Meredith Monk
b. 20 November 1943, Lima, Peru. In 1964, Monk graduated in performing arts from Sarah Lawrence College where she had been encouraged to mix the arts in a variety of projects. She saw herself as an ‘orchestrator of music and image and movement’, someone making ‘live movies’. She first appeared in New York at Washington Square Gallery and was one of a group of artists, including painter Robert Rauschenberg, creating mixed-media pieces like Duet For Cat's Scream And Locomotive at Judson Church. She presented her theatre piece, JUICE, at New York's Guggenheim Museum in 1969, and brought her group the House to Liverpool in 1972 to perform THE VESSEL. In the same year, she received a VILLAGE VOICEAward for outstanding achievement in the Off-Broadway Theatre. She also performed solo vocal pieces like Raw Recital, from which ‘a definite American Indian quality emerged’. She sees herself as performing ethnic music from a culture she has herself created. In 1978, she formed the Vocal Ensemble to perform compositions which consist of simple, often modal melodies or melodic cells which are repeated with small variations and contrasted with different material. These performances are sometimes accompanied by repetitive keyboard parts reminiscent of the minimalist movement, and usually depend on extended vocal techniques. The success of DOLMEN MUSIC and TURTLE DREAMS has brought the Ensemble to an international audience.