Sounding Ground Showcase

Join Zeitgeist and Sounding Ground artists Sarah M Greer, May Klug, Leyna Marika Papach, and JC Sanford for a performance of the new works they have developed through Sounding Ground. New works will include “PERSON/a requiem’ by Papach, Brennschluss by Klug, Precipice: Breaths for Diving by Greer, and Underwater Cousins by Sanford.

The SOUNDING GROUND composer residency program provides commissioning, development, and production support for Minnesota composers in the early stages of their careers. SOUNDING GROUND awardees work closely with Zeitgeist over an extended period on the development and production of a significant new work created for Zeitgeist.

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.

​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.
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.
JC Sanford is a wide-ranging musician, deeply rooted in the traditions of Jazz and Classical music, yet constantly pushing at their boundaries. A protégé of legendary composer and trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, he has appeared on over 30 recordings as a trombonist, conductor, composer, and producer, including his 2014 CD with the JC Sanford Orchestra entitled Views from the Inside, which yielded international acclaim and was awarded the coveted 2014 Aaron Copland Fund Recording Grant. His original compositions and arrangements have been performed by such diverse artists as John Abercrombie, Dave Liebman, Danilo Perez, Gretchen Parlato, the Swedish Wind Ensemble, Japanese koto-player Yumi Kurosawa, British singer-songwriter Joy Askew, and Grammy-nominated classical pianist Andrew Russo. JC also conducts the thrice-Grammy-nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, and has conducted the Alice Coltrane Orchestra, the North German Radio Jazz Big Band (NDR), the Alan Ferber Nonet with Strings, and the JazzMN Orchestra. Since returning to his home state of MN from New York City in 2016, he has received a 2018 McKnight Composer Fellowship, several grants from the MN State Arts Board to record his compositions and arrangements, and co-founded the Twin Cities Jazz Composers’ Workshop with wife and fellow composer Asuka Kakitani. JC joins the Sounding Ground Cohort as advisory composer.