2021 Eric Stokes Song Contest Winners
Zeitgeist is pleased to present the winners of the 2021 Eric Stokes Song Contest! The winners are Ilan Blanck and Julie Sweet in the adult category, and Ellie Gold in the youth category. Their winning compositions were performed at Zeitgeist's Playing it Close to Home concert Sept. 10-12, 2021 at Studio Z alongside music by award-winning Minnesota composer Michelle Kinney. Scroll down for information and recordings of the winning compositions.
Are You There? by Julie Sweet
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."
"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."
Pesach Tras Pesach by Ilan Blanck
"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
Beach Quartet by Ellie Gold
"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." -Ellie Gold
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature.
Zeitgeist’s Minnesota activities are made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.Funder credits
Zeitgeist’s Minnesota activities are made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.Funder credits