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Home , Atlas (opera), Bruce Brubaker, John Tavener, Julia Wolfe, Mark Mulcahy, Meredith Monk

BAM 2014 Next Wave Festival #OnBehalfofNature

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Alan H. Fishman, Chairman of the Board

William I. Campbell, Vice Chairman of the Board

Adam E. Max, Vice Chairman of the Board

Karen Brooks Hopkins, President On Behalf Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer of Nature

Meredith & Vocal Ensemble

BAM Harvey Theater Dec 3—6 at 7:30pm; Dec 7 at 3pm

Running time: one hour and 15 minutes, no intermission

Music and direction by Lighting design by Elaine Buckholtz Sound design by Jody Elff Costumes and scenography by Yoshio Yabara

With Sidney Chen, Ellen Fisher, Katie Geissinger, Meredith Monk, Bruce Rameker, Allison Sniffin voices Bohdan Hilash winds John Hollenbeck percussion Allison Sniffin keyboards, ,

Production manager Philip Sandström Season Sponsor: Technical director Johnny Chanthavong Assistant technical director Jess Malcolm Sound engineer Dave Cook Time Warner is the BAM 2014 Score preparation/Music director Allison Sniffin Next Wave Festival Sponsor Video editing Meredith Monk and Michael Grenadier Viacom is the BAM 2014 Music Sponsor Production coordinator/Company manager Peter Sciscioli Leadership support for music at BAM provided by: Frances Bermanzohn & Alan Roseman Pablo J. Salame On Behalf of Nature

As I began working on On Behalf of Nature, I asked myself the question: “how would one create an ecological art work that didn’t make more waste in the world?” Live performances leave no traces except, hopefully, in the minds of audience members. This ephemeral aspect is both poignant and exhilarating. Sometimes though, the desire for novelty and surface excitement leads to buying a lot of new things, spending a great deal of money for an experience that lasts only a few hours. I wondered how one could make an alternative to that.

I started thinking about the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss and his notion of “bricolage”: the process of assembling or making something from what is already at hand. In pre-industrial societ- ies, one object could function in many different ways by an act of imagination. We now speak of this process as re-purposing. Yoshio Yabara, the costume designer for On Behalf of Nature, implemented this concept by creating new garments with unique shapes for each performer, fashioned from his or her old clothing. Each costume inherently included aspects of that performer’s personal history contained in the original garments. This idea of spiraling around to the past to make something com- pletely new is also a way of appreciating what is here in the present and working with what we have. The same principle extends to other elements in On Behalf of Nature.

One of the early inspirations for On Behalf of Nature was an essay by the poet, Gary Snyder, entitled “Writers and the War Against Nature.” In it he writes about the role of an artist being that of a “spokesperson for non-human entities communicating to the human realm through dance or song.” This act of compassion, of “speaking on behalf of nature,” embodies and gives voice to those forces that often go unrecognized. On Behalf of Nature is a meditation on our intimate connection to nature, its inner structures, the fragility of its ecology and our interdependence.

—Meredith Monk

All music compositions © Meredith Monk 2012 (ASCAP) Meredith Monk. Photo: Julieta Cervantes Who’s Who

