Here and Now

In 2008, Zeitgeist new music ensemble asked thirty Minnesota composers (one for each year of Zeitgeist’s existence) to write 150-second long pieces (one second for each year of Minnesota’s existence as a state) as a kind of double celebration event. 

The results—a long-exposure picture of Minnesota’s longlively compositional scene in the first decade of the new millennium, or simply perhaps thirty love letters to Zeitgeist—transcend the occasion. These are miniatures that refuse to be confined by the label. Ranging from neoclassic to unclassifiable, they make one thing plain: Zeitgeist has no house style. Intrepid midwives of the new, these omnicompetent musicians have embraced the untrammeled polystylism of our day. This ardent openness has much to do, perhaps everything to do, with the group’s longevity, keeping Zeitgeist in tune with the zeitgeist.

The groups of works flow from modernistical, to improvisatory, ethnically-flavored, plugged-in, cheekily theatrical, and neo-classicalish. Listeners will find Libby Larsen, Steve Heitzeg and Randall Davidson cheek by jowl with Mary Ellen Childs, Janika Vandervelde and Douglas Ewart. Like any good midwestern smorgasbord, this one has something for every taste.

Lauded for providing “a once-in-a-lifetime experience for adventurous concertgoers,” Zeitgeist is a new music chamber ensemble comprised of two percussion, piano and woodwinds. Always eager to explore new artistic frontiers, Zeitgeist collaborates with composers of all types to create imaginative new work that challenges the boundaries of traditional chamber music. The members of Zeitgeist are: Heather Barringer, percussion; Patti Cudd, percussion; Pat O’Keefe, woodwinds; Shannon Wettstein, piano.