Here and There 2017 Program Notes
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Oct. 13-15, 2017
Tickets & Info Zeitgeist
Heather Barringer and Patti Cudd, percussion; Pat O’Keefe, woodwinds; Nikki Melville, piano No Exit New Music Ensemble Sean Gabriel, flute; Cara Tweed, violin; James Rhodes, viola; Nick Diodore, cello; Luke Rinderknecht, percussion; Timothy Beyer, Artistic Director; James Praznik, Associate Director Artist Statement Throughout our history, Zeitgeist has championed the work of composers in our community, commissioning, developing, and premiering hundreds of works by Minnesota composers. Cleveland based No Exit New Music Ensemble boasts a similar passion with regard to their local artists. Both groups recognize that while creating work with artists near at hand is essential to creating a vibrant musical community, our work also becomes richer when we welcome new ideas into our midst, and increases in its impact when we share it with audiences near and far. Here and There is part of an artistic partnership between Zeitgeist and No Exit through which we will engage in the import and export of musical ideas between our two communities. Both ensembles will present in both cities, performing and developing work by Minnesota and Ohio composers and introducing audiences and artists to new musical possibilities. Together, we’ll learn more about what makes each community unique, what we have in common, how we differ, what we can share, and what we might take away. ProgramNO EXIT SET (all performances)
bend to the light - Katherine Bergman In Mourning - Aleksandr Brusentsev Growth - Nasim Khorassani Quiet Music - Andrew Rindfleisch ZEITGEIST FRIDAY SET Bass Clarinet and Percussion - Morton Feldman Suburb - Colin Holter New York Counterpoint - Steve Reich ZEITGEIST SATURDAY SET October 21 2015 - Josh Harris Found Again, Secure In Migration (world premiere) - Eric Gonzalez Black - Katherine Bergman Vulture’s Garden - Art Jarvinen COMBINED SET (SATURDAY ONLY) Worker’s Union - Louis Andriessen ZEITGEIST SUNDAY SET New York Counterpoint - Steve Reich Found Again, Secure In Migration (world premiere) - Eric Gonzalez Varied Trio - Lou Harrison (featuring guest violinist Marc Levine) Notes & Bios
Aleksandr Brusentsev tells abstract stories with sound. Through shifting perspectives, his works articulate spaces and paradoxes that invite listeners to empathetically engage with fundamental questions and draw personal conclusions. His music has been performed internationally by renowned artists such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the CHROMA Ensemble, and Alexandra Wood and Huw Watkins. Brusentsev’s compositions are published exclusively by his company, ‘i do dots music.’ More info at brusenta.com.
In Mourning, for solo flute, is an introspective look at one of our most vulnerable states. Written in close collaboration with the dedicatee, Britta Swedenborg, the piece explores and embodies the multiplicity of contradictory voices present in all of us while asking the question of how to move on. 
Colin Holter is a Cleveland-based musician. Born in Frederick, Maryland in 1983, he holds degrees in composition from the University of Minnesota, Brunel University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. In addition to his work as a composer, collaborator with theatre and dance companies, and occasional writer on music, he serves as the General Manager of the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra and the Managing Editor at 113 Composers Collective.
"I wrote Suburb not long after buying a house in Berea, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. I've always thought that growing up in the suburbs (which I did) shapes one's patterns of media consumption, one's understanding of public and private spaces, and even one's concept of nature in the philosophical sense of the word. Suburb is a reflection on the complex, contradictory feeling of returning, after fifteen years in urban apartments, to a tract house with vinyl siding. The piece is dedicated to Patti Cudd and Stuart Saunders Smith, two inspirations." 
Katherine Bergman is a Minnesota-based composer who draws on literature, environmentalism, and found materials to create work that has been described as hypnotic and visceral. She has received commissions and performances from the Gustavus Wind Orchestra, The Dream Songs Project, the Minnesota Percussion Trio, Zeitgeist, and other leading ensembles and festivals throughout the United States. Katherine holds degrees from the University of Northern Iowa and Gustavus Adolphus College, and her composition instructors have included Mary Ellen Childs, Jonathan Schwabe, and Samuel Adler. Katherine is director and co-founder of Spitting Image, a collective of Minneapolis-St. Paul composers. More information at www.katherinebergman.net/katherinebergman.net.
bend to the light was commissioned by Spitting Image Collective in 2015 with admiration for the tallest, most massive, longest-living organisms ever to grow on earth: trees. These remarkably resilient and resourceful beings, though often taken for granted, should be commended for their ability to fend off stress and strain--a lesson in adaptation for dealing with our own trails and tribulations. When facing crisis, these unique living systems add strength to their structure, compartmentalize decay, and bend to the light. 
Eric M. C. Gonzalez is a composer of solo works, chamber pieces, electroacoustic, electronic music and works for film and theater. Eric is the director and cellist of the string ensemble Forest City Chambers. Eric studied composition with Andrew Rindfleisch and Greg D’alessio, cello performance with David Allen Harrell of The Cleveland Orchestra, and film music with Michael Baumgartener at Cleveland State University.