MEREDITH MONK (, director, instruments, with commissions from Michael performer) is a composer, singer, director/ Tilson Thomas/ Symphony and choreographer, and creator of new , New World Symphony, , St. Louis music-theater works, films, and installations. A Symphony , and Los Angeles Master pioneer in what is now called “extended vocal Chorale, among others. technique” and “interdisciplinary performance,” Monk creates works that thrive at the intersection Since graduating from of music and movement, image and object, in 1964, Monk has received numerous honors and light and sound in an effort to discover and including the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, weave together new modes of perception. Her two Guggenheim Fellowships, three Obie Awards groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an (including an award for Sustained Achievement), instrument, as an eloquent language in and and two Bessie Awards for Sustained Creative of itself, expands the boundaries of musical Achievement. She holds honorary Doctor of composition, creating landscapes of sound that Arts degrees from , the University unearth feelings, energies, and memories for of the Arts, the , San Francisco which there are no words. Over the last five Art Institute, and the Conservatory. decades, she has been hailed as “a magician Monk has made more than a dozen recordings, of the voice” and “one of America’s coolest most of which are on the ECM New Series .” Celebrated internationally, Monk’s label, including the 2008 Grammy-nominated work has been presented by BAM, Lincoln impermanence, the highly acclaimed Songs of Center Festival, Grand Opera, London’s Ascension (2011), and Songs (2014). Barbican Centre, and at major venues in She has been working with the publisher Boosey countries from Brazil to Syria. Among her many & Hawkes since 2001. accolades, she was recently named an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Republic In October 1999 Monk performed A Vocal of France, and the 2012 Composer of the Year Offering for His Holiness, the Dalai Lama as by Musical America. Monk is also one of NPR’s part of the World Festival of Sacred Music in 50 Great Voices, and has received a 2012 Doris Los Angeles. Her 40th year of performing and Duke Artist Award and a 2011 Lennon creating new music was celebrated in 2005 by Courage Award for the Arts. a four-hour marathon at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, with additional performances throughout New In 1968 Monk founded The House, a company York City. In February 2012 she was honored dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to with a remix and interpretations CD, MONK performance. In 1978 she founded Meredith MIX, featuring 25 artists from the jazz, pop, Monk & Vocal Ensemble to expand her musical DJ, and new music worlds. In March 2012, textures and forms. As a pioneer in site-specific she premiered Realm Variations for six voices performance, she has created such works as and small ensemble, commissioned by the San Juice: A Cantata In 3 Installments Francisco Symphony, and performed in John (1969) and Ascension Variations (2009) for the Cage’s Song Books as part of the Symphony’s Guggenheim Museum, and American Archeology American Mavericks Festival. Meredith Monk #1: Roosevelt Island (1994). Monk’s award- is currently celebrating her 50th season as a winning films, including Ellis Island (1981) and creator and performer. Recognized as one of her first feature, Book of Days (1988), have the most unique and influential artists of her been seen throughout the world. Her music generation, she has been appointed the 2014- can also be heard in films by such directors as 2015 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Jean-Luc Godard and the Coen Brothers, and on Chair at . the HBO series, True Detective. In addition to her numerous vocal pieces, music-theater works and SIDNEY CHEN (performer) is a founding , Monk has created vital new repertoire member of The M6, a vocal sextet dedicated to for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and solo Meredith Monk’s music. On Behalf of Nature Who’s Who is his first production as a member of Meredith of Ascension (all released by ECM), receiving Monk & Vocal Ensemble, after performing a Bessie Award for The Politics of Quiet. She in Monk’s Realm Variations with the San premiered ’s Obie-winning Francisco Symphony. Previously, Chen sang The Carbon Copy Building (Canteloupe), and in the Meredith Monk Young Artists Concert performed in the second world tour of Philip at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in 2006, and in and ’s Einstein on the at BAM in 2009. He has Beach (Elektra Nonesuch), which was revived also performed Monk’s music for solo voice at in concert at Carnegie Hall. Other Carnegie Hall Oakland’s Garden of Memory. More recently, appearances include Bach’s Magnificat with Chen performed in the 45th-anniversary the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Witch in celebration of ’s organized by the Honegger’s Le Roi David, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Kronos Quartet at Carnegie Hall, and a staged Ainadamar. Geissinger has also appeared in production of ’s the little match girl Jonathan Miller’s staged productions of Bach’s passion by San Francisco Lyric Opera which St. Matthew Passion at BAM, in John Tavener’s toured to Denmark. This season he performs at , in Berio’s Sinfonia for 8 soloists and orchestra with ’s at the Winter the San Francisco new-music ensemble Volti. He Garden, and in Ann Hamilton’s the event of a has recorded with The M6 and Meredith Monk & thread, with music by David Lang, at the Park Vocal Ensemble on Songs of Ascension. Avenue Armory. Her Broadway credits include Baz Luhrmann’s production of La Bohème and ELLEN FISHER (performer) is an Coram Boy, and Off-Broadway she has appeared interdisciplinary artist whose work combines in many Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. She dance with visual components. She began has premiered many new music-theater pieces, performing with Meredith Monk/The House including Mark Mulcahy and ’s The in the ‘70s, in such works as The Plateau Rosenbach Company and Philip Miller’s The Series and Recent Ruins, and more recently Hottentot Venus at MASS MoCA. has appeared in mercy, impermanence, and Songs of Ascension. Fisher’s performance work BOHDAN HILASH (winds) is a clarinetist and is informed by ethnographic research in trance multi-instrumentalist who joined the Vocal dance and rituals of South Asia, particularly Sri Ensemble in 2002. As part of his diverse career Lanka. Since 1981, she has toured solo work he has performed on four continents throughout throughout Europe and the US, also directing the world as a performer of orchestral and large ensemble work reinterpreting myths and , opera, contemporary music, legends. Her film work, including documentaries, jazz, musical theater, and as a soloist. Hilash has been included in festivals throughout the has appeared as a chamber and orchestral world. She has received funding through the musician and as a soloist at many of the world’s NEA, Art Matters Inc., Jerome Foundation, pre-eminent concert venues and music and arts NYFA, and the Asian Cultural Council, winning a festivals including those of Bayreuth, Spoleto, 2004 Humanities Fellowship and a 2005 Travel , Evian, Lincoln Center, Rome, and Aspen. Grant. Fisher continues to teach and collaborate As an orchestral musician, Hilash has performed with artists on community intergenerational and with some of the world’s leading intercultural projects, both domestically and including the London Symphony Orchestra and internationally, and recently served as a Fulbright the Philharmonic with conductors Scholar in Sri Lanka. including Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Alan Gilbert, and , among KATIE GEISSINGER (performer) has been many others. He is particularly active in the performing with Meredith Monk since 1990, at field of contemporary music and has worked festivals and venues worldwide, in concert and with many of its leading practitioners including in theatrical pieces such as , mercy, the Speculum Musicae, Bang on a Can, and the Grammy-nominated impermanence, and Songs Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He

