Meredith Monk, widely recognized as one of the most influential artists of our time, will perform in the SANAA-designed River building at Grace Farms. The public showing will conclude an 8-day workshop at Grace Farms, where Monk will continue the development of Cellular Songs, the newest in a series of her music theater pieces exploring our interdependent relationship with nature. The work-in-process performance will feature Monk and her celebrated Vocal Ensemble: Ellen Fisher, Katie Geissinger, Allison Sniffin, and Jo Stewart. Cellular Songs combines some of Monk’s most adventurous and daring vocal music to date with movement, light, instrumental music, and film.
Monk is a pioneer in what is now called “extended vocal technique” and “interdisciplinary performance.” Her work thrives at the intersection of music and movement, image and object, light and sound, discovering and weaving together new modes of perception, and her groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an instrument, as an eloquent language in and of itself, has expanded the boundaries of musical composition.
The public showing of Cellular Songs at Grace Farms will take place on Feb. 2 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the partially subterranean, Court. Tickets are $25. On Feb. 3 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Ellen Fisher and Katie Geissinger will lead Dancing Voice/Singing Body family workshops, where children ages 3 to 10 and their adult caregivers, will learn to combine voice and movement in unique and creative ways. Cellular Songs will premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Mar. 14 to Mar. 18, 2018.
About Meredith Monk
Meredith Monk is a composer, singer, director/choreographer and creator of new opera, music-theater works, films and installations. Over the last six decades she has received numerous awards and honors, most recently the 2017 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize and a 2015 National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama. She has made more than a dozen recordings, most of which are on the ECM New Series label, including the 2008 Grammy-nominated impermanence and the highly acclaimed On Behalf of Nature (2016). Her work can also be heard in films by directors including Jean-Luc Godard, Terrence Malick, and the Coen Brothers. In conjunction with her 50th season of performing and creating work, she was named Carnegie Hall’s 2014-15 Debs Composer’s Chair. Celebrated internationally, Monk’s work has been presented at major venues throughout the world.
