​Minnesota-based solo/chamber artist and composer Julie Sweet holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance from Minnesota State University Mankato. During her graduate years, she studied composition with David Dickau and developed close ties with guest artist/American composer, Jeffrey Brooks, who has believed in her writing-style since day one. Julie is the founder, flight director and pianist of Sound Field (formerly, Skeleton Crew), an organization committed to celebrating music by contemporary classicists and minimalists. In addition, Julie is a former seasonal pianist of the widely acclaimed new music ensemble Zeitgeist and has been an avid freelance educator since 1998. She enjoys finding hidden time to explore different roads, towns/cities and hiking trails with her trusty camera (Pentax K-01). 

Julie is one of three winners of Zeitgeist's 2021 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. Julie's winning composition, entitled Are you there?, will be featured on Zeitgeist's annual Playing it Close to Home concert, Sept. 10-11 at Studio Z. 

Are you there? (2020) was written for piano and soundtrack (or vibraphone, piano and soundtrack) with optional videography by the composer to accompany the music. Julie writes: 

"I began composing Are you there? during a pandemic lock-down. The sidewalks and hiking trails were eerily quiet then. It was on my solo walks, I did most of my composing. I'm interested in writing a multi-movement work that has an indie-like film quality about it. Slowly but surely my soundtrack for solo, mixed-chamber and pre-recorded sounds evolves. The videography for Are you there? was captured outside a bar/diner in Uptown Minneapolis on an unusually warm November day last year; the same day election results were announced. This explains all the activity you see through the glass. Uptown came back to life, momentarily. I took the video with the intent of pairing it with Are you there? They ended up being a good fit." 

Meet Eric Stokes Song Contest winner Ellie Gold. Ellie graduated from Minneapolis Southwest High School last spring and is now beginning her studies at McGill University's Schulich School of Music in music composition. 

Ellie began playing piano at age six and percussion at age nine. She had always made up melodies in her head as a kid, but it wasn't until high school that she started writing them down. She explains her path to becoming a composer as being influenced by family, friends, and supportive teachers. 

"Each year in my high school band we would be assigned into quartets and trios for small ensemble projects. It was around this time that my sister showed me the online composing program "flat", and I began writing my own marimba and mallet quartets. I found the structure of four single lined voices easy to work with.

Eventually I started bringing in my own music to school for my friends to play for our small ensemble projects. My music was largely influenced by the three other girls I played with in my mallet quartet, because I would write each part to their skill levels and musical interests. 

My high school band teacher was extremely encouraging and supportive of me and allowed me to perform one of my marimba quartets at our school's annual winter recital at the Basilica St. Mary, by far our largest concert of the year." 

Ellie is the youth winner of Zeitgeist's 2021 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. Ellie's winning composition, Beach Quartet, will be featured on Zeitgeist's annual Playing it Close to Home concert, Sept. 10-11 at Studio Z. 

Ellie writes about Beach Quartet: 

"I wrote Beach Quartet almost three years ago in one four hour sitting. I had no idea what to call the piece so it was titled "yeah" for a while. I brought it into school with the hopes of playing it with my mallet quartet that I mentioned earlier, but we never got around to it. It wasn't until this past year when I was putting together samples for my music school application that I happened upon the piece again and began reworking it." 

Ilan Blanck has written music for orchestra, string quartet, sad singer- songwriters, and A LOT of bands. As a guitarist he has been on over a dozen recordings of original music, shared the stage with artists ranging from eighth blackbird to Guster, and knocked out (fictional) rocker Staci Jaxx as lead guitarist for Theatre Aspen’s production of the hit musical Rock of Ages. Ilan can often be found counting to seven with progressive folk trio Sprig of That or as the Power Ranger in funk-rock circus Porky’s Groove Machine. He is currently pursuing the master of music degree in composition at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

"I began writing music almost as soon as I started playing music--noodling around on guitar, making changes to songs I would learn off the internet, plunking around on the keyboard we had at home. "Ilan, leave the composing to the composers," my first guitar teacher would say to me when I would come into my lessons having made all sorts of changes to the pieces he'd assigned me to play. I sure showed him! Since then, I've generally followed my first musical love - the guitar - as it's taken me through a variety of styles and settings. Feeling most at home in more popular styles of music, I try to follow my musical curiosities to create music that I find enjoyable, moving, and stimulating.

