Meredith Monk

Meredith Jane Monk (born November 20, 1942, in New York City) is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, film-maker, and choreographer. Since the 1960s, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which dwell in the spaces between music, theatre, and dance, recording extensively for ECM Records. Meredith Monk is primarily known for her vocal innovations, including a wide range of extended techniques, which she first developed in her so... more

Meredith Jane Monk (born November 20, 1942, in New York City) is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, film-maker, and choreographer. Since the 1960s, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which dwell in the spaces between music, theatre, and dance, recording extensively for ECM Records. Meredith Monk is primarily known for her vocal innovations, including a wide range of extended techniques, which she first developed in her solo performances prior to forming her own ensemble. In December 1961, she appeared at the "Actor's Playhouse" in Greenwich Village (NYC) as a solo dancer in an off-Broadway children's musical theater production of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," entitled "Scrooge" (music and lyrics by Norman Curtis; directed and choreographed by Patricia Taylor Curtis). In 1964, she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and in 1968 she founded The House, a company dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to performance. Monk's performances have influenced many... less