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 Meredith Monk 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 Our Lady of Late: the ECM New Series label in November 2002. The Vanguard Tapes (Wergo) were honored Monk's first orchestra piece, Possible Sky, 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. "Stringsongs," 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.