Posted by Heather Barringer on Monday, August 25, 2014,
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Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist is pleased to introduce the newest member of the ensemble, pianist Nicola Melville! Zeitgeist is delighted to welcome Nicola into the ensemble as they look ahead to a season of new music and new collaborations. Stay tuned for details about Zeitgeist’s 2014-2015 season to find out when you can meet Nicola and hear her perform!
US-based New Zealand pianist Nicola Melville has been described as “having an original and intelligent musical mind” (Waikato Times), “a marvelous pian...
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Posted by Heather Barringer on Thursday, August 14, 2014,
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Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist and Caponi Art Park will team up to bring 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning composer John Luther Adams’ major work Inuksuit to the Caponi Art Park Summer Performance Series on August 17. Before you go, Zeitgeist offers some background, insight, and clues for listening to and experiencing the work.
Inuksuit is a 70-minute musical work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams. Adams lived for decades in Alaska, and the seasons and landscape of the arctic infuse his creativ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Katherine Bergman on Tuesday, June 24, 2014,
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Zeitgeist
Known for their 35+ year history as an acclaimed new music ensemble, Zeitgeist is always eager to explore new artistic frontiers and is dedicated to the creation and production of new and diverse music. This year, Zeitgeist has commissioned four new works from local jazz artists Chris Bates, Steve Kenny, Zacc Harris and Davu Seru to be premiered at the 2014 Twin Cities Jazz Festival. The ensemble is collaborating with each of the artists this week in rehearsals and will welcome them to the st...
Posted by Heather Barringer on Friday, May 16, 2014,
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Zeitgeist
Høle in the skY is an artistic response to climate change and the specter of ecosystem collapse and extinction. With this work, Kathy McTavish uses film, music, poetry, narrative, and scientific data to create a world on the brink of a bleak and awful reality. In this world, the environment is changing dramatically, living things are disappearing, and hope is dwindling. Is this our world? Are we Martha? Is collapse inevitable? The musicians of Zeitgeist, her fellow collaborators, enter this ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Katherine Bergman on Wednesday, May 14, 2014,
In :
Zeitgeist
We caught up with Duluth composer/cellist/sound artist Kathy McTavish for a look at her unique path as an artist, activist, and environmentalist and to hear the back-story for her new work høle in the skY . Drawing on McTavish’s past work in ecosystem modeling, the work considers the delicacy of ecosystems, our human quest to recover those systems, and what it might mean to be the last of a species left alive. Zeitgeist will present the world premiere of høle in the skY this weekend, May 1... Continue reading ...
Posted by Kathy McTavish on Monday, May 12, 2014,
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Zeitgeist
Composer Kathy McTavish is our guest blogger today, providing insight on her new chamber work høle in the skY. Zeitgeist will present the premiere performance of høle in the skY this week, May 16-18 at Studio Z. I created an early sketch of this work for the 2013 Zeitgeist Composer Workshop funded by the Jerome Foundation. This opportunity "is a five-day workshop designed to give emerging composers the opportunity to develop creative ideas and stretch their artistic boundaries in an environ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Katherine Bergman on Tuesday, February 18, 2014,
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Zeitgeist
Elaine Klaassen, a Hillsboro, Kansas native who currently lives in Minneapolis, was recently named a winner of Zeitgeist’s 19th annual Eric Stokes Song Contest.
Elaine is originally from Hillsboro, Kansas and currently lives in Minneapolis, where she is a piano teacher and newspaper journalist. She has written experimental music for dance, theater and performance art events in addition to traditional music for churches and community theater productions.
Elaine’s winning piece, Beat No More... Continue reading ...
Posted by Katherine Bergman on Monday, February 17, 2014,
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Zeitgeist
Zeitgiest’s annual Playing it Close to Home concert is a celebration of the wealth of musical creativity found right here in our own backyard. This year we’re featuring Nathan Hanson, a local saxophonist and composer who has been described as “unexpectedly tasteful and dignified” by ImproJazz-France. Over his career, he has performed with such legends as Dizzy Gillespie, Cecil Taylor, Mark Dresser, Carei Thomas and Douglas Ewart, as well as with current stars Chris Potter, Tony Malaby...