Ellen Fisher, Bohdan Hilash, John Hollenbeck, Sidney Chen, Meredith Monk, Allison Sniffin, Katie Geissinger, Bruce Rameker. Photo: Julieta Cervantes Who’s Who

has performed with jazz artists such as Dizzy New England Conservatory in Boston and the Gillespie, Phil Woods, Dave Holland, Lee Konitz, in London. and Kenny Wheeler among many others. In the theater he has worked as a featured performer BRUCE RAMEKER (performer) began in collaboration with several leading theater performing with Meredith Monk & Vocal companies, playwrights, and directors of the Ensemble in 2008. He has appeared as both New York stage including Arthur Miller and a baritone and a countertenor on the stages Lee Breuer. Hilash’s recordings may be heard of Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Town Hall, on the ECM, Chandos, RCA Victor, CRI, Mode, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the CBC, Finlandia, RCA, New World, CCNC, TBM, Edinburgh and Spoleto Festivals in a diverse Capstone, and RP labels. repertoire that includes ancient music, operetta, oratorio, tango, and new music. A frequent JOHN HOLLENBECK (percussion), a genre- collaborator with many composers, he has crossing composer/percussionist renowned in premiered new vocal works of Ben Yarmolinsky, both the jazz and new-music worlds, has been John Kennedy, Richard Pearson Thomas, Anna working with Meredith Monk since 1998 and Dembska, William George, Holly Herndon, has appeared in Magic Frequencies, mercy, Roberto Scarcella Perino, and Luna Pearl Woolf. impermanence, and Songs of Ascension. He Rameker has sung with the Skylight Opera received degrees in percussion (BM) and jazz Theatre, Chicago Opera Theater, New York composition (MM) from the Eastman School of City Opera, Anchorage Opera, San Francisco Music and moved to in the early Ballet, Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, Waverly 1990s. Since then, Hollenbeck has gained Consort, Voices of Ascension, Musica Sacra, and widespread recognition as the driving force New York Ensemble for Early Music. Recordings behind the unclassifiable Claudia Quintet and include A Seeker’s Faith, One Body by John the ambitious John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, Kennedy, Just Another Hour with Trillium groups with roots in jazz, , and Ensemble, ¡Iberia! with Waverly Consort, Klaas contemporary composition. He has earned four de Vries’ opera A King, Riding, and Meredith Grammy nominations: for his Large Ensemble’s Monk’s Songs of Ascension. Born in Wisconsin, releases, A Blessing (Omnitone, 2005) and he is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music eternal interlude (Sunnyside Records, 2009); for and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. his composition “Falling Men” commissioned by the Orchestre National de Jazz and funded by ALLISON SNIFFIN (music direction), a multi- the Chamber Music America French-American instrumentalist, singer, and composer, has been Jazz Exchange (2010); and for his a member of Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble of Jimmy Webb’s “The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress” since 1996, performing in The Politics of Quiet, commissioned by the hr-BigBand of Frankfurt, A Celebration Service, Magic Frequencies, Germany (2013). His most notable awards mercy, , Book of Days, include a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship, a 2010 impermanence, and Songs of Ascension. She ASCAP Jazz Vanguard Award, and a 2012 Doris has engraved several of Monk’s works, including Duke Performing Artist Award. Hollenbeck’s Basket Rondo, , , Night, recent works include commissions by Bang on WEAVE for Two Voices, Chamber Orchestra a Can and the People’s Commissioning Fund; and Chorus, Realm Variations, and Monk’s Ethos Percussion Group funded by the Jerome forthcoming commissioned work for Ensemble Foundation; Youngstown State University; ACJW at Carnegie Hall. Sniffin has won awards Melbourne Jazz Festival; Scotland’s Edinburgh for her compositions from Meet the Composer Jazz Festival; University of Rochester, New York; and Concert Artists’ Guild; her Prelude for Horn and Ensemble Cairn of France. Since 2005, and String Orchestra was performed at the he has been a professor of Jazz Drums and 2011 International Alliance for Women in Music Improvisation at Jazz Institute Berlin, Germany Congress, and Punch! for and piano is and is currently serving as visiting professor at awaiting publication. Who’s Who

ELAINE BUCKHOLTZ (lighting design) is a PHILIP SANDSTRÖM (lighting realization/ multimedia artist living in Boston. Her work production manager) is a New York-based visual combines the mediums of moving light, video, artist and producer, specializing in theatrical and sculpture. She has shown work at the producing/operations, theater consulting, events Electric Works Gallery, San Francisco Arts planning, and entertainment design in New York Commission, New Langton Arts, and YBCA since 1980. An award-winning designer with (San Francisco), ROCA (Nyack, NY), Pierogi Designing with Light, Sandström has created Leipzig (Leipzig, Germany), and Wexner Center lights and visuals for hundreds of theater, dance, for the Arts (Columbus, OH). She attended the and performance events for artists including Bill California College of the Arts on a Jacob K. Irwin, Whoopi Goldberg, Mark Morris Dance Javits Fellowship from 2002—04 and received Group, David Parsons, , her MFA from Stanford University in 2006. She David Gordon, David Lindsay Abaire, John is currently associate professor at Mass Art in Jasperse, Sandra Bernhard, Eric Bogosian, the Studio for Interrelated Media program. She Tanya Barfield, Urban Bush Women, American has worked as a lighting and visual designer Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, Flying Karamazov in the Bay Area for 20 years and has also Brothers, and Valeria Vasilevski. His consulting worked with Merce Cunningham and Meredith company SOLUTIONS provides in-depth analysis Monk recreating their visual environments and project management for theater design and internationally. construction, planning, and operations.

JODY ELFF (sound design) is an YOSHIO YABARA (costume design/scenography) and sound artist living and working in New York received a BA in linguistics in his native , City. His live audio production and recording and studied stage design at the German state credits include work with Yo-Yo Ma, Laurie art universities in Stuttgart and West Berlin. Anderson, Bang on a Can, , and many He began his professional career as a costume others. He is the resident sound designer for designer for the Oscar-winning film The Tin the National Theater of the of Drum, directed by Volker Schlöndorf. His first America in New York, and has also composed work for stage was in the 1970s and early ‘80s and performed music for film and dance. He has at the Schaubühne, West Berlin, where he first mixed and mastered for Osvaldo Golijov, met Monk and collaborated on her opera Vessel. including the soundtrack for the Francis Ford Their subsequent collaborations include ATLAS, Coppola film Tetro. Elff designed and engineered the feature film Book of Days, impermanence, the sonic landscape for the Theater of the New and Songs of Ascension. Yabara has also worked Ear, a stage presentation written by Charlie as a costume designer, stage designer, or art Kaufman, featuring . He recorded, director for many theatrical and film productions mixed and mastered the Off the Map in Europe, US, and Asia, including the CIVIL by the Silk Road Ensemble, which received a warS, Robert Wilson’s , Oedipus 2011 Grammy nomination in the Best Album - Rex, Madame de Sade by Tadashi Suzuki, Classical Crossover category. His fine art sound , Le Nozze di Figaro, produced installations have been shown in various galleries and conducted by Daniel Barenboim at the and museums internationally, including a Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, and Bin commissioned sound-piece permanently installed ich Schoen?, Nackt, and Bliss by Doris Doerrie, in a public parking facility in Lyon, France. among others. yoshioyabara.com Meredith Monk/The House Foundation

