Sounding Ground

Zeitgeist is pleased to announce the 2024-2025 SOUNDING GROUND Composers in Residence! Congratulations to May Klug, Sarah M Greer, and Leyna Marika Papach on being selected for this residency program.
The SOUNDING GROUND composer residency program provides commissioning, development, and production support for three Minnesota composers in the early stages of their careers. SOUNDING GROUND awardees work closely with Zeitgeist on the development and production of a significant new work created for Zeitgeist.
Interested in being considered for a future opportunity? Reach out to Zeitgeist executive director Heather Barringer at [email protected].
The SOUNDING GROUND composer residency program provides commissioning, development, and production support for three Minnesota composers in the early stages of their careers. SOUNDING GROUND awardees work closely with Zeitgeist on the development and production of a significant new work created for Zeitgeist.
Interested in being considered for a future opportunity? Reach out to Zeitgeist executive director Heather Barringer at [email protected].
SARAH M. greer

Sarah M. Greer is a singing, improvising, and performing artist who works at the intersection of song, sound and story. She has performed in numerous Twin Cities venues, at the Twin Cities and Madison, WI Jazz Festivals, for NPR’s Talking Volumes with Give Get Sistet, opened for Take 6 (also with Give Get Sistet), and has invented music on regional and national stages.
As a recording artist and composer, Sarah released their original and highly improvised debut album What the Music Says Do in 2018 and will release a live album of their improvised work Between: A Journey Through the Middle (2024) this year. Additionally, she is developing an improvised composition sourced from the sounds we make as we express sorrow entitled Giving Voice to Grief.
Sarah holds a Bachelor of Special Studies with a focus in music and a vocal performance degree. She is passionate, nearly evangelical, about the power of our voices to change our world.
As a recording artist and composer, Sarah released their original and highly improvised debut album What the Music Says Do in 2018 and will release a live album of their improvised work Between: A Journey Through the Middle (2024) this year. Additionally, she is developing an improvised composition sourced from the sounds we make as we express sorrow entitled Giving Voice to Grief.
Sarah holds a Bachelor of Special Studies with a focus in music and a vocal performance degree. She is passionate, nearly evangelical, about the power of our voices to change our world.
leyna marika papach

Leyna Marika Papach is a composer, interdisciplinary artist and violinist from Japan and the United States. With music being her central lens, she has created a body of work that spans across theater, dance, poetry and the visual arts. Her many works have been presented in Europe, Japan, West Africa, US, and her projects and creative explorations have been supported by programs such as the MAP Fund, NEA, HERE Arts Center, Minnesota Opera, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and ACF and others. In 2024, she received the McKnight Composer Fellowship. As a collaborator and performer, she has worked with inspiring artists across a wide range of disciplines-J.G.Thirlwell (composer), Aya Ogawa (playwright), Taylor Mac (artist), Nels Cline (guitarist), Tapan Kanti Baidya(Hindustani vocalist), Will Alexander, (poetry), Chikako Bando (butoh dance) amongst others, and continues to be inspired to make interdisciplinary work. Leyna studied violin at the Prague Academy of Music and received an MA in Theater-Dance studies form DAS Theater (Amsterdam), and an MFA in sound/music/interdisciplinary studies from Bard College.
may klug

May Klug is an experimental electronic composer/performer whose deep relationships with pieces of audio equipment and electronic instruments are a bridge through which she explores the networks of technological development, industry, and modern social life. Her performances blend electroacoustic experimentalism with the theater of pop, queer performance art, and high-femme fashion.
May’s primary instrument, and electronic collaborator, is the Casio CZ-101 synthesizer. By allowing the synth’s digital memory to decay, she generates sounds that capture the natural process of memory loss in a volatile RAM circuit with no electricity.
May’s primary instrument, and electronic collaborator, is the Casio CZ-101 synthesizer. By allowing the synth’s digital memory to decay, she generates sounds that capture the natural process of memory loss in a volatile RAM circuit with no electricity.
Previous Sounding Ground Participants
Jay Afrisando • Jarrelle Barton • Ivan Cunningham • Queen Drea • Eric M.C. Gonzalez • Soomin Kim • Sara Pajunen • Jonathan Posthuma • AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa
Jay Afrisando • Jarrelle Barton • Ivan Cunningham • Queen Drea • Eric M.C. Gonzalez • Soomin Kim • Sara Pajunen • Jonathan Posthuma • AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa