Zenith Contemporary Ensemble
An Energetic, Innovative, Contemporary Chamber Ensemble
Zenith Contemporary Ensemble
ZCE was founded by Paula Gudmundson (flute) and Tracy Lipke-Perry (piano). A flexible roster of partnering artists enabling fantastic variety and flexibility in programming. Members are musicians from the Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota and currently faculty members at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
Paula Gudmundson
Associate Professor of Flute at the University of Minnesota Duluth, focuses on centering her work around collaboration, community engagement and bringing voice to the absent narratives in the arts. Gudmundson has performed at numerous music festivals and events, including regional and national conferences of the College Music Society, National Flute Association conventions, Minnesota Public Radio’s Class Notes Artist, International Flute Festival of Costa Rica, and La Côte Flûte Festival. Recordings include La Flauta of Buenos Aires (2012) and Breaking Waves (2019) www.paulagudmundson.com
Diana Shapiro
Currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Minnesota Duluth. As a part of the Piano Duo Varshavski-Shapiro (www.piano-4-hands.com), Dr. Shapiro was a winner at numerous national and international competitions in Poland, Italy, Israel and Czech Republic. In the United States, the duo became a winner of Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition, was awarded a Career Grant from “Salon de Virtuousi” and won the Astral Artists’ National Auditions. Dr. Shapiro enjoys regular appearances with leading instrumentalists in Israel and the USA, as well as singers of the New Israeli Opera and Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Previously Shapiro held teaching positions at the Silver Lake College, Maranatha Baptist University, Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, and Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. .
Jim Pospisil
Currently serves as an Instructor of French Horn at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in performance at Wichita State University, with Nicholas Smith as horn professor, then finished his master’s degree in horn performance at Indiana University, with Michael Hatfield as horn professor. Pospisil also studied natural horn with Richard Seraphinoff. Along with teaching at UMD, he is Principal Horn of the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as soloist. Pospisil is a church organist and pianist at Peace United Church of Christ in Duluth, MN.
MPR Class Notes Program
2017-2018
Purchase our CD Melodies of the Forest
This recording showcases the concept of program music in adaptations by contemporary composers as well as by artists of former times. Program music, which – in simplified terms – attempts to express a program, story, narrative, or idea, was at its height of popularity in the nineteenth century. Its proponents sought to depart from and create a contrast to purely absolute music, whose aesthetic is primarily concerned with form and technique, free from any extramusical references. This led to great polarization within the spectrum of instrumental music. However, there are many examples of works/compositions in between absolute and program music that draw on both aesthetics. The selections for this recording demonstrate just that. We hear a wide range of programmatic approaches unfold, continually reinterpreting and reshaping the concepts and possibilities of instrumental music.
–Bettina S. Muehlenbeck