Musically, my biggest influences stem from rock bands like Hop Along, Radiohead, and Wilco; acoustic groups like the Punch Brothers and Hawktail; and composers like Sarah Kirkland Snider, Gabriel Kahane, and Robert Honstein. Throw in a pretty extensive knowledge (if I do say so myself) of the journalists who read the news on NPR at the top of the hour (“From NPR news in Washington, I’m...”), a love of WWII-era Soviet literature (Vassily Grossman, anyone?) and the 16 year old cat I’ve had for 14 years, and you get... well, me!

I've had endless teachers to whom I owe everything I know and so many of the opportunities that I've had and to whom I am and will be eternally grateful. There are too many here to list, but I’ll mention just a few who changed my perspective, music, and life: Joanne Metcalf, Gabriel Kahane, Asha Srinivasan, Matt Turner, Julie McQuinn, Ray Mueller, Nathan Wysock, among many, many others."  -Ilan Blanck

Ilan is one of three winners of Zeitgeist's 2021 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. Ilan's winning composition, Pesach Tras Pesach, will be featured on Zeitgeist's annual Playing it Close to Home concert, Sept. 10-11 at Studio Z. 

Ilan writes about Pesach Tras Pesach: 

"'Pesach Tras Pesach' is the second song from Ya No Tengo Miedo, Por Primera Vez, a song cycle I composed and premiered as a part of the 2019-2020 Cedar Commissions. The piece follows the life of my great-grandparents as they grow up in Eastern Europe at the turn of the twentieth century, survive the Holocaust in Soviet work camps, and ultimately immigrate and settle in Mexico City, where my grandparents and parents would be born and raised. 'Pesach Tras Pesach' itself is a snapshot into my great-grandfather's childhood years and specifically, his relationship with his mother (who died of cancer when he was only 13). A loving parent who always encouraged his education (my mother would say "you need to be able to write the letter in Yiddish but the address in Polish!"), he carried her memory and his love for her until the day he died at age 99. The lyrics are mostly verbatim quotes from a video interview my great-grandfather did in 1997 for the USC Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive." -Ilan Blanck
​

Sept. 10-11, 7:30 p.m. 
Studio Z: 275 East Fourth Street, Suite 200, St. Paul
$15 / $10 students & seniors
Tickets/Info

With winning songs from the 2021 Eric Stokes Song Contest plus music by local composer Michelle Kinney, 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 Ilan Blanck, Julie Sweet, and Ellie Gold, plus the world premiere of new music composed for Zeitgeist by Michelle Kinney. 
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*Seating is limited to allow for social distancing. Masks will be required and attendees must provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result from the previous 72 hours.*
​

Kirsten Hanninen is a songwriter and vocalist based in Shakopee, Minnesota. Kirsten has a BA in Music Education from Gustavus Adolphus College, where she studied voice with Shannon Stuckey and performed three of her original songs (which included string orchestra and piano accompaniment) at her Senior Vocal Recital.

From 2016-2019, Kirsten created and organized a teen Christian band from Eden Prairie, Minnesota named Bridge 33.  She wrote several songs for this band and her daughter is the violinist. Bridge 33 performed Kirsten's original songs at many events, including a performance as the opening band for a Jason Gray concert in Eden Prairie, the Minnesota State Fair Talent Contest, and the Southwest Minnesota Junior High Youth Gathering in Willmar. 

In 2017, Kirsten was honored to work with Minnesota’s gospel icon JD Steele (singer/songwriter/producer) and he produced two of her songs (His Love and Guiding Light). Six of Kirsten's songs are currently available on iTunes, Apple Music and all other major music sharing sites:  His Love, Wild, The King of Love, Holy Water, Prayer Song, and Risen (All the Angels Sing). 

Kirsten currently has 22 voice and piano students, teaches group fitness classes at Dakotah Sport and Fitness, and directs a Children’s Choir at Saint Andrew Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie.

Kirsten 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. Kirsten's winning composition, Holy Water, will be featured on Zeitgeist's annual Playing it Close to Home concert, March 6-8 at Studio Z. 

