Percussionist and artistic co-director Heather Barringer joined Zeitgeist in 1990. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls with a bachelor’s of Music Education in 1987 and also studied at the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory, studying with Allen Otte from 1988-90. In addition to performing and recording with Zeitgeist, she is a member of Mary Ellen Child's ensemble, Crash, and has worked with many Twin Cities organizations, including Nautilus Music Theater, The Dale Warland Singers, Theatre de la Jeune Lune and Ten Thousand Things Theater.

As an active performer of the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, Patti Cudd has given concerts and master classes throughout the United States, China, Mexico and Europe. She has commissioned a variety of new pieces from the composers of her generation and has given close to 100 premieres. Prior to joining Zeitgeist in 1999, she received a doctorate of musical arts in Contemporary Musical Studies at the University of California, San Diego. In addition, she earned a Master of Music degree from SUNY Buffalo, and a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. She was also awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music. Patti teaches percussion and new music at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and is a Yamaha Performing Artist.

Woodwind player and artistic co-director Pat O'Keefe is a graduate of Indiana University, the New England Conservatory and the University of California, San Diego. In San Diego, he performed regularly with the new music ensemble SONOR as well as with the San Diego Symphony, and he has performed and recorded with many noted new music groups around the country, including the California EAR Unit, the Cleveland New Music Associates and Ensemble Sospeso in New York. Pat can also be heard performing regularly with the Brazilian ensembles Brasamba and Batucada do Norte (of which he is the co-founder and co-director), the world music group Music Mundial and the improvisation ensemble AntiGravity. He is currently on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Shannon Wettstein, pianist, has premiered countless new works throughout the United States and internationally, including performances in New York's Lincoln Center, Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the New Zealand Embassy in Washington D.C. and the Japan America Theater in Los Angeles. Awards include the 2003 American Composers Forum Commissioning Grant, the Merle Montgomery Grant given by Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation and grants from the Minnesota Arts Council. Her solo CD is on the Centaur label; other recordings are available on the Tzadik and Innova labels. A new CD of music by Xenakis will soon be released by Mode. She holds a doctorate of music arts from the University of California, San Diego, a bachelor of music (highest distinction) from the University of Kansas and a Master of Music degree (honors) from New England Conservatory. Her teachers have included Aleck Karis, Stephen Drury, Sequiera Costa, Richard Angeletti and Claude Frank. She is on the faculty of Augsburg College and New England Conservatory's Summer Institute for Contemporary Piano Performance.