Players Perform Pinocchio Piece, “Pine Eyes”

Center Hosts Zeitgeist Quartet Concert

The Cultural Center in New York Mills welcomes Minneapolis-St. Paul “new music” quartet, Zeitgeist, to the New York Mills Public Schools for concert performances on Thursday, November 9, 2017.

The show, entitled Pine Eyes, was translated and adapted from Carlo Collodi’s beloved The Adventures of Pinocchio by Martin Breznick in 2008 as a commission from the Walker Art Center. A dark and delightful evening-length chamber work, it is a rich mixture of music and words. This compelling adventure for the imagination will captivate audiences of all ages.

Zeitgeist is a chamber ensemble comprised of four musicians: piano, woodwinds, and two percussionists, which plays new musical compositions. One of the longest established such groups in the country, Zeitgeist commissions and presents a wide variety of new music for audiences across the U.S. Always eager to explore new artistic frontiers, they collaborate with poets, choreographers, directors, and artists of all types to create imaginative work which challenges the boundaries of traditional chamber music. The members of Zeitgeist are Heather Barringer and Patti Cudd on percussion, Pat O’Keefe on woodwinds and Nicola Melville on piano.

Joining Zeitgeist as the Narrator for this performance is mezzo-soprano, KrisAnne Weiss. She has performed leading roles in many operas, including The Dangerous Liaisons, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Carmen, and Madama Butterfly, and has appeared with the Fargo Moorhead Opera, Minnesota Opera, the Bakken Trio, Mississippi Valley Orchestra, Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee, Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra, and the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, among others. Weiss completed her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees at the University of Minnesota, where she received the University Fellowship and the Schuessler Graduate Prize in Voice.

Martin Bresnick’s compositions, ranging from opera, chamber and symphonic music to film scores and computer music, are performed throughout the world. Bresnick delights in reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable, bringing together repetitive gestures derived from minimalism and more open, consonant harmonies. At times his musical ideas spring from hardscrabble sources, but one gains their meaning by the way the music itself unfolds, and always on its own terms.

Pine Eyes will first be performed for grades K-6 earlier in the school day on Thursday, while the evening performance begins at 8:00 p.m. (doors at 7:30) for this 90 minute show. Many parents will already be at the school for parent teacher conferences that day, and we invite families to stay and enjoy the show. Tickets are $15 at the door or $12 in advance, with Cultural Center members receiving a $2 discount. Student tickets are just $5; preschoolers are free. For this show only, get one FREE adult admission with each paid $5 student ticket, AND family maximum of $30!

Pine Eyes, a fantastic tale of transformation and discovery with plenty of the bewitchment, adventure, and heroism so crucial to a good fairy tale, is held in the James W. Mann Center for the Performing Arts in the New York Mills Public Schools.

To purchase tickets, please call the Cultural Center at (218) 385-3339, or for more information visit www.kulcher.org.

The Cultural Center in New York Mills is a rural hub for creativity, community vitality, and lifelong learning in the arts. We offer visitors intimate opportunities to encounter art and artists in our 80-seat concert listening room, two galleries in a historic building, a gift store featuring local artists, an artist residency program, a sculpture park, and a variety of opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive. Since our incorporation in 1990, we have been passionate about connecting people to artists and rich cultural experiences in rural Minnesota, celebrating the local and being a window to the world.