Historical Archive
Zeitgeist was founded in 1977 at Macalester College in St. Paul by a small group of musicians drawn together by their love of new music and their mutual frustration at the lack of performance opportunities afforded new music at the time. Though the group began as a loose collective of seven to ten musicians, the requisite passion and practical demands of running an ensemble soon whittled the band into its current unique instrumentation of two percussion, woodwinds, and piano.
In its first dozen years or so, Zeitgeist’s aesthetic sympathies resonated strongly with composers of a minimalist persuasion and its repertoire abounded with works by Stacey Bowers, Frederic Rzewski, Homer Lambrecht, Terry Riley, and Tristan Fuentes. The group’s performances were also greatly enhanced by the improvisational abilities of each member, a strength that the group maintains to this day.
Empowered by support from the Jerome Foundation and the Northwest Foundation, Zeitgeist began its long tradition of commissioning new work. Composers commissioned during these early years include John Cage, Anthony Stark, Peter Otto, Rand Steiger, and Janika Vandervelde. Zeitgeist also commissioned and established enduring relationships with Eric Stokes, Terry Riley, and Frederic Rzewski.
In addition to performing regularly at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Zeitgeist performed at venues and festivals throughout the world, including Carnegie Hall, several appearances at New Music America, the Zagreb Biennale (with John Cage), The Gulbenkian Foundation (with Terry Riley), and Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Michael Tippet Centre in England. In this period prior to 1990, Zeitgeist released four LPs on its own Timeghost label--Zeitgeist, Duplex, Too Many, and Zephyr.
While still embracing its minimalist roots, Zeitgeist spent the following decade (1990-1999) pursuing a more diverse repertoire. In partnership with the Walker Art Center, Zeitgeist commissioned works from Harold Budd, La Monte Young, Fred Ho, and Terry Riley, also presenting concerts devoted to each composer’s music. Other composers commissioned during this decade include Daniel Lentz, Frederic Rzewski, Barbara Benary, Eric Stokes, Jack Vees, Pierre Jalbert, Arthur Jarvinen, Scott Lindroth, Mark Applebaum, and Beth Custer.
Zeitgeist also participated in the Music in Motion program, administered by Relache, through which the group developed new work with Eleanor Hovda, Fred Ho, Claudio Tripputi, Jerome Kitzke, David Mahler, and Jarrad Powell and performed at the Fleisher Art Museum in Philadelphia, ASU-West in Phoenix, and Cornish College in Seattle. Other key performances include two European tours (Gothenberg, Copenhagen, Berlin, Cologne, and the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival) and appearances at the Lied Center in Lincoln, Merkin Hall in NYC, and numerous venues throughout the midwest.
Zeitgeist released three CDs--She’s a Phantom, music of Harold Budd (New Albion Records); Intuitive Leaps, music of Terry Riley (Work Music London and Sony Music Entertainment); A Decade, music of Frederic Rzewski (O.O. Discs).
Now a well-established ensemble, Zeitgeist began devoting more energy to its presence in the Twin Cities, developing a stable concert season of four annual events plus a number of audience-building programs. Those programs, developed in partnership with Unity Church-Unitarian in St. Paul and made possible with support from Chamber Music America, include our Eric Stokes Song Contest program (an amateur composition contest), Zeitgeist: Back to School (compositional and improvisational activities for K-12 students), and a performance/discussion series (now titled Lowertown Listening Sessions).
In this new millenium, Zeitgeist has continued to embrace the many voices that make up the music of our time, commissioning and/or premiering new works by Mary Ellen Childs, Jin Hi Kim, Carl Witt, Annie Gosfield, Roger Kleier, Justin Henry Rubin, and Martin Bresnick. Our recent performances includes work by Arthur Kreiger, Morton Feldman, Jon Jang, Libby Larsen, and Conlan Nancarrow as well as Frederic Rzewski, Eric Stokes, and Terry Riley, composers we’ve performed since our inception.
Eric Stokes (New World Records), a CD featuring the works Stokes wrote for the ensemble, was released in 2001. If Tigers Were Clouds (innova Records), features works by a number of women musical pioneers, including Mildred Couper, Eleanor Hovda, Pauline Oliveros, and Yoko Ono.
Continuing our tradition of supporting emerging composers, Zeitgeist created its Zeitgeist/Composer Workshop in 2000. Made possible with support from the Jerome Foundation, this five-day workshop is designed to give emerging composers the opportunity to develop their creative ideas and stretch their artistic boundaries in an environment that celebrates exploration and experimentation.
In recent years, seeking to move beyond the boundaries of the traditional chamber music concert form, Zeitgeist has concentrated on developing and producing performances that develop and sustain dramatic energy throughout the length of the concert. This drive to present our performances as dramatic entities rather than solely auditory experiences has transformed Zeitgeist’s chamber music concerts and has resulted in the development of a number of multi-disciplinary collaborations and large-scale theatrical productions. The first of these, Moving Music (1999), was a collaboration with several Twin Cities dance companies followed by Movement, Sound, and Fury (2000), a collaboration with Borrowed Bones Dance Theater. In 2001, Zeitgeist moved beyond the possibilities of the dance world with Beth Custer’s Vinculum Symphony, which brought Zeitgeist together with ten Twin Cities sculpters/instrument builders. Also in 2001, Zeitgeist premiered Sound Stage, an evening-length music theater work composed by Paul Dresher with text and direction by Rinde Eckert. Co-commissioned by the Walker Art Center and the Myrna Loy Center, Sound Stage, which features Zeitgeist and a 17-foot high musical pendulum, was a primary touring vehicle through which Zeitgeist has reached audiences in Helena, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Burlington, UC-Davis, CSU-Chico, Pennsylvania State, and San Francisco.
Continuing our tradition of supporting emerging composers, Zeitgeist created its Zeitgeist/Composer Workshop in 2000. Made possible with support from the Jerome Foundation, this five-day workshop is designed to give emerging composers the opportunity to develop their creative ideas and stretch their artistic boundaries in an environment that celebrates exploration and experimentation. In addition to providing a living laboratory for composers, our Zeitgeist/Composer Workshop is meant to provide the basis for a relationship between composers and the ensemble. As a testament to the program’s success, almost all composers who participate continue to work with the ensemble in some way. Works written during the workshop by participants Anthony Gatto, Justin Rubin, Chris Granias, & Roger Kleier are performed frequently by Zeitgeist. In other cases, Zeitgeist/Composer Workshop has provided the raw material upon which subsequent commissioned work has been based, such as with works by Annie Gosfield, Brent Michael Davids, and Scott Miller. Composer Matthew Smith directed the ensemble in several improvisations and used that recorded raw material to create new work; subsequentially, that new work was key to Smith’s successful application for a McKnight Fellowship. Perhaps most significantly, Zeitgeist/Composer Workshop provided the foundation for Shape Shifting: Shades of Transformation, a collaboration between composer Scott Miller, poet Phillippe Costaglioli, and Zeitgeist. Zeitgeist/Composer Workshop takes place at Zeitgeist’s studio in Lowertown, St. Paul each July. All composers are paid for their participation.
In its first dozen years or so, Zeitgeist’s aesthetic sympathies resonated strongly with composers of a minimalist persuasion and its repertoire abounded with works by Stacey Bowers, Frederic Rzewski, Homer Lambrecht, Terry Riley, and Tristan Fuentes. The group’s performances were also greatly enhanced by the improvisational abilities of each member, a strength that the group maintains to this day.
Empowered by support from the Jerome Foundation and the Northwest Foundation, Zeitgeist began its long tradition of commissioning new work. Composers commissioned during these early years include John Cage, Anthony Stark, Peter Otto, Rand Steiger, and Janika Vandervelde. Zeitgeist also commissioned and established enduring relationships with Eric Stokes, Terry Riley, and Frederic Rzewski.
In addition to performing regularly at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Zeitgeist performed at venues and festivals throughout the world, including Carnegie Hall, several appearances at New Music America, the Zagreb Biennale (with John Cage), The Gulbenkian Foundation (with Terry Riley), and Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Michael Tippet Centre in England. In this period prior to 1990, Zeitgeist released four LPs on its own Timeghost label--Zeitgeist, Duplex, Too Many, and Zephyr.
While still embracing its minimalist roots, Zeitgeist spent the following decade (1990-1999) pursuing a more diverse repertoire. In partnership with the Walker Art Center, Zeitgeist commissioned works from Harold Budd, La Monte Young, Fred Ho, and Terry Riley, also presenting concerts devoted to each composer’s music. Other composers commissioned during this decade include Daniel Lentz, Frederic Rzewski, Barbara Benary, Eric Stokes, Jack Vees, Pierre Jalbert, Arthur Jarvinen, Scott Lindroth, Mark Applebaum, and Beth Custer.
Zeitgeist also participated in the Music in Motion program, administered by Relache, through which the group developed new work with Eleanor Hovda, Fred Ho, Claudio Tripputi, Jerome Kitzke, David Mahler, and Jarrad Powell and performed at the Fleisher Art Museum in Philadelphia, ASU-West in Phoenix, and Cornish College in Seattle. Other key performances include two European tours (Gothenberg, Copenhagen, Berlin, Cologne, and the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival) and appearances at the Lied Center in Lincoln, Merkin Hall in NYC, and numerous venues throughout the midwest.
