one of Gravatt's show in Minneapolis. He has been fortunate enough to work with the likes of Rufus Reid, Richard Davis, John Clayton, François Rabbath and more. He studies regularly with Minneapolis bassist, Tom Pieper. Next fall, Charlie will begin studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston. 



Charlie offered some background on his music career and the story behind his Eric Stokes Contest winning song: 

My first original compositions were songs for my rock band in middle school. Early in high school, I began writing instrumental music. I continued writing and began performing this music later in high school. I currently lead the Charlie Lincoln Group, composed of five of my musical peers and myself, which plays my original compositions and arrangements. I am also one half of the electronic duo Yardang. My greatest musical influences include Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter, Lou Reed, Tom Verlaine, John Lurie, the Minutemen, Radiohead, and Dave King. 

Cassini Division [the contest-winning piece] is the first arranged piece I wrote for my jazz group. The piece’s use of repetition and spaces is inspired by the rings of Saturn. The title refers to the 3,000-mile wide region between the main sections of Saturn’s rings, named after Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini. It was originally written for jazz quintet.


The Eric Stokes Song Contest contest was designed to encourage and celebrate amateur composers throughout the Twin Cities. The winners receive a $100 prize and a one-year membership to the American Composers Forum, and their winning songs will be performed at Zeitgeist's annual Playing it Close to Home concerts. Charlie Lincoln (17) and two-time winner Riona Ryan (18) are the 2015 youth winners, and Käri Tweiten won the adult category. 

Playing it Close to Home

March 13-14, 7:30 p.m.  
Studio Z: 275 East Fourth Street, Suite 200, St. Paul

March 15, 2 p.m. 
Nazareth Chapel at University of Northwestern
3003 Snelling Ave. North, St. Paul

$10 Friday and Sunday 
$20 Saturday*
free Sunday for UNSP students
Tickets

With winning songs from our Eric Stokes Song Contest plus music by local composer Abbie Betinis, our annual Playing it Close to Home concert celebrates the wealth of musical creativity found right here in our own backyard. The program includes the world premiere of Betinis’s new work commissioned by Zeitgeist plus Nattsanger, her award-winning song cycle featuring guest soprano Alyssa Anderson. 

*Saturday’s performance includes wine, hors d'oeuvres, and a post-concert reception with Abbie Betinis.
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Jeffery Kyle Hutchins Presents: SONDER

3/6/2015

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JEFFERY KYLE HUTCHINS, saxophone 
with 
NEIL NANYI QIANG, piano 
ANN BRADFIELD, saxophone 

This Earthly Round for alto saxophone and prepared piano ­- Miriama Young 
*SCAENA (RE­STRUCT) for tenor saxophone and electronics ­- Volker Heyn 
*Zusammenfluss for alto saxophone and piano ­- Jeremy Wagner 
This is Water essay by David Foster Wallace 
This is This is This is for alto saxophone and prepared piano -­ Eric Wubbels 

*world premiere

s o n d e r 
n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk. ­ 
     --The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
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As I have been preparing the program for this evening, I have come to the realization that each of these works confront a particular type of consciousness for me. Each piece, in addition to the overall length of the program, challenges my ability as a performer to stay engaged with the macroscopic scale of the music and aware of the minutiae of intricacies and detail in each moment. Every time I play through the music I notice something new, a subtle nuance or shading, a previously unnoticed dynamic marking that changes the meaning of a phrase. This kind of attention to detail is easily lost outside of the practice room as I become distracted with technology and life. Staying engaged in the moment is incredibly difficult to do, but the rewards are well worth the effort. Otherwise, we miss the world happening around us. I hope you will join us this Friday for an evening of contemporary saxophone works. I am looking forward to sharing this music with you! 
     -- Jeffery Kyle Hutchins

Jeffery Kyle Hutchins
Sonder

March 6, 2015 
Studio Z: 275 East Fourth Street, Suite 200, St. Paul

7:30 p.m.
$10
Tickets
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Eric Stokes Song Contest Winner Käri Tweiten

3/5/2015

0 Comments

 
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Each year the winning songs from the Eric Stokes Song Contest are widely varied and always delightful. This year is no different! Today we shine the spotlight on the 2015 adult category winner, Käri Tweiten.

Minneapolis resident Käri Tweiten has brought her childhood love of music into adulthood by playing bass in local rock bands and composing solo piano pieces. When entering the contest, she tried her hand at composing ensemble music for the first time. The result, entitled When Water Dreams, is a fluid and spirited piece that combines the perpetual and erratic energy of flowing water.


Like many kids, I took piano lessons throughout my childhood. Once I turned 13 though, I started playing electric bass and decided that was much cooler than piano. While I never took more than a couple bass lessons, I played for just about every band, choir, group, ensemble or concert that asked and learned much in the process. In my 20s and 30s I mostly played in local original rock bands. A couple years ago I acquired my childhood family piano when my parents moved. I began playing again and for the first time, began composing solo pieces for piano. I was hooked. With the Eric Stokes song contest I decided to try something new by writing for an ensemble. I originally submitted the piece for last year’s contest. It didn’t win, but I did get some wonderful, useful feedback. This year I reworked the piece, resubmitted it, and the result is what will be played at the concert.

The Eric Stokes Song Contest contest was designed to encourage and celebrate amateur composers throughout the Twin Cities. The winners receive a $100 prize and a one-year membership to the American Composers Forum, and their winning songs will be performed at Zeitgeist's annual Playing it Close to Home concerts. Charlie Lincoln (17) and two-time winner Riona Ryan (18) are the 2015 youth winners, and Käri Tweiten won the adult category. 

Playing it Close to Home

March 13-14, 7:30 p.m.  
Studio Z: 275 East Fourth Street, Suite 200, St. Paul

March 15, 2 p.m. 
Nazareth Chapel at University of Northwestern
3003 Snelling Ave. North, St. Paul

$10 Friday and Sunday 
$20 Saturday*
free Sunday for UNSP students
Tickets

With winning songs from our Eric Stokes Song Contest plus music by local composer Abbie Betinis, our annual Playing it Close to Home concert celebrates the wealth of musical creativity found right here in our own backyard. The program includes the world premiere of Betinis’s new work commissioned by Zeitgeist plus Nattsanger, her award-winning song cycle featuring guest soprano Alyssa Anderson. 
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