Ensembles Eric has composer for include the Cleveland State University Chamber Orchestra, the Cleveland State University Experimental Ensemble. In 2011 and 2012, the works Elliptical and A Priori Music No.2 were recorded by engineer David Yost at the Cleveland Composers’ Recording Institute at Cleveland State University. In 2014, Eric performed, arranged and composed music for the avant-garde mixed-genre musical Tingle Tangle, which consists of works for cello, electronics, guitar, vocals and percussion. Eric has composed music for plays with the Cleveland Theater company Theater Ninjas, and Cleveland Public Theatre. Eric won the No Exit New Music Ensemble Commission Competition in 2011 and 2013, for which he composed PILLS for solo piano, and Late Spring for piano quartet. In 2013, Eric was the recipient of the Bain Murray Award for Composition. "This is the fourth time I have moved across the United States of America. My family and I moved from Texas to the Northeast and back. Ten years later, I moved to Cleveland where I focused my direction. Ten years after that, I arrive in Saint Paul with my partner, harboring hope for new opportunities, meaning, and intent. Found Again, Secure In Migration consists of three short pieces about monumental life transitions. It is a spiritual continuation of Found, Secure In Migration, an improvisational electronic piece I created and performed in 2010 when I still felt new to Cleveland. 'A Recent Distant Past' (mvt 1) is about the consistency and reliability of home, the familiarity of life, and reminiscing on separation. We hear the steady beat of the city encapsulating a twisting river, nestled in a massive valley. We are sad to leave, but know we have much development ahead. We confront the unknown in 'A Forward Moving Pilgrimage,' (mvt 2) filled with a sense of wonder at new opportunities, while questioning our fortitude in the face of impending brutal winter climate. I am fortunate enough to have loved ones and companions on my journey. We are the foundation of our existence in this world. 'Fortunate Companions' (mvt 3) applauds our connection and support for each other. We cross and traverse geography with love and confidence, ready and eager to contribute to our new community. We know where we came from, and we can see clearly where we are headed." 
Nasim Khorassani (b.1987), an Iranian composer and a violinist, is graduate student at Cleveland State University. She found her approach through participating in different orchestras and various music workshops like modern dance schools in Germany (awarded by DAAD). She took part in workshops by Klaus Lang and Peter Ablinger in Iran, in 2012, performing their pieces, leading her to discover more about contemporary music. In 2013, she won a residency scholarship sponsored by Iran-UK Sonics in London, where she learned about the philosophy of contemporary sound from Keith Rowe, Chris Watson, and Angharad Davies. She has studied composition with Arman Noroozi, Mohamad Reza Tafazzoli, Kiawasch Sahebnassagh, Sara Abazari, Greig D’Alessio, and Andrew Rindfleisch.
"Growth is a musical piece depicting the story of a cell formed by four single tones, B, C, D, and E flat, which has an internal intervallic symmetry. As the cell grows, the merged ensemble gives more place to individual instrument characters. By the time of writing this piece, I had been inspired by the techniques of Bartok, Ligeti, Shostakovich, Lutoslawski, and Schnittke. However, as an Iranian composer, alongside with these inspirations, the main musical expression is rooted on the phrasing, fluid rhythms, and texture of Iranian traditional music. Growth was initially an experimental piece with improvisational structure for a piano trio, written in 2010. When composing this revised version for string trio, I found graphical sketching a helpful way to put my whole musical image in one painting, this allowed me to compose the piece outside the boundaries of time." 
Composer Andrew Rindfleisch (b.1963) has enjoyed a career in music that has also included professional activity as a conductor, pianist, vocalist, improviser, record producer, radio show host, educator, and concert organizer. As a composer, he has produced dozens of works for the concert hall, including solo, chamber, vocal, orchestral, brass, and wind music, as well as an unusually large catalog of choral music. His committed interest in other forms of music-making have also led him to the composition and performance of jazz and related forms of improvisation. Mr. Rindfleisch is the recipient of the Rome Prize, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Aaron Copland Award, and the Koussevitzky Foundation Fellowship from the Library of Congress. Over forty other prizes and awards have followed honoring his music.
Quiet Music (2007) is a three movement work for solo violoncello. Its title refers to the work’s singular sonority, dominated by the use of natural harmonics and the exclusive use of the practice mute (a large mute radically affecting the instrument’s voice). Quiet Music was commissioned by cellists David Russell, Craig Hultgren, Jonathan Golove, and Madeleine Shapiro with assistance from the Birmingham Art Music Alliance. 
Since it’s inception, No Exit’s mission has been to serve as an outlet for the commission and performance of contemporary avant-garde concert music. Now in their eighth season and with over fifty commissions to date, No Exit continues to promote the music of living composers and to be an impetus for the creation of new works. They create exciting, meaningful and thought-provoking programs with the philosophy of bringing the concert hall to the community, and by presenting programs in a manner which allows for audiences to connect with the experience.
The ensemble has presented music that represents the gamut of the avant-garde: from the impish and mirthful jazz stylings of Raymond Scott to the cerebral hypercomplexity of Brian Ferneyhough (and just about everything in between). They give voice to those composers who have something to say, whether they be young composers at the beginning of their journey, established composers at the height of their abilities, or venturing into the past by exploring new ways of sharing the unconventional and innovative music of the early twentieth century’s artistic vanguard, which led to the commission of exciting contemporary re-imaginings of music by Erik Satie and Eric Dolphy, to name a few. While No Exit has brought their work to other national and international locales, their emphasis is on serving the community in Northeast Ohio. No Exit has formed many longstanding and fruitful partnerships with individuals and organizations in the Greater Cleveland area to bring unique programming to audiences in Northeast Ohio and to nurture the development of young composers and musicians from the area through workshops, student readings and master classes. 
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