Pine Eyes

I’ve reserved a special place in my heart for the St. Paul-based Zeitgeist new music ensemble, probably because cultivating new classical and chamber music seems like such a long row to hoe. Have I mentioned how I hate the term ‘classical music,’ by the way? Probably. The folks at Zeitgeist prefer “new music” or alternately, “the music of our time” (get the name Zeitgeist). But popular music listeners hear new music all the time, of course. It’s just not as often that we hear it performed by a woodwind, piano, and two-percussionist quartet.

I was quite pleased last summer, when I first learned that Walker Art Center would be co-presenting a new Zeitgeist-mastered piece. Happy to see our hometown players reprezent on the largely international Walker stage. Trend Alert: This is going to be another one of those “evening-length, multimedia” pieces that the Zeitgeist troupe is so fond of, with something for the eyes, something for the ears. Full sensory immersion. Nothing gets bored–except, perhaps, for the sniffer. (And I’ll decline to note which theaterhouses smell…. But you know who you are!)

Whatever the intentions of Zeitgeist, the evening-length, multimedia pieces I’ve seen have been nothing short of fabulous. Mary Ellen Child’s Dream House and Zeitgeist’s own Shape Shifting come to mind. This newest one, Pine Eyes, is based on Pinocchio, and it features music composed by Martin Bresnick and video by Puppetsweat. Zeitgeist, of course, plays the tunes. There’s a behind-the-scenes look called “The Making of Pine Eyes” that’s happening tonight at the Zeitgeist home studio in lowertown, Studio Z. Northwestern Building – 275 E. 4th Street, St. Paul; five bucks; 651-755-1600.

Pine Eyes then plays June 3.