In November 2018, Kirsten and her dog went for a walk. The rough sound of a new song started running through her head. Later, she finished writing Holy Water for Bridge 33 to perform at the “Bridge 33 Farewell Services” on May 19, 2019 at St. Andrew in Eden Prairie. (All 6 band members were seniors in high school and preparing to leave for different colleges.) After May 19, the song continued to evolve until the final recording session on August 5. Kirsten and a large team of people also created a music video for “Holy Water.” Check it out below! ​

Iris Hu is a ten-year-old pianist and fifth grade student at The Blake School in Minneapolis. She started playing piano at age 4 under the guidance of Jennifer Geise, and continued her training with Dr. Irina Elkina at MacPhail Center for Music. She began composing at age 9, under the guidance of Dr. Sarah Miller, also at MacPhail. Nirvana is her first composition, and was placed first in the Minnesota Junior Composers State Contest this year. Iris has performed at numerous MacPhail recitals including the Honors Recital, Master Class, and Crescendo Gala. Iris is a member of her school’s choir and recorder ensemble. In addition to music, Iris has many hobbies including art, drawing, digital art, semi-realist art, photography, fashion illustration, and math (to an extent). As a ballet dancer, she has performed in Loyce Houlton’s Nutcracker Fantasy and the Strawberry Festival.

Iris is the youth winner 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. Iris will perform her winning composition, Nirvana (for solo piano), at Zeitgeist's annual Playing it Close to Home concert, March 6-8 at Studio Z. 

Iris explains her winning piece, Nirvana: 
"It wasn’t the kind of peace that came with material pursuits. It was peace in a new form, peace as you’d never seen it before, peace transcending money, happiness, and life itself. The peace blinded you with white, the little plane of existence on which you lived blank, waiting, ready for a new world to spring from the old world’s ashes. You forgot everything unimportant in that moment, the memories rushing out of your still body, lifeless yet so full of lively energy. Only the most profound whispers from your past remained, agreeing to stay until it was time to say goodbye. As you lay there, barely aware of your body and the cold, smooth surface beneath you, you let go. Finally let go, of the sentimental things in your old life, the hopes for your new one. You could feel yourself leaving the floor, floating, hovering above the ground, whooshing through the air, going to a new place beyond death, but you didn’t care anymore."

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.

​How long has Willful Devices been making music?

Pat and I have started performing pieces and sets of our music for clarinets and electronics at festivals and concerts starting in 2006. We released a CD of music, Willful Devices, in 2009. We have been on the lookout for opportunities to do what we do and develop new material and as part of my 2018 McKnight Composer Fellowship, we were able to spend a week at Sparta Sound recording studios in July.

Why headphones? We have lots of speakers at Studio Z.

I’ve been composing quieter and quieter music the past several years and wanting to do something with headphones for over a decade. I’ve made a couple small attempts, but this is really thanks to that week up on the Range at Rich Mattson’s Sparta Sound. We developed all of these pieces and recorded most of them, too. The thing about headphones is they allow us to work with really quiet sounds, impossible to hear without a lot of amplification. Over speakers, all that amplification would also amplify a lot of noise. Also, I can be very precise in creating a virtual 3D environment of sound for people listening on headphones, no matter where they’re sitting in the space. This will all eventually lead to live streaming the concert over the internet to the world, like Le placard concerts do, which were the inspiration for me to do this. Le placard started with musicians living in apartments with shared walls and strict noise rules who wanted to play their music. They ended up going inside the closet (cupboard) to isolate their sound from their neighbors. From there, they started broadcasting their performances in concerts over the Web. 

Is this some kind of ASMR concert? (autonomous sensory meridian response)

Not compared to some of the more, let’s say, adventurous material labeled ASMR you might find on YouTube. But of course it is inevitable, we’re delivering sound to people over headphones, so there’s a good chance you’ll hear some sounds in an immersive and/or intimate way that may trigger a serious emotional or physical response—all good, I hope! But this does get at how listening to sound art on headphones and not speakers really can change a lot more of the experience than seems at first apparent. One interesting thing is how people are coming together for a shared social activity, but one where they’re experiencing it in the most isolated way that you can listen to music.

REALLY quiet sounds in headphones maybe can’t be heard by Pat when he’s playing clarinet. This makes some things I’d like to do more challenging to figure out, where the electronics are super quiet and I want Pat to be able to hear them and play at the same time.

A lot of times there’s still bleed through of sound in the room (including Pat’s clarinet) with the sound in the headphones. Instead of fighting this fact of life, it’s just part of the experience. If you sit further from the stage, then this is less likely to happen. And if you stream the audio over WiFi, then there is some latency between when it happens on stage and when it happens in your ears that might be, well, interesting.

​Feb. 1  •  7:30 p.m.  •  ​​Free (bring headphones)​  •  Details

HDPHN presents the audience with a new way to experience live electro-acoustic music performance. Similar to the “silent disco,” HDPHN imagines a shared audience experience dependent on the use of a technology, headphones, which is usually regarded as isolating. The music is performed live, but instead of being amplified through a set of speakers in the room, all sounds (both acoustic and electric) are delivered to the audience via headphones. Processed sound is also returned to the clarinet via analog ‘talk box,’ which is piped through the clarinet to be filtered by the instrument and amplified by the microphones, creating a feedback loop that is further manipulated by Pat on the clarinet. The use of headphones allows for a live concert of music that involves sounds that are often impossible to hear without amplification, and also for an extremely precise presentation of sound moving in space. Typically in concerts involving electronic and amplified sound there are a limited number of seats in the sweet-spot, but going straight to headphones eliminates that obstacle, and creates an egalitarian and ideal listening experience for each member of the audience.

HDPHN was created and is performed by Willful Devices: Pat O'Keefe (bass clarinet, Bb clarinet) and Scott L. Miller (Kyma, Keyboard). It was developed while in residence at Sparta Sound, a ‘Rock ‘n Roll Bed and Breakfast’ up on the Iron Range of Minnesota, owned and run by musician and studio engineer, Rich Mattson. The residency was funded by the McKnight Foundation, in support of Miller’s 2018 McKnight Composer Fellowship.

Composer/performer collective When Morty Met John (Stephen Lilly, Stacey Mastrian, Kristian Twombly) returns to Studio Z this week after their last performance here eleven years ago. Since then, the group has expanded their repertoire and explored new directions, which will be showcased in their program entitled "Where Are We Going" this Saturday, January 4 at Studio Z. We interviewed the group to get an inside view of their work, their process, and the group's evolution over the last 20 years. 

​How did the group get together? 

At the University of Maryland, there's an annual event called Maryland Day, where students and faculty showcase their research for each other as well as the surrounding community through lectures, demonstrations, concerts, open houses, etc. We, a ragtag group of music graduate assistants, decided we would use this as an opportunity to bring to life the music we had only read about—FLUXUS (James Tenney, Alison Knowles, George Brecht et al) and the New York School (e.g. Cage, Wolff, Brown et al). When it was all said and done, we had blown one of our studio speakers and forged a life-long bond and commitment to performing on the fringe.
 

What does your creative process look like as a group? 

In addition to distinct personalities, each member of our collective has their own compositional/improvisational/performative style. Given that most conservatory-minded performers are interested in conquering European musical notation rather than contemplating the challenges posed by the experimental traditions we loved, we found it more productive to write for each other. So we started tailoring works to the unique personalities and styles within our cohort and ended up creating a body of work that is tailored to our ensemble. Each piece, while usually conceived by one composer, has its roots and is then honed—through rehearsal and performance—by the specific characteristics, interests, quirks of individuals within the collective. 
 

What did your Studio Z performance look like 11 years ago? 

Back in 2009, we had shifted from performing the likes of Cage and Tenney to focusing solely on those works tailored to our ensemble. The program we presented was thus very inwardly focused. It was a time of intense collaboration. With an "Us against the World" spirit we saw ourselves as offering a very personalized alternative to contemporary neo-whathaveyou trends.
 

How has the group evolved since then? 

Our approach, while still experimentally-focused, has become more inclusive. Our quasi-combative mindset has morphed into something more embracing and outward looking. Rather than just using performance opportunities to showcase our own work and experimental works from the 1950's-1970's, we have sought out contemporary composers like Agostino DiScipio and Abby Aresty whose works resonate with our own. With each new piece we add to our repertoire, the more we grow as composers, performers, and listeners.
 

Tell us about the premieres you will be presenting. 

The Sixth is a world premiere. Since leaving University of Maryland, Stephen Lilly has been nursing the delusion that he might be a poet in addition to being a composer. The composing-urge is strong with him, however, so with every poem he writes, he creates a composed-out quasi-musical version. The Sixth started as a found-poem about his sixth year as a husband, using for the developmental milestones of a six-year-old child as an over-extended metaphor. The musical version is a duet that quite literally reads between the lines. The end result is both intensely personal and oddly universal.

