24th annual Eric Stokes Song Contest. Named in memory of late composer Eric Stokes, the contest is designed to encourage and celebrate amateur composers throughout the Twin Cities. Ryan's winning composition, Tachypsychia: Circadian, will be performed by Zeitgeist at their annual Playing it Close to Home concert Feb. 8-9 at Studio Z.

Tachypsychia was originally written as a four-movement piano suite. The second movement, Circadian, has been arranged specifically for Zeitgeist. Tachypsychia is a neurological condition that alters the perception of time during moments of extreme trauma, physical exertion, or altered states of mind. Ryan finds that minimalism tries to achieve a similar goal of distorting time through music.

Playing it Close to Home

With winning songs from the Eric Stokes Song Contest plus music by local composer Yohannes Tona, Zeitgeist'sannual Playing it Close to Home concert celebrates the wealth of musical creativity found right here in our own backyard. The program includes music by Eric Stokes Song Contest winners Debbie Cushman, Ryan David Stevens, and Dominic Cudd, plus new works by Ethiopian bassist and composer Yohannes Tona, including pieces inspired by Ethiopian folk music and works from his albums 1317 and Sand From The Desert.

​Dominic Cudd is a 16-year-old singer, songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist from South Minneapolis. He is a sophomore at the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, is a member of the Prelude Performance Program at MacPhail Center of Music, and studies voice with Thaxter Cunio. He has been awarded the Mary Ann Kimball Vocal Performance Scholarship at MacPhail the past two years, and is