Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble

Friday, November 9 at 8 pm
Quartet Concert I: Meredith Monk, Theo Bleckmann, Katie Geissinger, and Bohdan Hilash

Saturday, November 10 at 8 pm
Quartet Concert II: Meredith Monk, Katie Geissinger, Allison Sniffin, and Bohdan Hilash

Tickets: $15, 25, 35, 45

LISTEN:


Composer/performer Meredith Monk has been deemed “a magician of the voice” and “one of America’s coolest composers,” amazing audiences across the globe for more than 45 years with her genre-spanning compositions. Her groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an instrument, as an eloquent language in and of itself, expands the boundaries of musical composition, creating landscapes of sound that unearth feelings, energies, and memories for which we have no words. Monk and her acclaimed Vocal Ensemble—some of the finest and most adventurous performers active in new music—will showcase Monk’s range as a composer and her engagement with performance as a vehicle for spiritual transformation.

The program for Quartet Concert I on Friday, November 9, includes multiple solo selections from Juice, Songs from the Hill, and Light Songs; selections from Facing North; Music for Voice and Piano: Gotham Lullaby, Travelling, and last song; Music for Voice, Keyboard, and Woodwinds: Choosing Companions, from ATLAS: an opera in three parts; Waltz in 5’s, from The Politics of Quiet; Scared Song and clusters 3, from Songs of Ascension; Panda Chant I and Memory Song, from The Games; masks, from mercy; and between song, from impermanence. 

The program for Quartet Concert II on Saturday, November 10, includes Music for Unaccompanied Voice, with selections from Juice, Songs from the Hill, and Light Songs; Music for Voice and Piano: Gotham Lullaby, Travelling, and Madwoman’s Vision; and Music for Voice, Keyboard, and Woodwinds: Choosing Companions, from ATLAS: an opera in three parts; Hips Dance, from Volcano Songs: Duets; Prayer II, from The Politics Of Quiet; Scared Song, epilogue, and woman at the door, from mercy; clusters 3, from Songs of Ascension; Panda Chant I and Memory Song, from The Games; masks, from mercy; and between song, from impermanence. The majority of these selections can be heard on the ECM New Series label.    

New Albion Records was founded in San Francisco in 1984 to explore the world of art music. Its current catalogue includes 138 releases. In recent years, with the onset of the Internet, its focus has moved from recording projects to concert events. This is New Albion’s fifth such event with the Fisher Center.  

Running time for this program is approximately 75 minutes, with no intermission.