Posted by Katherine Bergman on Sunday, February 16, 2014,
In :
Zeitgeist
Riona Ryan, a 17-year-old junior at the Perpich Center for Arts Education, has been named winner of Zeitgeist’s 19th annual Eric Stokes Song Contest in the youth category. Ryan lives in Mankato and plays flute in the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony's premier auditioned ensemble.
Ryan’s winning composition, Jackal Dance, is her first completed piece. “In the end, the personality that came out of the piece felt mischievous and scrappy, reminding me a lot of jackals,” she explained.
Rya... Continue reading ...
Posted by Katherine Bergman on Thursday, February 13, 2014,
In :
Zeitgeist
Zeitgiest’s annual Playing it Close to Home concert is a celebration of the wealth of musical creativity found right here in our own backyard. This year we’re featuring Viv Corringham, a British vocalist, composer and sound artist who has worked internationally since the early 1980s. After calling Minnesota home for many years, she has recently re-located to New York. Her work includes music performances, audio installations and soundwalks. She is interested in exploring people's special ...
Posted by Katherine Bergman on Tuesday, February 11, 2014,
In :
Zeitgeist
Liam Smith, an 18-year-old senior at the Perpich Center for Arts Education, has been named named winner of Zeitgeist’s 19th annual Eric Stokes Song Contest in the youth category. Liam is originally from Toledo, Ohio and now lives in Minneapolis, where he is a member of the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies and the Minnesota Youth Symphonies.
Liam’s winning composition, Eugene Genesis, explores “the spatial relationship of the stars in the Eugene Cluster [and] represents the creation a... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dan Sailer and Katherine Bergman on Monday, November 4, 2013,
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Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist's 5th Annual New Music Cabaret features an eclectic variety of new music from the top musicians in the Twin Cities, including Nathan Hanson's Saxophone Choir, a recently-formed collection of saxophonists with distinct personal voices.
Composer/saxophonist Nathan Hanson has been described as “unexpectedly tasteful and dignified” and has performed with such legends as Dizzy Gillespie, Cecil Taylor, Mark Dresser, and Chris Potter. We were pleased to speak with him this week to find... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dan Sailer and Katherine Bergman on Friday, November 1, 2013,
In :
Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist's 5th Annual New Music Cabaret features an eclectic variety of new music from the top musicians in the Twin Cities, including Red Planet, a group that prides itself on playing music from inner-stellar and inter-stellar space with an emphasis on re-interpreting familiar melodies and unearthed gems.
We spoke with Red Planet guitarist Dean Magraw to look back on the group's history and influences.
How did the musicians of Red Planet get together?Red Planet is the brainchild of Jay Epst... Continue reading ...
Posted by Heather Barringer on Wednesday, September 25, 2013,
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Zeitgeist
The first concert of Zeitgeist's season is happening this weekend at Studio Z, and I'm especially excited about these concerts because we will be performing a piece that I've wanted to bring to the Twin Cities for a very long time: Apprehensions for clarinet, voice, and piano by Shulamit Ran, based on a poem Sylvia Plath. I had the great fortune to work with Shulamit some years ago, and at her composer talk she played a recording of this piece. It blew me away instantly, and I've been wanting... Continue reading ...
Posted by Katherine Bergman on Sunday, September 22, 2013,
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Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist is pleased to welcome pianist Julie Sweet to the stage with them this season, starting with the New Music Harvest concerts next weekend. Julie will be stepping in for the 2013-14 season as Shannon Wettstein takes a leave of absence. Here's an interview with Julie so you can get to know her and say hello at the next Zeitgeist concert!
Tell us about your musical background before joining Zeitgeist.I started with piano lessons at age 7 (I remember watching my dad, in total awe, playing... Continue reading ...
