November 2006 2006 Next Wave Festival ;;J ~ ,

'----.-- McDennott • McGou&h. THIS IS ONE OF OUR FAVORITE 1'AINTINGS. 1936(2005

The PerformingCOREArt. Magazine Altria 2006 ~ext Wave EestbLaL

Brooklyn Academy of Music Alan H. Fishman William I. Campbell Chairman of the Board Vice Chairman of the Board

Karen Brooks Hopkins Joseph V. Melillo President Executive Producer presents Impermanence• Conceived, directed, and composed by

Approximate BAM Harvey Theater running time: Nov 1-4, 2006 at 7:30pm; Nov 5 at 3pm one hour and 45 minutes, Performed by Meredith Monk &Vocal Ensemble one intermission

Developed in collaboration with: Theo Bleckmann, Ellen Fisher, Katie Geissinger, Ching Gonzalez, Bohdan Hilash, John Hollenbeck, Allison Sniffin, and Yoshio Yabara

Music by Meredith Monk Lighting design by Noele Stollmack Costume design by Yoshio Yabara Sound design by David Meschter Musical direction Allison Sniffin

BAM 2006 Next Wave Festival is sponsored by Altria Group, Inc.

Music programming at BAM is made possible by a generous grant from The New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

Additional support for BAM Music provided by The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. and Amphion Foundation. Part I

Words "Last Song" James Hillman "Liminal" Meredith Monk and members of the Ensemble

Fi Imed segments Faces video: 24 Hours of Faces, Part 2 Scenario Meredith Monk Camera Chris Rawlence Editor Mike Taylor

Metal, Hair, Wood, Leaves Film: Shapes of the Invisible Directed by Pierre Oscar Levy, Jean Michel Sanchez, Gabriel Turkieh ©ALTOM EDINCSI/Ex-N ihilo/Aune Production-1999

-Intermission-

Part II

Words "Between Song" Mieke van Hoek

Fi Imed segments Faces / Eyes video Scenario Meredith Monk, Yoshio Yabara Camera Jerry Pantzer Editor Mike Taylor

Eye video: World in an Eye by Shree K. Nayar and Ko Nishino of the Computer Vision Laboratory Dept. of Computer Science at Columbia University

Photo Sequence Scenario Meredith Monk Designer Jan Hartley

Additional production credits Stage Manager Elaine Buckholtz Sound Engineer Bruce Robbins Video Engineer & Mixer Ryan Bronz Visual Consultant Debby Lee Cohen Production Managers Kim Guzowski and Kathy Kaufmann

All music compositions © Meredith Monk 2004-2005 (ASCAP) except for "Mieke's Melody # 5" by Mieke van Hoek, arranged by Meredith Monk

The development of impermanence has been made possible in part by support from: Doris Duke Fund for Dance of the National Dance Project, a program of the New England Foundation for the Arts. (Additional NDP funding provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Altria Group, Inc.); Brooklyn Academy of Music; American Music Center's Live Music for Dance Program; and Arts International's Artist Exploration Fund. "Last Song" was commissioned as part of the national series of works from Meet The Composer Commissioning Music/USA, which is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Helen F. Whitaker Fund, and the Target Foundation. impermanence

How does one create a work about impermanence? One can only brush upon aspects of it; conjure up the sensation that everything is in flux, reality constantly changes, we can't hold onto anything. What we have in common as human beings is that we will all die and we don't know when or how. We will lose our loved ones, our own health, and finally our own bodies. Keeping this in mind leads to a deep appreciation of the moments we have, not taking anything for granted. When my partner of 22 years, Mieke van Hoek, suddenly died, my world turned upside down. Everything in my life including art-making began not to seem so significant but after a while I renewed my conviction that to spend a lifetime working on something you love and giving that to other people is a great privilege and blessing.

A few months after Mieke's death, I was approached by Rosetta Life, a London-based organization which connects artists with hospice patients. They asked me to write music for a play about their stories. I expressed that I was more interested in making an interdisciplinary piece about imperma­ nence since at the time that subject was occupying most of my thoughts. After spending time with Rosetta Life workers and patients in London, a deeply moving experience, I began seeing the piece as an abstract, poetic evocation of the passages of life. While the Rosetta Life workshops certainly informed the work, impermanence went in another direction right from the start. In a way, making a piece "about" impermanence was an impossible task. I could only imply it, offer glimpses, create music and images that would be evocative but would also leave space for each member of the audience to have his or her responses.