The House Foundation for the Arts, Inc. Exclusive U.S. Tour Representation: 260 West Broadway, Suite 2 Rena Shagan Associates, Inc. New York, NY 10013 Tel: 212.873.9700 Tel: 212.904.1330 Fax: 212.904.1305 Fax: 212.873.1708 [email protected] shaganarts.com meredithmonk.org MEREDITH MONK/The House Foundation Incorporated in 1971, The House Foundation for for the Arts Board of Trustees: the Arts provides production and management Sebastiaan Bremer, President services for Meredith Monk, Meredith Monk & Frederieke Sanders Taylor, Chair Vocal Ensemble, and The House Company. Haruno Arai, Secretary Bobbie Foshay Jim Paul, Executive Director Katherine Goodale Peter Sciscioli, Projects Director Meredith Monk Cora Walters, General Manager Margery Perlmutter Tommie Mitchell, Bookkeeper Barbara G. Sahlman Joel Kopel, Comptroller Micki Wesson, President Emeritus Marisa Tornello, Intern Sali Ann Kriegsman, Trustee Emeritus

Press representative: Chris Schimpf / Sacks and Co Tel: 212.741.1000 Who’sACKNOWLEDGMENTS Who

Meredith Monk would like to acknowledge and Jonathan Nye, Mark Palermo, Donald Pels, Kira thank the performers and designers for their Perov and , Elizabeth Peyton, Barbara invaluable contributions in the development of Sahlman, Sue and Steve Simring, Robert Evans On Behalf of Nature. and Gail P. Sinai, Catherine Skove, Ellynne C. Skove, Frederieke Sanders Taylor, and Micki On Behalf of Nature premiered at UCLA’s Center Wesson. for the Art of Performance on January 18, 2013. The House Foundation for the Arts also wishes to Developmental support through residencies for thank the following for their support of Meredith On Behalf of Nature was generously provided by: Monk’s 50th Season Campaign: UCLA CAP, Centre Culturel Andre Malraux Ellynne Skove, Katherine Goodale, Bobbie (Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France), Le Théâtre De Foshay, Meredith Monk, Haruno Arai, Frederieke Lorient, Centre Dramatique National (Lorient, Taylor, Paula Cooper, Dorothy Lichtenstein, France), Park Avenue Armory, Duke University, Glenn and Amanda Fuhrman, Jim and Marcia and Roulette Intermedium. Kelly, Susan Foster, Jim Hodges, Molly Davies, Sali Ann Kriegsman, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Commissioning funds for the development of Foundation, The Howard Gilman Foundation, On Behalf of Nature were provided by: The H.O. Peet Foundation, The James E. Brooklyn Academy of Music for the 2014 Next Robison Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Wave Festival, ASCAP/American Society of Samuels Foundation, The National Endowment Composers, Authors & Publishers, National for the Arts ,The New York Community Trust, and Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, and New York State Council on the Arts. New York State Council on the Arts. 50th Season Artists Committee: Additional support provided by: Hilton Als, Bang on a Can, Björk, Sebastiaan Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through USArtists Bremer, , , Don International in partnership with the National Byron, Michael Cerveris, , Blythe Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Danner, DJ Spooky, Douglas Dunn, Eiko and Mellon Foundation. Koma, , Michael Gordon, Gary Graham, Ann Hamilton, Jim Hodges, Pico Iyer, Individual support for the creation of On Behalf Vijay Iyer, Alex Katz, Kronos Quartet, Inez Van of Nature has been provided by: Lamsweerde, David Lang, Elizabeth LeCompte, The James E. Robison Foundation, Haruno Arai, , Vinoodh Matadin, Marisa Monte, Jonathan Caplan, Sara Coffey, Sage Cowles, Rick Moody, Thurston Moore, , Anthony Creamier, Molly Davies, Beth Rudin Jessye Norman, Yoko Ono, , DeWoody, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Laura Owens, Elizabeth Peyton, Rob Pruitt, Lee Foundation, Olivia Georgia, Goodale Family Ranaldo, Todd Reynolds, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Foundation, Augusta H. Gross and Leslie B. Peter Sarsgaard, Peter Sellars, Cindy Sherman, Samuels, Jim Hodges, Ippei Iwashiro, Ada , Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Alex Katz, Abby Karp, Frances Kazan, Sali , Bill Viola, , Julia Ann Kriegsman, Toby Devan Lewis, Dorothy Wolfe, and . Lichtenstein, Frederic and Barbara Newman,