Cellular Songs: Concert Version is the initial event in a three-day residency by groundbreaking composer and multimedia artist Meredith Monk. Joined by the women of her renowned Vocal Ensemble, Monk will perform music from Cellular Songs, the latest in a series of her music-theater pieces exploring the interdependency of humans and nature, while seeking to evoke the ineffable. Cellular Songs features some of Monk’s most adventurous and daring music for the voice to date, paired with violin, piano, keyboard, movement and film. Over the course of the evening, shimmering, multi-dimensional musical forms evoke such biological processes as layering, replication, division, and mutation. The piece premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in October 2018 to great critical acclaim.”
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—discovering and weaving together new modes of perception. Her groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an instrument expands the boundaries of musical composition, creating landscapes of sound that unearth feelings, energies, and memories for which there are no words. Over the last six decades, Monk has been hailed as “a magician of the voice” and “one of America’s coolest composers” and has inspired countless musicians and artists with her unique style and groundbreaking approach to composition, performance, film and installation.
The performance is part of the inaugural Institute for the Performing Arts Visiting Artist Residency, Dancing Voice/Singing Body: a residency with Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble. Cosponsored by the Eastman School of Music and the Humanities Project.
The performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, October 21st and will be followed by a reception. Parking is free on campus beginning at 7 p.m.