Meredith Monk to Premiere BACKLIGHT at Carnegie Hall, 2/16

Legendary composer, performer, vocalist, director and choreographer Meredith Monk continues the celebration of her landmark 50th season on February 16 at Carnegie Hall with the New York City premiere of a new work, Backlight, performed by the acclaimed Ensemble ACJW, for whom the piece was composed. Commissioned by Carnegie Hall-where Monk is honored to hold the 2014-2015 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair-the piece, which plays sonically with ideas of shadow and light, will have received its world premiere by the group just days earlier at the Arthur Zankel Music Center, Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall in Saratoga Springs, New York on February 13. Tickets and information available here.

The celebratory season continues on March 20 when the St. Louis Symphony and Chorus join Theo Bleckmann and Katie Geissenger, longtime members of Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble, for the New York premiere of Monk's 2010 work WEAVE for Two Voices, Chamber Orchestra and Chorus at Carnegie's Stern Auditorium. The composition was originally commissioned by Grand Center, Inc. and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Then, on March 22 many of Monk's longtime friends and collaborators-including opera star Jessye Norman, DJ Spooky, saxophonist and composer John Zorn, clarinet player Don Byron, composer/percussionist Lukas Ligeti, Bang on a Can All-Stars, violinist Todd Reynolds, percussionist John Hollenbeck, violist Nadia Sirota, Missy Mazzoli & Victoire, vocalist Theo Bleckmann, Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo and the Young People's Chorus of New York City-will join Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble at Zankel Hall for an afternoon-long celebration of Monk and her work emceed by WNYC's John Schaefer.

Celebrations culminate with another show at Zankel Hall on May 2, when Ensemble members past and present will perform compositions spanning Ms. Monk's entire career, with timeless works from the '70s and '80s alongside contemporary creations including On Behalf of Nature, impermanence and mercy.

Highlights of the season thus far have included a concert of Monk's Piano Songs performed by Ursula Oppens and Bruce Brubaker at Le Poisson Rouge (also featured on a new studio album on ECM Records); a program with the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall; the triumphant New York premiere of her latest music-theater work, On Behalf of Nature, at BAM as part of the Next Wave Festival (the piece will also be presented at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, March 27-29, 2015); and the premiere of her new film, Girlchild Diary, as part of the Dance on Camera Festival. Monk was also recently named Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Republic of France in recognition of her contributions to French culture, and is the subject of a new book of interviews, Conversations with Meredith Monk, by arts critic and Performing Arts Journal editor Bonnie Marranca. (ISBN 978-1-55554-159-0 / $15 / paperback / All PAJ Publications titles are distributed by Theatre Communications Group: www.tcg.org.)