Image credit: Still from Rotation video, from Indra’s Net by Meredith Monk—
camera, editing: Ben Stechshulte, direction: Meredith Monk
September 21, 2021—Internationally acclaimed composer, director and performer Meredith Monk will premiere concert performances of her upcoming interdisciplinary, evening-length music theater work, Indra’s Net, on November 12 & 13. The performances will be held for limited-capacity audiences in the Jeannik Méquet Littlefield Concert Hall at Mills College in Oakland, California and will be livestreamed via the Mills Performing Arts website. Tickets available October 12, 2021, see below for details.
Following On Behalf of Nature (2013), a plea for ecological awareness, and Cellular Songs (2018), which turned attention to the fabric of life itself, Indra’s Net is Monk’s third work in a trilogy dedicated to our relationship with the natural world. Initially set to premiere in November 2020 and both delayed and informed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is a contemplative offering to the world in which we now find ourselves, embodying the principle of interconnectedness through music and performance.
The work is inspired by the ancient Buddhist/Hindu legend of Indra’s Net, which tells of an enlightened king, Indra, who stretches a large net across the universe with an infinitely faceted jewel placed at each intersection. Each jewel is wholly unique yet reflects all the others, illuminating the interdependence of all living things—a particularly apt metaphor for our current times.
Indra’s Net features an intergenerational and multicultural cast including Meredith Monk, Paul An, Theo Bleckmann, Gideon Crevoshay, Allison Easter, Ellen Fisher, Katie Geissinger, John Hollenbeck and Allison Sniffin. Joining Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble will be a chamber orchestra consisting of players mostly from the San Francisco Bay Area, including Jennifer Ellis, Tony Gennaro, Keefe Ismael, John Ivers, Nayoung Jung, Kyle Ko, Genevieve Kromm, Rhein Matlack, Yuki Nagase, Erika Oba, Shaina Pan, Nasr Sheikh, Jamael Smith, Julian Sommer, and Michiko Theurer. The production features scenic and costume design by Yoshio Yabara, lighting design by Joe Levasseur and sound design by Daniel Neumann.
The piece was workshopped at Mills College in Fall 2018 and 2019 with Bay Area musicians and at ArtLab at Harvard University in Spring 2020.
Indra’s Net is made possible through the generous support of The Hewlett Foundation 50 Arts Commissions, The National Endowment for the Arts, ArtLab at Harvard University and Queenslab in Ridgewood, Queens.
PERFORMANCE DETAILS
Meredith Monk
Indra’s Net – Concert Performance
Mills Music Now
Friday, November 12 at 7 p.m. PACIFIC / 10 p.m. EASTERN
Saturday, November 13 at 5 p.m. PACIFIC / 8 p.m. EASTERN
Conceived, directed and composed by Meredith Monk. Presented by Mills Performing Arts and The House Foundation for the Arts, with the Mills College Music Department.
In Person:
$25 General Admission / Free with valid Mills ID.
Masks are required for all guests, regardless of vaccination status.
Livestream:
Free
ABOUT MEREDITH MONK
Meredith Monk is a composer, singer and creator of new opera and music-theater works. Recognized as one of the most unique and influential artists of our time, she is a pioneer in what is now called “extended vocal technique.” Her groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an instrument, as an eloquent language in and of itself, expands the boundaries of musical composition, creating landscapes of sound that unearth feelings, energies and memories for which there are no words. Celebrated internationally, her work has been presented at major venues around the world.
Over the last six decades, Monk has been hailed as one of National Public Radio’s 50 Great Voices and garnered a host of awards and honors, including a MacArthur Fellowship and Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Republic of France. Recently Monk received three of the highest honors bestowed on a living artist in the United States: induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 2017 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize and a 2015 National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama.
In 1965, Monk began her innovative exploration of the voice as a multifaceted instrument, composing solo pieces for unaccompanied voice and voice and keyboard. In 1978, she formed Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble to further expand her musical textures and forms. Most of her music can be heard on the ECM label, including the Grammy-nominated impermanence and highly acclaimed On Behalf of Nature. Her compositions have also been featured in films by Terrence Malick, Jean-Luc Godard, David Byrne and the Coen Brothers.
Since the early 2000s, Monk has been creating vital new repertoire for orchestra, chamber ensembles and solo instruments, with recent commissions from the San Francisco Symphony and Carnegie Hall where she held the 2014–15 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair in conjunction with her 50th Season of creating and performing.
ABOUT MILLS PERFORMING ARTS
Situated on the Mills College campus in Oakland, California, Mills Performing Arts is a multi-venue performing arts center committed to promoting action and exchange in the performing arts, and supporting artists and scholars who reflect, explore and celebrate the abundant cultural, racial, gender and economic diversity of our society.
