Crocus Hill Ghost Story
Music by Julie Johnson • Story by Cheri Johnson
Sound Design by Eric M.C. Gonzalez
A macabre tale of a house possessed that is accompanied by a wildly evocative and colorful score, Crocus Hill Ghost Story explores the complex relationship between two longtime friends and the evolution of their relationship as they experience a haunting. Suitable for teenagers through adults.
Performed by Zeitgeist
Heather Barringer and Patti Cudd, percussion; Pat O’Keefe, woodwinds; Jill Dawe, piano
and featuring KrisAnne Weiss, narration
Video by F I X Agency
Flutist and composer Julie Johnson has a distinct sound and approach—rougher and more soulful than a typical classical sound, yet more pure than a typical jazz player’s—that she brings to many multi-genre projects, including places where, she’s been told, the flute doesn’t belong. As a creator and a performer of new music, Julie’s work walks the line between composition and songwriting, art music and popular music, between genres as seemingly different as classical and blues. A finalist for the McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians and a winner of grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the American Composers Forum, the Lanesboro Arts Center, Springboard for the Arts, MacPhail Center for Music, MRAC, and a Banff Centre residency, she plays in many styles, working to bring both the flute and her audiences to music they haven’t been in contact with before.
Writer Cheri Johnson has received awards and fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the McKnight Foundation, the Bush Foundation, Yaddo, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her poetry, fiction, plays, and reviews have been included in magazines such as The Hollins Critic, The Rio Grande Review, Pleiades, Glimmer Train Stories, Puerto del Sol, Cerise Press, New South, Phantasmagoria, The Emprise Review, and Provincetown Arts. She has studied writing at Augsburg College, Hollins University, University of Minnesota, and as a part of the Loft Literary Center Mentor Series, and she has taught writing at the University of Minnesota, Augsburg College, the International Music Camp Summer School of Fine Arts, and The Loft Literary Center, as well as through the SASE Wings program at Intermedia Arts.