Posted by Katherine Bergman on Monday, September 16, 2013,
In :
Zeitgeist
Composer Christopher Hopkins shares the inspiration behind his piece “Echoes Fantasy” for two pianos and two vibraphones. Zeitgeist will perform this work in their New Music Harvest concerts Sept. 26-28 alongside music by Shulamit Ran, Cort Lippe, and Abbie Betinis. Echoes Fantasy is one of several recent compositions in which I integrate ideas from historical and modern musical forms. In these compositions I look to the deeper motivations and overarching poetic gestures found in historic... Continue reading ...
Posted by Katherine Bergman on Wednesday, May 15, 2013,
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Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist's upcoming Early Inspirations concerts feature new works influenced by music of the Renaissance and Baroque, including Justin Rubin's "The armed man should be feared... and other lessons from the Renaissance." Justin steps in as a guest blogger to tell us more about the piece. I was always perplexed why certain songs from the Renaissance became so incredibly popular – they became the source musical ideas for enormous Masses by leading composers hundreds of miles and decades apart,... Continue reading ...
Posted by Katherine Bergman on Monday, May 13, 2013,
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Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist's upcoming Early Inspirations concert features new works influenced by music of the Renaissance and Baroque, including Scott Miller's "Consortia." Scott steps in as a guest blogger to tell us more about the piece. Consortia is a revised version of an earlier work, Consortium, adapted for ensembles of any size or instrumentation. It is the result of work that never made it into the multimedia chamber opera The Cosmic Engine. The electroacoustic background structure and live improvisa... Continue reading ...
Posted by Katherine Bergman on Thursday, May 9, 2013,
In :
Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist's upcoming "Early Inspirations" concerts feature new works influenced by music of the Renaissance and Baroque, including James Holdman's "A Gondola Evades Us." James steps in as a guest blogger to tell us more about the piece. A Gondola Evades Us is based on "Moro, lasso, al mio duolo" from Carlo Gesualdo's Book of Madrigals No. 6 (1611). The unusual opening chord sequence of "Moro, lasso," drives the harmonic structure of this piece composed for piano and percussion. Gesualdo*, an ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Heather Barringer on Friday, March 29, 2013,
In :
Zeitgeist
Sound engineer
Mike Duffy explains his role in Zeitgeist's upcoming Early Music
Festival celebrating "The Electronic Age: Medium and Message."I'm
working with Zeitgeist on four pieces for the Early Music Festival concerts: Stockhausen's
Mikrophonie I, Lucier's Music on a Long Thin Wire and I Am Sitting In a
Room, and Reich's Pendulum Music. All of them use relatively simple
systems to call attention to things we miss in ordinary listening,
amplification of small sounds or the overlooke... Continue reading ...
Posted by Heather Barringer on Wednesday, March 27, 2013,
In :
Zeitgeist
I am very excited to be working on a realization of Stockhausen's mammoth "Mikrophonie I" for our upcoming electronic music concerts! This is a classic 1960s electro-acoustic work for large amplified gong that is manipulated in a huge variety of ways by four players, plus two more running the sound board. I first heard this work live when I was a graduate student and it blew me away. In fact it takes me all the way back to high school, when I remember vividly the first time I ever saw a large... Continue reading ...
Posted by Heather Barringer on Tuesday, February 19, 2013,
In :
Zeitgeist
Bryan Schumann is one of three winners of Zeitgeist’s 18th annual Eric Stokes Song Contest. The Eric Stokes Song Contest is sponsored by Zeitgeist in memory of late composer Eric Stokes; the contest was designed to encourage and celebrate amateur composers throughout the Twin Cities. Bryan's winning composition "Nothing Avenue" will be performed on Zeitgeist's Playing it Close to Home concert series Feb. 22-24. We asked Bryan a few questions to learn more about his music and his process of ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Heather Barringer on Monday, February 18, 2013,
In :
Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist’s annual Playing it Close to Home concert celebrates the wealth of compositional creativity in our Twin Cities musical community. We feature winning entries from our annual Eric Stokes Song Contest along with musical works from one of our community's most highly esteemed composers. This year, we’re featuring works by Jeffrey Brooks. Jeff is a native, Mankato born and raised, but he spent young adulthood studying composition at Yale with Martin Bresnick, falling in love with his ... Continue reading ...
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