The process of working on impermanence was challenging and elusive but at certain times, the piece seemed to have a mysterious life of its own. Aspects that I thought were merely logistical became underlying themes that were at first hidden but ultimately very important. For example, the entrances and exits of the performers transformed into the theme of appearance and disappearance.

As in all my group work, the rehearsal process with the performers was crucial to the final piece. The rehearsals were intense, exacting but playful as well. Exploring notions of mortality, change, and flux required both fortitude and generosity. At this point, I would like to acknowledge the patience, devo­ tion, and courage of all the members of the Ensemble and the designers who continued to put their open-hearted energy, faith, and creativity into a very demanding and rewarding project.

-Meredith Monk Who's Wb~o _

Meredith Monk is a composer, singer, director/ Monk & Vocal Ensemble to expand her musical choreographer and creator of new opera, music­ textures and forms. She has made more than a theater works, films, and installations. A pioneer dozen recordings, most of which are on the ECM in what is now called "extended vocal technique" New Series label. Her music has been performed and "interdisciplinary performance," Monk cre­ by numerous soloists and groups including The ates works that thrive at the intersection of music Chorus of the San Francisco Symphony, Musica and movement, image and object, light and Sacra, The Pacific Mozart Ensemble, Double sound in an effort to discover and weave together Edge, and Bang On A Can All-Stars, among oth­ new modes of perception. Her groundbreaking ers. Monk is a pioneer in site-specific perfor­ exploration of the voice as an instrument, as mance, creating works such as Juice: A Theater an eloquent language in and of itself, expands Cantata In 3 Installments (1969) and American the boundaries of musical composition, creat- Archeology #1: Roosevelt Island (1994). She ing landscapes of sound that unearth feelings, is also an accomplished filmmaker who has energies, and memories for which we have no made a series of award-winning films including words. She has alternately been proclaimed as Ellis Island (1981) and her first feature, Book of a "magician of the voice" and "one of America's Days (1988), which was aired on PBS, shown coolest composers." During a career that spans at the New York Film Festival, and selected for more than 40 years she has been acclaimed by the Whitney Museum's Biennial. A retrospec­ audiences and critics as a major creative force tive art exhibition, Meredith Monk: Archeology in the performing arts. Since graduating Sarah of an Artist, was presented at The New York P Lawrence College in 1964, Monk has received ublic Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln numerous awards throughout her career, includ­ Center in 1996. Other art exhibits include Art ing the prestigious MacArthur "Genius" Award in Performs Life at The Walker Art Center, Shrines 1995, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Brandeis at the Frederieke TaylorlTZ' Art Gallery, Eclipse Creative Arts Award, three "Obies" (including an Variations in the 2002 Biennial at the Whitney award for Sustained Achievement), two Villager Museum, and a group exhibit, Show People, at Awards, two "Bessie" awards for Sustained Exit Art. A monograph, Meredith Monk, edited Creative Achievement, the 1986 National Music by Deborah Jowitt, was released by Johns Theatre Award, the 1992 Dance Magazine Hopkins Press in 1997. In October 1999 Monk Award, and a 2005 ASCAP Concert Music performed a Vocal Offering for His Holiness, Award. She has recently been inducted into the the Dalai Lama as part of the World Festival of American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Sacred Music in Los Angeles. In July 2000 her holds honorary Doctor of Arts degrees from Bard music was honored by a three concert retrospec­ College, the University of the Arts, The Juilliard tive entitled Voice Travel as part of the Lincoln School, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the Center Festival. A CD of mercy (performed in Boston Conservatory. Her recordings Dolmen the 2002 Next Wave Festival) was released on Music (ECM New Series) and : the ECM New Series label in November 2002. The Vanguard Tapes (Wergo) were honored Monk's first orchestra piece, , com­ with the German Critics Prize for Best Records missioned by Michael Tilson Thomas for the of 1981 and 1986. Her music has been heard New World Symphony, premiered in April 2003 in many films, including La Nouvelle Vague by in Miami. "," her first composition Jean-Luc Godard and The Big Lebowski by Joel for string quartet, commissioned by the Kronos and Ethan Coen. A new publishing relationship Quartet, had its world premiere at the Barbican with Boosey & Hawkes makes Meredith Monk's Center in January 2005. In November 2005, music available to a wider public for the first Monk's 40th year of performing and creating time. In 1968 Monk founded The House, a com­ new music was celebrated by a four and a half­ pany dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach hour-marathon at Zankel Hall with performances to performance. In 1978 she formed Meredith by Bjork; Bang on a Can All Stars; DJ Spooky; Who's Wb~o _