Zeitgeist released three CDs--She’s a Phantom, music of Harold Budd (New Albion Records); Intuitive Leaps, music of Terry Riley (Work Music London and Sony Music Entertainment); A Decade, music of Frederic Rzewski (O.O. Discs).
Now a well-established ensemble, Zeitgeist began devoting more energy to its presence in the Twin Cities, developing a stable concert season of four annual events plus a number of audience-building programs. Those programs, developed in partnership with Unity Church-Unitarian in St. Paul and made possible with support from Chamber Music America, include our Eric Stokes Song Contest program (an amateur composition contest), Zeitgeist: Back to School (compositional and improvisational activities for K-12 students), and a performance/discussion series (now titled Lowertown Listening Sessions).
In this new millenium, Zeitgeist has continued to embrace the many voices that make up the music of our time, commissioning and/or premiering new works by Mary Ellen Childs, Jin Hi Kim, Carl Witt, Annie Gosfield, Roger Kleier, Justin Henry Rubin, and Martin Bresnick. Our recent performances includes work by Arthur Kreiger, Morton Feldman, Jon Jang, Libby Larsen, and Conlan Nancarrow as well as Frederic Rzewski, Eric Stokes, and Terry Riley, composers we’ve performed since our inception.
Eric Stokes (New World Records), a CD featuring the works Stokes wrote for the ensemble, was released in 2001. If Tigers Were Clouds (innova Records), features works by a number of women musical pioneers, including Mildred Couper, Eleanor Hovda, Pauline Oliveros, and Yoko Ono.
Continuing our tradition of supporting emerging composers, Zeitgeist created its Zeitgeist/Composer Workshop in 2000. Made possible with support from the Jerome Foundation, this five-day workshop is designed to give emerging composers the opportunity to develop their creative ideas and stretch their artistic boundaries in an environment that celebrates exploration and experimentation.
In recent years, seeking to move beyond the boundaries of the traditional chamber music concert form, Zeitgeist has concentrated on developing and producing performances that develop and sustain dramatic energy throughout the length of the concert. This drive to present our performances as dramatic entities rather than solely auditory experiences has transformed Zeitgeist’s chamber music concerts and has resulted in the development of a number of multi-disciplinary collaborations and large-scale theatrical productions. The first of these, Moving Music (1999), was a collaboration with several Twin Cities dance companies followed by Movement, Sound, and Fury (2000), a collaboration with Borrowed Bones Dance Theater. In 2001, Zeitgeist moved beyond the possibilities of the dance world with Beth Custer’s Vinculum Symphony, which brought Zeitgeist together with ten Twin Cities sculpters/instrument builders. Also in 2001, Zeitgeist premiered Sound Stage, an evening-length music theater work composed by Paul Dresher with text and direction by Rinde Eckert. Co-commissioned by the Walker Art Center and the Myrna Loy Center, Sound Stage, which features Zeitgeist and a 17-foot high musical pendulum, was a primary touring vehicle through which Zeitgeist has reached audiences in Helena, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Burlington, UC-Davis, CSU-Chico, Pennsylvania State, and San Francisco.
Continuing our tradition of supporting emerging composers, Zeitgeist created its Zeitgeist/Composer Workshop in 2000. Made possible with support from the Jerome Foundation, this five-day workshop is designed to give emerging composers the opportunity to develop their creative ideas and stretch their artistic boundaries in an environment that celebrates exploration and experimentation. In addition to providing a living laboratory for composers, our Zeitgeist/Composer Workshop is meant to provide the basis for a relationship between composers and the ensemble. As a testament to the program’s success, almost all composers who participate continue to work with the ensemble in some way. Works written during the workshop by participants Anthony Gatto, Justin Rubin, Chris Granias, & Roger Kleier are performed frequently by Zeitgeist. In other cases, Zeitgeist/Composer Workshop has provided the raw material upon which subsequent commissioned work has been based, such as with works by Annie Gosfield, Brent Michael Davids, and Scott Miller. Composer Matthew Smith directed the ensemble in several improvisations and used that recorded raw material to create new work; subsequentially, that new work was key to Smith’s successful application for a McKnight Fellowship. Perhaps most significantly, Zeitgeist/Composer Workshop provided the foundation for Shape Shifting: Shades of Transformation, a collaboration between composer Scott Miller, poet Phillippe Costaglioli, and Zeitgeist. Zeitgeist/Composer Workshop takes place at Zeitgeist’s studio in Lowertown, St. Paul each July. All composers are paid for their participation.