Meredith Monk was born to businessman Theodore Glenn Monk (1909–1998) and singer Audrey Lois Monk (née Audrey Lois Zellman; 1911–2009), in New York City, New York.[2][3] Her mother, a professional singer of popular and classical music known under the stage name of Audrey Marsh, was herself the daughter of professional musicians: the Russian Jewish bass-baritone Joseph B. Zellman, and Rose (Kornicker) Zellman, a concert pianist of German Jewish background from Philadelphia.[4] Meredith has a sister, Tracy (born 1948).[4] Monk has a bachelor's degree from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied composition with then-graduate student and Alwin Nikolais dancer Beverly Schmidt Blossom.
At the age of three, Monk was diagnosed with strabismus and her mother signed her up to a Dalcroze eurhythmics programme, a technique which integrates music with movement. Monk says that it "has influenced everything I've done. It's why dance and movement and film are so integral to my music. It's why I see music so visually."[5]
Career
Meredith Monk is primarily known for her vocal innovations, including a wide range of extended techniques, which she first developed in her solo performances prior to forming her own ensemble. In December 1961, she appeared at the Actor's Playhouse in Greenwich Village (NYC) as a solo dancer in an off-Broadway children's musical theater adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, entitled Scrooge (music and lyrics by Norman Curtis; directed and choreographed by Patricia Taylor Curtis).[6] In 1964, Monk graduated from Sarah Lawrence College after studying with Beverly Schmidt Blossom, and in 1968 she founded The House, a company dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to performance. Monk's performances have influenced many artists, including Bruce Nauman, whom she met in San Francisco in 1968.
In 1978, Monk formed The Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble[7] (modeled after similar ensembles of musical colleagues, such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass), to explore new and wider vocal textures and forms, which often were contrasted with minimal instrumental textures. Monk began a long-standing relationship with the Walker Art Center of Minneapolis, which continues to showcase her work to this day. During this period Monk recorded Dolmen Music (1979), her first album released on Manfred Eicher's record label ECM, in 1981.
In the 1980s, Monk wrote and directed two films, Ellis Island (1981), and Book of Days (1988).[8] These developed from her idea; "One day during summer of 1984, as I was sweeping the floor of my house in the country, the image of a young girl (in black and white) and a medieval street in the Jewish community (also in black and white) came to me." Monk tells this account in the liner notes of the ECM-recording. Apart from the film, different versions exist of this piece. Two are for the concert hall, and an album, produced by Meredith Monk and Manfred Eicher, is "a film for the ears."
In an interview, Monk said that her favourite music includes Brazilian music, especially Caetano Veloso's recordings, the music by Mildred Bailey ("the great jazz singer from the ‘30s and ‘40s"), and Bartók's cycle for piano Mikrokosmos.
Book of Days for 25 voices, synthesizer, piano or 7 voices, synthesizer (Chamber Version) (1985) recorded for ECM
Scared Song song for solo voice, synthesizer and piano (1986)
I Don't Know song for solo voice and piano (1986)
Double Fiesta solo voice and 2 pianos (1986)
String unaccompanied solo voice (1986)
Duet Behavior for 2 voices (1987)
The Ringing Place for 9 voices (1987)
Cat Song for solo voice (1988)
Processional for solo piano and voice (1988)
Light Songs for solo voice (1988)
Fayum Music for voice, hammered dulcimer, double ocarina (1988)
Book of Days (film score) for 10 voices, cello, shawm, synthesizer, hammered dulcimer, bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy (1988)
Atlas: An Opera in Three Parts for 18 voices 2 keyboards, clarinet, bass clarinet, sheng, bamboo sax, 2 violins, viola, 2 cellos, French horn, percussion, shawm (1991)
Three Heavens and Hells for 4 voices (1992)
Volcano Songs (Duet) for 2 voices (1993)
St. Petersburg Waltz for solo piano and 2 voices (1993)
New York Requiem for solo voice and piano (1993)
Volcano Songs (Solo) for solo voice, voice with taped voices and piano (1994)
American Archaeology #1: Roosevelt Island for 9 voices, organ, bass, medieval drum and shawm (1994)
Star Trek: Envoy for composing/directing/performing in the Den-Kai/Krikiki Ensemble (1995)
On Behalf of Nature for 8 voices, violin, keyboards, French horn, clarinet, bass and contrabass clarinet, wooden flutes, vibraphone, marimba and percussion (2013)
Discography
Key (Increase Records, 1971 / Lovely Music, 1977 and 1995)
1989 — Book of Days. Director and co-writer with Tone Blevins.
1993 — The Sensual Nature of Sound: 4 Composers – Laurie Anderson, Tania León, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros. Directed by Michael Blackwood.
1983 — Four American Composers "Meredith Monk." Directed by Peter Greenaway.
1996 — Speaking of Dance: Conversations With Contemporary Masters of American Modern Dance. No. 22: Meredith Monk. American Dance Festival. Directed by Douglas Rosenberg.
2020 – ECM50 | 1981 – Meredith Monk: "Dolmen Music", short documentary about Meredith Monk's work for ECM Records, dir. Ingo J. Biermann, 2020, 21 min.[19]
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