John Zorn; the Pacific Mozart Ensemble; Ursula Baz Luhrmann's production of La Boheme, and Oppens; Bruce Brubaker and The Roches, among her Carnegie Hall debut in Bach's Magnificat last others. Current projects include a new work for December, where she returns in March in Arthur the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble, a new piece Honegger's King David. She appeared last spring for her Vocal Ensemble and the Kronos Quartet in at BAM in Jonathan Miller's staged version of collaboration with visual artist Ann Hamilton and Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Upcoming perfor­ a new cd of impermanence. mances include Mary in Resphighi's Laud To The Nativity at Sacred Music ina Sacred Space in Thea Bleckmann, genre -bending, -skipping and December. -skirting, vocalist and composer, has performed worldwide with artists like Laurie Anderson, Ching Gonzalez has worked in NYC's experimen­ Anthony Braxton, Steve Coleman, Michael Tilson tal dance, music, and theater scenes since 1976. Thomas, Bang on a Can and Meredith Monk He is a member of Meredith MonklThe House, since 1994. Bleckmann's recordings as a leader and Vocal Ensemble, performing in her operas, include origami (Songlines), anteroom (Traum­ music/theater pieces, concerts, films, and record­ ton), Las Vegas Rhapsody with the Basel Kam­ ings since 1984. He has presented his original merorchester (Winter&Winter), and his upcoming dance/theater works in New York, San Francisco, At Night (Songlines) in duo with guitarist Ben and Honolulu. Highlights: originating member of Monder. He is currently working on his next CD Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians; member of for Winter&Winter of German songs of the Weimar Hot Mouth, a capella hip-hop theater; as Honey and post-WWII-era. www.TheoBleckmann.com. Love in Jeff Weiss' midnight serial, Hot Keys; The King and I on Broadway with Yul Brynner. Special Ellen Fisher's performance art combines gestural thanks to Columbia University Human Resources, actions with visual components such as film, where he has worked as an officer of administra­ shadow play, objects, and puppets. Her perfor­ tion si nce 1998. mances are informed by ethnographic research in trance dance and rituals of South Asia. Fisher has Bohdan Hilash, a multi-faceted musician and toured solo work throughout Europe and the US clarinetist, has appeared at many of the world's also directing large ensemble work reinterpreting renowned concert venues and festivals as a myths and legends. Her film work has been in­ performer of orchestral, chamber, and contem­ cluded in festivals throughout the world. She has porary music, opera, musical theater, jazz, and received funding through NEA, Art Matters Inc., as a soloist. Hilash has performed with several Jerome Foundation, NYFA, and the Asian Cultural of the world's leading orchestras including the Council. She continues to collaborate with artists London Symphony Orchestra and the New York on community intergenerational projects. She has Philharmonic with conductors such as Leonard performed with Meredith MonklThe House on Bernstein, Kurt Masur, and Zubin Mehta, among several dance/theater works throughout the years many others. Especially active in contemporary and embraces her artistic vision. Presently she is music performance, he has premiered numerous editing a video of the dance rituals of Sri Lanka. new compositions written for him throughout the world and worked with many of the field's fore­ Katie Geissinger has performed worldwide with most artists and ensembles including the Cham­ Meredith Monk since 1990, in concert and in ber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Continuum, theater pieces including , Magic Frequen­ and Speculum Musicae. cies, The Politics of Quiet (ensemble Bessie Award recipient), and Mercy. She was featured John Hollenbeck has created and continues to in, and recorded, Philip Glass and Robert cultivate a body of work that integrates a wealth Wilson's Einstein on the Beach, and premiered of experience into a style that is as accessible as Bang on a Can's Obie-winning The Carbon Copy it is advanced. Hollenbeck focuses extensively on Building. Geissinger made her Broadway debut in composing for and leading The Claudia Quintet Who's Wb~o _

and his Grammy-nominated Large Ensemble. Medea (at BAM in 2002), directed by Deborah His most recent works have been commissioned Warner and featuring Fiona Shaw, was nominat­ by Bang on a Can, Ethos Percussion Group, and ed for a Drama Desk Award for best sound design Studio Percussion (Graz, Austria). Hollenbeck is of the 2002-03 season. Meschter is the sound married to Katharine Schroeder. supervisor for Lincoln Center Festival.