Several of the works are world premieres of revised versions of pieces, one is a U.S. premiere, and most are MN premieres. For example, Kristian Twombly created a multi-channel version of Interplait for this performance. The work started with recordings of famous lectures on mindfulness and a singing bowl (Meditation, which is also on the program) and has evolved into a work including voice which folds in upon itself. Prerecorded and live elements feed off of and influence each other in a living feedback circle that outwardly demonstrates some of these beneficial mindfulness properties.
 
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Anything else you would like to add? 

In recent years, one of our shared interests is meditation. We have become fascinated by the calming, introspective, healing, and sympathetic properties of this practice, and we’ve framed the program around mindful listening for us and the audience. Starting with one of Pauline Oliveros’ Sonic Meditations and continuing through the entire program, we hope to explore a variety of perspectives on meditation and listening – a phenomenological approach, if you will.  And like John Cage, we prefer laughter to tears and have included a bit of whimsy and humor in the program as well – keep your eyes peeled for a bunny! 

​Tell us about your new work for Zeitgeist, Conjuring. 

Conjuring is a wild experiment where we challenged each other to try to create a seamless score for both sound and movement, where each relies completely on the other. We play with structures in sound and movement that move into alignment and then out of alignment, kind of like an eclipse or the perfect incantations needed for a spell. We like to think that through our connection as performers in this piece we are bringing something into existence that wasn’t there before. We are conjuring a new way of being, a change that leaves the world forever altered.

How did the two of you get started in your respective fields?

Maggie: I started dancing when I was five. For me dance has always been the path, even if I didn’t want it to be. Somehow dance and embodiment dragged me out of whatever other ideas I had in my head about what I should do.

Nick: I also started when I was five. They didn’t have basses that small so the orchestra teacher at the time put me on a cello standing upright, and tuned it like a bass. I primarily studied classical music through my younger years, but once I was a teenager, it seemed that the accessible styles for bass were endless. I did bluegrass, jazz, rock, and classical all at the same time. After I graduated college, it was easy to find work being a versatile performer so I stayed pretty current in all styles.

Nick, who are your inspirations in music, be that in bass or whatever comes to mind?

Nick: If you asked me this question 10 years ago, I would probably rattle off famous bass players and music bands. But my philosophy has shifted. I think inspiration is all around and can be connected to anything we come in contact with, or anything we can think of or recall. In addition to humans, I believe inspiration can come from the surrounding colors, sounds, tastes, landscapes, relationships, and events. I think if I had to pinpoint an exact inspiration to sum this up, I would say the scene in Mulholland Drive in the theater is chalked full of inspiration. The women that sings “Llorando” a cappella and then topples over is by far one of (what I believe) the most fascinating works I have seen. It’s followed up by the emcee saying “There is no band.” It’s colorful, moving, and yet simple all at the same time.

Maggie, when looking for a piece of music or art in general to choreograph a routine to, what do you think stands out and sparks creativity in you?

Maggie: My work usually begins with a feeling or a situation or a series of events. And then I’m happy to say I married a composer, so I then ask him to make sound for me! At that point we work together on the structure, sound, mood, I rarely ever find music first and then make work to it. I’m much more interested in creating both the sound and movement together instead of letting one come first and then creating a reaction. 

How do the two of you look at the process of collaboration, and how important do you think it is, both with each other and in the world at large?

Maggie: It is so huge in how we work together, but it also is really the way the world works. There is great reassurance in a process with someone I trust. It can get so messy when one person sees a direction and the other doesn’t. Or there is real disagreement in the way the work should move forward. But somehow the space of not-knowing feels deeper when working in collaboration, and there is something to be said about working through the not-knowing and the real conflict to get something into the world. Nick and I remodeled our bathroom about ten years ago, and we spent about three hours in Menards talking through and visualizing and telling each other our ideas. It was so so hard. But now our bathroom rocks! :)

Nick: And so does our kitchen!

Anything else you would like to add? 

Nick: Collaboration takes more than just being a “team player.” I think the hardest lesson for me in collaboration is knowing when to back down, knowing when to listen, and knowing when to be vulnerable to change. It takes a great amount of mental power to manage internal thoughts during the process. I don’t think it’s ever easy, and if it is easy, then there’s probably a missing component where someone isn’t being honest, or someone is holding back. I think this is why the collaboration with Zeitgeist was such a different experience. We tried to stay transparent whenever possible and attempted to craft a work that attempted to be distributed between all members of the ensemble. I don’t know if we achieved that arrival point, but it was something to work towards during the creative process.