February 14, 2005—Meredith Monk is an internationally renowned composer, singer, director/choreographer and creator of new opera, musical theater works, films and installations. During a career that has spanned 40 years, Monk has been acclaimed by audiences and critics alike as a major creative force in the performing arts.

"A composer, singer, and theater artist for whom experimentation has led to wondrous discovery, Monk conjures up a spectrum of colorful and evocative sounds from her one-of-a-kind vocal instrument," said Plain Dealer music critic Donald Rosenberg in 2001 when Monk made her Cleveland debut. "... [Monk is] a musician of boundless imagination and vision," he added.

This month the New York-based artist will return to northern Ohio to work intensively with 20 student vocalists, choreographers, media artists, dancers, and actors at Oberlin College in a week-long workshop. Presented under the auspices of the art department, Office of the President, and the Ellen Johnson Fund, the Oberlin visit marks Monk's only academic residency this year.

A pioneer in what is now called extended vocal technique and interdisciplinary performance, Monk creates works that thrive at the intersection of music and movement, image and object, light and sound in an effort to discover and weave together new modes of perception.

At Oberlin, she will work with the workshop members "to explore themes of myth and ritual through the creation of performance works involving text, site-specific installations, music, and media," says Rian Brown-Orso, assistant professor of new media. She and Professor of Dance Nusha Martynuk will co-teach the workshop with Monk.

The workshop sessions will take place Monday, February 21, through Friday, February 25. Monk also will give a free public lecture/demonstration at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, February 23, in Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies' Hallock Auditorium, at 122 Elm Street.

Monk will conclude her visit with a solo performance at 8 p.m. Saturday, February 26, in Oberlin's Finney Chapel, located at the corner of West Lorain and North Professor streets. Performing with Monk will be vocalist Katie Geissinger.

Advance tickets are $5 for students and senior citizens; $7 for staff and faculty; and $12 for the general public. Tickets purchased at the door are an additional $2. Please call Oberlin's Central Ticket Service at (440) 775-8169 for more information.

Monk has received numerous awards throughout her career, including the prestigious MacArthur "Genius" award in 1995, two Guggenheim fellowships, a Brandeis creative arts award, three Off-Broadway "Obies," two Villager Awards, a "Bessie" for Sustained Creative Achievement in dance, the 1986 National Music Theatre Award, 16 ASCAP awards for musical composition, and the 1992 Dance Magazine Award.                 

In 1968 Ms. Monk founded The House, a company dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to performance. In 1978 she formed Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble to expand her musical textures and forms.

Her music has been heard in numerous venues, including films such as La Nouvelle Vague by Jean-Luc Goddard and The Big Lebowski by Joel and Ethan Coen. Current projects include a new work for the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble and the Kronos Quartet.

Monk's first orchestra piece, Possible Sky, commissioned by Michael Tilson Thomas for the New World Symphony, premiered in April 2003 in Miami. Her latest music theater work, mercy, a collaboration with visual artist Ann Hamilton premiered at the American Dance Festival in July 2001; the CD was released on the ECM New Series label in November 2002.

She has made more than a dozen recordings. Dolmen Music (ECM New Series) and Our Lady of Late: The Vanguard Tapes (Wergo) were honored with the German Critics Prize for Best Records of 1981 and 1986. A new publishing relationship with Boosey & Hawkes has made Monk's music available to a wider public for the first time.

In July 2000, a three-concert retrospective entitled Voice Travel honored her music at the Lincoln Center Festival. In October 1999 Monk performed a Vocal Offering for His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, as part of the World Festival of Sacred Music in Los Angeles.

Monk also is a pioneer in site-specific performance, creating works such as Juice: A Theater Cantata In 3 Installments (1969) and, most recently, American Archeology #1: Roosevelt Island (1994). An accomplished filmmaker, she has made a series of award-winning films, including Ellis Island (1981). Her first feature, Book Of Days (1988), which aired on PBS, was shown at the New York Film Festival and selected for the Whitney Museum's Biennial.

Recent art exhibits include a major installation, Art Performs Life, at The Walker Art Center; a show, Shrines, at the Frederieke Taylor / TZ Art Gallery; inclusion in the 2002 Biennial at the Whitney Museum; ev +, a 2002 exhibition at the Limerick City Gallery of Art; and a group exhibit, Show People, at Exit Art. A monograph, Meredith Monk, edited by Deborah Jowitt, was released by Johns Hopkins Press in 1997.