Allison sniffin, singer, composer, multi-instru­ Noele Stollmack's (lighting designer) designs in­ mentalist, in addition to performing with Meredith clude Meredith Monk and Ann Hamilton's mercy. Monk &Vocal Ensemble (since 1996) has en­ Her work has appeared on stage at the Houston graved and orchestrated several works including Grand Opera, Opera Ontario, Opera Pacific, Possible Sky and Night. One of her compositions, Portland Opera, Opera Columbus, New Orleans based on the poetry of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Opera, Nashville Opera, Skylight Opera Theatre, will premier at Merkin Hall on November 18 in Madison Opera, Florentine Opera, Milwaukee a concert of Latin American music performed by Rep, Alley Theatre, and the First Stage Children's Melodia Women's Chorus of NYC. Theatre. As lighting director for Houston Grand Opera, she supervised the lighting for over 50 Elaine Buckholtz is an inter-media artist based in productions and designed such productions as San Francisco. Her work combines the mediums Andrei Serban's Elektra, Dr. Jonathan Miller's Der of moving light, video, sculpture, and sound. Rosenkavalier, Aida, and the world premieres of She has worked with Merce Cunningham and Harvey Milk, Desert of Roses, and Dracula Diary. Meredith Monk recreating their visual environ­ Her AlA award-winning architectural and public ments internationally and continues to tour with space lighting is installed throughout the Midwest Meredith Monk as lighting designer for her solo and is a component in a new urban garden and shows. She has shown work at The Luggage pedestrian footbridge that spans the Milwaukee Store in San Francisco, the San Francisco Arts River. Commission, New Langton Arts, the Wexner Center, and Fusion Art Space. Buckholtz attended Yoshio Yabara (costume designer) received a BA The California College Of The Arts on a Jacob K. in Linguistics in his native Japan and studied Javits Fellowship from 2002-04, and recently stage and costume design in West Germany and received her MFA from Stanford University. She West Berlin. He started his professional career as currently teaches Fine Arts at Stanford University. a costume designer for the Oscar winning film, The Tin Drum, directed by Volker Schloendorf, David Meschter (sound designer) received and on the stages at SchaubUhne under the a degree in audio technology from American direction of Peter Stein in West Berlin. There, he University in Washington, DC. He was the sound met Meredith Monk who hired him as a designer consultant and repertory musician with the for her epic Vessel. He also worked on Monk's Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1981 opera, Atlas, and her feature-length film, Book of to 1988, and he has created sound designs for Days. Yabara has worked on numerous theatrical a variety of organizations and artists, including and film productions as a costume designer, stage John Cage, LaMonte Young, Pandit Pran Nath, designer, and art director in Europe, the US, and Philip Glass, Lincoln Center, American Ballet Asia. These productions include the musical Theatre, and Houston Grand Opera. His sound Line One in Berlin, the Civil WarS, King Lear design credits include The Peony Pavilion, the by Robert Wilson, Oedipus, Madame de Sade epic nineteen-hour opera directed by Chen Shi­ by Tadashi Suzuki, Don Giovanni, and Le nozze Zheng at Lincoln Center Festival 1999; Edda: di Figaro directed by Barenboim-Langhoff. He Viking Tales of Lust, Revenge and Family and teaches students at Mozarteum, Salzburg, and Obon: Tales of Rain and Moonlight, directed by The Akademie, Berlin. He also creates artworks Ping Chong; and Atlas, The Politics of Quiet, and fashion under the labels 0'KimonO and Magic Frequencies, and mercy by Meredith Narcis and Goldmund. ([email protected]) Monk. His work for the Broadway production of Who.s Wb~o _

Special Thank You to: Linda St. John (Meredith Monk's costume for Part I), Gabriel Berry (costume consultant for Part I), Kim Guzowski, Kathy Kaufmann, Amy Bostwick, Vic Losick, Matthew Ozawa, Bonnie LaFave, Mil~s Shebar, Kalpana Nayar, Pema Dolkar, Karrie Campbell, Maximiliano Racchumi, Eiko Kijima, Walter Richardson, Eric Shriai, Mindy Wyatt, Francois Bernardi, Mindy Weisberger, Alex Rappaport, Dominic Caputo, Jadin Wong, Lisa Guido, Andrew Wolff, Ryuji Noda, Loren Buckley, Andy Claus, Karen Forewalker, Keith Gardner, Glassine Green, Claire Morgan, Mary O'Sullivan, Kate Woodman. Additional thanks to David Worgan, Harriet Kiwanuga, and Dave and Rose Tyler.

