Thu 2/2 @ 8-9:30PM

Sat 2/4 @ 7-8:30PM

Cleveland’s No Exit New Music and St. Paul’s Zeitgeist New Music, which shares a similar mission of presenting new works by contemporary composers, contextualized with performances of groundbreaking avant-garde compositions that influenced them.

Starting in 2016, the two groups presented their annual “Here and There” concerts in both cities, prior to a three-year pandemic hiatus. This week, the ensembles are back together for three performances in northeast Ohio, performing at Cleveland State’s Drinko Hall on Thursday, SPACES’ gallery on Friday and Heights Arts on Saturday.

“Zeitgeist and No Exit continued our collaborative partnership through the pandemic, but we had to present these concerts via an online format,” says No Exit’s Artistic Director Timothy Beyer. “So, this is the first time in a few years that we’ll be performing together live and in person, and we’re really looking forward to it.”

No Exit will perform several pieces, followed by Zeitgeist, before the two groups come together to play Shadowgraph 5, a 1977 piece by experimental composer George Lewis. Zeitgeist’s set will be the same at all three shows; it includes Frederic Rzewski’s 1989 The Lost Melody and Alvin Lucier’s 1999 Heavier Than Air.

On Thursday and Saturday, No Exit will perform their originally scheduled set, including two world premieres, Philip Blackburn’s 2020 The Sound of a Going in the Tops of the Mulberry Trees, and Jonathan Posthuma’s 2022 Small World. They’ll also play Luis Daniel Jiménez Rojas’ 2022 Cachivaches. However, due to the absence of one of their members, No Exit will perform a different program at SPACES. It will include Kaija Saariaho’s 2012 Duft, Luke Rinderknect’s 2021 Resonances, James Praznik’s 2009 SPAZZ and Rob Kovacs’ 1984 Marble Madness.

As always, No Exit’s concerts are free and open to the public. Go here for more information. noexitnewmusic.com