Meredith Monk News

The New School's College of Performing Arts (Mannes, Jazz, Drama) today announced a new master's degree for creative musicians, the MM: Performer-Composer. Designed as an alternative to traditional music degrees that are highly specific to genre or category, this new program supports multi-disciplinary artists in all styles and genres of music-making.

On Friday, February 7, Guitar Mash and the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment will bring an audience as diverse as Queens itself to 'mash' with some of the music industry's most acclaimed guitarists and singer/songwriters when Flushing Town Hall hosts the first-ever NYC Urban Campfire: QUEENS.

REDCAT, CalArts' downtown center for contemporary arts, will present the world premiere of Dada Divas, an experimental opera by Jacqueline Bobak.

Individually, Beiser and Whelan captivated - Whelan walking contemplatively across the stage, Beiser seated in a power stance, limbs enfolding her cello. Together, they grounded the work's multi-disciplinary, hybrid structure with their various expertise along the spectrum of creative function. As a primer on post-modern movement built on a neo-classical ballerina and a musical marathon fusing classicism, romanticism, and modernism into a dense score, these artists triumphed despite navigating a heavily nuanced, deeply detailed construction.

On February 7, Guitar Mash and the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment will bring an audience as diverse as Queens itself to 'mash' with some of the music industry's most acclaimed guitarists and singer/songwriters when Flushing Town Hall hosts the first-ever NYC Urban Campfire: QUEENS.

For over twenty years, Philadelphia's Seamus Egan blazed a new trail for Irish music in America. At the head of the supergroup Solas, he toured the world and pushed the music in new directions, incorporating complex arrangements, stunning virtuosity, and elements of global and Americana music. His work defined Irish music for multiple generations and set a benchmark that still hasn't been matched. As a composer, Egan put his stamp on film soundtracks, symphonic collaborations, and, most famously, co-wrote Sarah McLachlan's smash hit, “I Will Remember You.” But what happens when a trailblazer needs to take a step back? Egan found himself asking that question when confronted with two major life changes: his band Solas went on hiatus, opening up more time for his own music making, and he moved from his long-time home in Philadelphia to rural Vermont. “Both things coalesced not by design,” Egan says, “but they came together at the same time. I liked the symmetry of it.” Holed up in his Vermont cabin, Egan finally had time to go through tunes and melodies he'd composed over the years. Inspired by this time alone with his music, he enlisted close friends and collaborators to make a new album of entirely instrumental music, Early Bright, to be released January 17, 2020. Throughout, the goal of Egan's new work was to reweave the threads of the Irish roots music he knows so well with a more compositional perspective, drawing from classical influences like Bach, Segovia, Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, and modern composers like Meredith Monk and Philip Glass.

Two Time Tony Award and Grammy Winner Michael Cerveris Plays first solo show in Chicago in 16 years Saturday, February 1st, 2020 at The Wine Goddess.

Shakespeare's Globe has announced full casting for the next two productions opening in the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in February: The Taming of the Shrew, directed by Maria Gaitanidi, and Thomas Middleton's Women Beware Women, directed by Amy Hodge.

La MaMa, in association with the Polish Cultural Institute and Komuna//Warszawa, is proud to present the U.S. premiere of Cezary Goes to War, a musically-driven queer fantasia on masculinity, nationalism, and the culture of war. Conceived and directed by Cezary Tomaszewski, a rising star of the Eastern European avant-garde, Cezary Goes to War draws on Tomaszewski's personal experiences with Poland's military draft and its archaic system of male classification. Weaving text from military evaluations of manliness, choreography inspired by army drills, and the patriotic songs by Stanisław Moniuszko, the father of Polish national opera, Cezary Goes to War offers a witty critique of military recruitment, national pride, and the vulnerability of male identity.

The American Dance Festival (ADF) will present the 2020 Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement to acclaimed choreographer Shen Wei. Established in 1981 by Samuel H. Scripps, the annual award honors choreographers who have dedicated their lives and talent to the creation of modern dance. Shen Wei will be in residence at ADF during the 2020 season working on his latest ADF commission set on ADF students. ADF Director Emeritus Charles L. Reinhart will present the $50,000 award in a brief ceremony on Thursday, July 23rd at 8:00pm, prior to the Footprints performance in Reynolds Industries Theater.

Tony Award-winning La MaMa is currently presenting the world premiere of VIRGO STAR, an intimate interactive performance, written and devised by the Pioneers Go East Collective - Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte and Daniel Diaz, in collaboration with Philip Treviño, Anabella Lenzu and Agosto Machado, and directed by Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte.

In honor of the centenary of the birth of La MaMa founder Ellen Stewart, the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club has announced a $1 million challenge grant by The Diamonstein-Spielvogel Foundation toward the restoration and renewal of La MaMa's original home at 74A East 4th Street.

Check out photos for the all-women clown troupe Clowns Ex Machina in the world premiere of THE BAD'UNS: CLOWN ACTS OF CONTAGION, created and directed by Kendall Cornell in collaboration with the ensemble, running November 7 - 17, 2019 at La MaMa's Downstairs Theatre, located at 66 East 4th Street in New York City.

Lincoln Center's David Rubenstein Atrium is marking a decade as home to free, eclectic performances and public gathering space. To mark the milestone, Lincoln Center has commissioned interdisciplinary and highly imaginative Brooklyn-born visual artist Kambui Olujimi to create an original video work that will premiere November 19 at 8pm ET on Lincoln Center's Facebook and Instagram account, @LincolnCenter. 

On the heels of their sold-out spring season, Melodia Women's Choir of NYC, led by Cynthia Powell, presents Incantations, an excursion into the secret recesses of the spirit world.

Tony Award-winning La MaMa presents the world premiere of VIRGO STAR, an intimate interactive performance, written and devised by the Pioneers Go East Collective - Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte and Daniel Diaz, in collaboration with Philip Treviño, Anabella Lenzu and Agosto Machado, and directed by Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte.

Widely acclaimed composer, performer, singer and creator Meredith Monk announces her robust 2019–2020 season, which is set to include a host of performances, residencies and workshops, as well as the distinguished honor of being appointed Harvard University's Fromm Foundation Visiting Lecturer on Music. Combined, the season offers audiences numerous opportunities to experience Monk's work, gain glimpses into her creative process and learn from Monk herself alongside longtime members of her renowned Vocal Ensemble. Highlights follow, with links to additional info.