Images From: NY Historical Society; Library of Congress; Ansel Adams; New York Public Library -Shonberg Collection; Conway & Pratt; Joe Bauman Family Collection in Salt Lake City, UT; Mark Johnson; The Daguerreian Society Newsletter; Charles Schwartz; Corbis; and members of the en­ semble.

The House Foundation for the Arts, Inc. 260 West Broadway, Suite #2, New York, NY 10013 Tel: 212.904.1330 Fax: 212.904.1305. Email: [email protected] Web: www.meredithmonk.org

Incorporated in 1971, The House Foundation for the Arts provides production and management services for Meredith Monk, Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble, and The House Company.

Meredith Monk, Artistic Director Olivia Georgia, Executive Director Jonathan Nye, Managing Director Melissa Sandor, Development Consultant

Press representative: Ellen Jacobs Associates Tel: 212.245.5100 Fax: 212.397.1102

Exclusive US Tour Representation: Rena Shagan Associates, Inc. Tel: 212.873.9700 Fax: 212.873.1708 www.shaganarts.com

International Booking: Therese Barbanel, Artsceniques Tel/Fax: +33 (148) 93-66-54 [email protected]

mercy (recorded on ECM New Series) and other Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble albums are available at www.meredithmonk.org Who's Wb~o _

MEREDITH MONK/The House Foundation for the Arts Board of Trustees:

Ellynne Skove, Chair and President Meredith Monk, Artistic Director Arbie R. Thalacker, Treasurer Barbara G. Sahlman Haruno Arai Carol Schuster Linda S. Golding Frederieke Sanders Taylor Robert Grimm Micki Wesson, President Emerita Sa Ii An n Kriegsma n

MEREDITH MONK/The House Foundation for the Arts is made possible, in part, with public and private funds from: Altria Group, Inc. American Music Center Live Music for Dance Fund The Amphion Foundation Arts International/The Fund for US Artists and the Artists' Exploration Fund The Booth Ferris Foundation Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust Aaron Copland Fund for Music Creative Capital The Howard Gilman Foundation The Harkness Foundation for Dance The James E. Robison Foundation JPMorgan Chase MacGraw-Hill Companies Materials for the Arts (a program of the New York City Department of Sanitation) Meet the Composer/Commissioning Music USA National Dance Project, a program of the New England Foundation for the Arts National Endowment for the Arts New York State Council on the Arts Sarah Lawrence College The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation Emma A. Sheafer Charitable Trust Robert Sterling Clark Foundation Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund The Women's Film Preservation Fund of New York Women in Film and Television

Stateoflt'eArts Altria NATIONAL NYSCA ENDOWMENT

The House Foundation for the Arts acknowledges the following individuals with great appreciation for their generous contributions:

Ms. Ellynne C. Skove, Ms. Haruno Arai, Mr. and Mrs. Leo Beckwith, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Boyle, Mr. and Mrs. Kirk Browning, Ms. Barbara Dufty, Ms. Ruth E. Eisenberg, Mr. Carlos E. Garcia and Mr. Wallace Colvard, Ms. Linda S. Golding, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Goodale, Jr., Mr. Robert Grimm, Mr. Bernard Heineman, Jr., Ms. Yuki Iwashiro, Ms. Rhonda L. Kaplan, Ms. Abby Karp, Mr. and Mrs. Alex Katz, Ms. Frances Kazan, Mr. James E. Kelly, Ms. Elizabeth LeCompte and Mr. Willem Dafoe, Mr. Harvey Lichtenstein, Ms. Dorothy Lichtenstein, Ms. Kerry McCarthy and Ms. Kate Mann, Ms. Mary Anne Moloney, Ms. Meredith Monk, Mr. and Mrs. Frederic R. Newman, Mr. Mark H. Palermo, Mr. William A. Palmer, Mrs. Judith S. Ragir, Mrs. Barbara Sahlman, Ms. Carol Schuster, Ms. Ruth Lande Shuman, Mr. and Mrs. Steve Simring, Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Skove, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Soros, Ms. Barbara Cohen - Stratyner, Ms. Frederieke Sanders Taylor, Ms. Judith Taylor, Mr. Arbie R. Thalacker, Mr. Jeffrey S. Ween, Mrs. Micki Wesson, Mr. Mark Wovsaniker, Anonymous. (Reflects gifts of $250 and above.)