Meredith Monk

From the 1960s onwards, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recording extensively for ECM Records.[1] In 1991, Monk composed Atlas, an opera, commissioned and produced by the Houston Opera and the American Music Theater Festival. Her music has been used in films by the Coen Brothers (The Big Lebowski, 1998) and Jean-Luc Godard (Nouvelle Vague, 1990 and Notre musique, 2004). Trip hop musician DJ Shadow sampled Monk's "Dolmen Music" on the song "Midnight in a Perfect World." In 2015, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.

Meredith Monk was born to businessman Theodore Glenn Monk (1909–1998) and singer Audrey Lois Monk (née Audrey Lois Zellman; 1911–2009), in Manhattan, 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]

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).[5] 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 Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble (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).[6] 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 the early 1990s, Monk composed an opera called Atlas, which premiered in Houston, Texas, in 1991.[7] She has also written pieces for instrumental ensembles and symphony orchestras. Her first symphonic work was Possible Sky (2003). It was followed by Stringsongs (2004) for string quartet, which was commissioned by the Kronos Quartet. In 2005, events were held all over the world in celebration of the 40th anniversary of her career, including a concert in Carnegie Hall featuring Björk, Terry Riley, DJ Spooky (who sampled Monk on his album Drums of Death), Ursula Oppens, Bruce Brubaker, John Zorn, and the new music ensembles Alarm Will Sound and Bang on a Can All-Stars, along with the Pacific Mozart Ensemble. Meredith Monk has been composer in residence for Carnegie Hall, concluding in 2015.[8]

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.

Monk has won numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship and the Creative Capital Award in the discipline of Performing Arts.[9] She has also been a MacDowell Fellow six times (1987, 1988, 1994, 1996, 2001, Winter 2007). She has been awarded honorary Doctor of Arts degrees from Bard College, the University of the Arts (Philadelphia), the Juilliard School, the San Francisco Art Institute and the Boston Conservatory. In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Monk's name and picture.[10] In 1985, Monk won an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence for her contributions to the Off-Broadway community.[11]

In 2007, she received in Italy the Demetrio Stratos International Award for musical experimentation.[12][13] On September 10, 2015, U.S. President Barack Obama presented Monk with a National Medal of Arts, the highest honor in the United States specifically given for achievement in the arts.[14] Monk was given The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 2017.[15]

Her music was used in films by David Byrne (True Stories, 1986), the Coen Brothers (The Big Lebowski, 1998), Jean-Luc Godard (Nouvelle Vague, 1990 and Notre musique, 2004), and in The Rapture (1991).[16] Hip hop artist DJ Shadow sampled "Dolmen Music" on the song "Midnight in a Perfect World" (Endtroducing....., 1995). French singer Camille paid an explicit homage to Meredith in her song "The Monk" (Music Hole, 2008) which in its construction also evoked Monk's work.

• Key (Increase Records, 1971 / Lovely Music, 1977 and 1995)
• Our Lady of Late (Minona Records, 1973 / wergo, 1986)
• Songs from the Hill/Tablet (wergo, 1979)
• Dolmen Music (ECM, 1981)
• Turtle Dreams (ECM, 1983)
• Do You Be (ECM, 1987)
• Book of Days (ECM, 1990)
• Facing North (ECM, 1992)
• Atlas: An Opera in Three Parts (ECM, 1993)
• Volcano Songs (ECM, 1997)
• Mercy (ECM, 2002)
• Impermanence (ECM, 2008)
• Beginnings (Tzadik, 2009), compositions from 1966 to 1980
• Songs of Ascension (ECM, 2011)
• Piano Songs (ECM, 2014)
• On Behalf Of Nature (ECM, 2016)
• Memory Game (Cantaloupe, 2020)

• 1983 — Turtle Dreams - Public access film.
• 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.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Meredith Monk.

• Meredith Monk's official site
• Meredith Monk on ECM Records
• Meredith Monk. Encyclopædia Britannica.
• "Meredith Monk". Boosey & Hawkes.
• Meredith Monk Archive, 1959-2006 Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
• Holland, Bernard (2005-11-08). "A Performance Art Pioneer, With Friends". The New York Times.
• Oteri, Frank J. (2000-04-01). "Meredith Monk: Composer First". NewMusicBox.
• Sandow, Greg (1984-10-30). "The Struggle for Form". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on 2004-04-30.
• Service, Tom (2005-01-25). "Kronos Quartet". The Guardian.
• Sheridan, Molly (2005-11-15). "Our Lady of Late". New Music Box. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30.
• Turner, Bob (November 2005). "Meredith Monk: magician of the voice". Common Ground. Archived from the original on 2005-11-07.
• Meredith Monk in the Video Data Bank
• Meredith Monk interview
• Meredith Monk performs Our Lady of Late, for solo voice, wine glass, and percussion, July 23, 1975, Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado
• Archive film of Meredith Monk/The House performing Magic Frequencies in 1998 at Jacob's Pillow