Tekko 2024 Musician Spotlight & Interview: The Graceful Power of Flutist Katie Shesko
Posted on August 04 2024 by Nicole Scott
At Tekko 2024, Zelda Dungeon had the pleasure of speaking with flute player, Katie Shesko, and the pleasure of seeing her perform an incredible show. Shesko is known in the greater Zelda community for more than her musicianship. She is also a speedrunner, undertaking Breath of the Wild’s most notorious category — 100% (Yes, this also means Koroks). She is a dedicated fan of the franchise, which is why it was so exciting to see her work her magic with the flute. Most wouldn’t assume it could rock out, but Shesko’s unique style and passion comes through when she plays — especially in her Zelda covers.
Shesko started her show with an electric cover of the Skyloft theme from Hyrule Warriors. Decked in a Tears of the Kingdom cosplay, showing off her Divine Beast tattoo, she started strong with a guitar-packed backing track. Her prowess was clear, as she skillfully gave the flute just as much force as other instruments.
During her triumphant rendition of The Legend of Zelda‘s main theme, you could see Shesko smile behind the flute and see how much the series meant to her. She also performed other anime and gaming classics, such as the themes from Naruto, Attack on Titan, and RWBY. She also included bangers from The Witcher and Final Fantasy — which she also whipped out a piccolo for!
However, nothing could top her performance of the Tears of the Kingdom main theme. As she said so herself, it “slaps.” It’s epic, no matter what instrument you perform on. Shesko showed her range here, as she interpreted the game’s many instruments and melodies.
During the convention, Zelda Dungeon also had the opportunity to speak to Shesko about the Zelda series and beyond. It was a joy to pick her brain about the series’ music, what it means to perform it, and how it connects her to her audiences at conventions. I was also curious about how learning music from beloved game franchises influences her ability to teach her flute students.
“I find for the students it’s way more engaging because it’s music they have a connection to,” she began. The innate enthusiasm and preexisting awareness of the song, she finds, makes her students practice more than they would to conventional classical pieces. “You’re not starting from zero, you’re starting halfway ’cause you already know what it sounds like… You can associate, ‘This rhythm, this is what it looks like on paper,’ and then you kind of make those other connections… You feel like you’re making progress.”
After a bit of conversation, I wanted to shift gears into the obvious hype topic — Echoes of Wisdom. I was curious how the release of a new Zelda title influenced her practices and performances, as it would give greater insight into the minds of all fandom cover artists anticipating new content.
“I definitely feel stressed… I try to plan out what I’m going to be working on because I work with my husband. He has a day job, we have two kids, so our work time is limited. When you have a new announcement, you’re like, ‘Okay, we should probably stop everything and work on it.'” She mentioned how this interruption to her well-planned convention schedules isn’t quite conducive to a Type-A brain, but it brings a lot of excitement, nonetheless. “Because it’s new, you don’t really have a lot of resources and stuff out there already.”
When she said this, I was immediately curious if that put the burden on independent musicians like her to draft up her own sheet music. For those on the convention circuit, this is even more challenging.
“Typically… There are some people out there who do piano reductions much faster… But I do more than just that with my music.” She noted with a franchise as beloved as Zelda, the wait times for more resources to arise are usually not long, even though they are sometimes incomprehensive. “It’s a lot of building it out to what I want it to sound like,” especially when it comes to incorporating her flute into pieces not curated for her already.
This response led me to asking what her favorite songs from the Zelda series are to perform that are not woodwind-based.
“Ooh, I think right now my favorite is the Tears of the Kingdom theme. It’s so epic, and it has the erhu in it, so that is a stringed instrument, but it has such a unique sound, so I was able to use my alto flute a little bit… it kind of mimics that same timbre.” She mentioned a few of her other favorite qualities about this song were the chord changes, Easter eggs to past games, and arpeggios, which she doesn’t see often, but finds is a unique quality to fandom music with it being more experimental. “You hear and you don’t think it’s complex, but when you actually start diving into the theory behind it, you’re like, ‘Oh, wow.'”
Keep your eyes out for Katie Shesko’s name on convention schedules, especially as she plans to do more covers for the upcoming Zelda game and expand on her Xenoblade Chronicles repertoire. Her shows are not to miss if you want to hear a breath of fresh woodwind air in your favorite fandom pieces.
Also give her a follow on YouTube, X, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. If you listen to music on Spotify, Apple Music, or any other listening platform, be sure to find her there as well. Lastly, she streams her music and speedruns on Twitch, so if you want to get in on the action, that’s the place to be! Give Shesko’s tunes a listen, and let us know what you think in the comments!
Cover Photo: Zelda Dungeon’s Katie Shaffer
Source: Katie Shesko, Tekko
Nicole Scott is writer for Zelda Dungeon from suburban Appalachia. She loves drinking espresso, seeing live music, building LEGO sets, being a completionist, and snuggling her two probably-alien cats, Tizo and Alarielle.
