Conversations with Meredith Monk (Expanded Edition) - (Performance Ideas) by Bonnie Marranca (Paperback)

About the Book

A new and expanded edition featuring additional interviews and an 8-page color insert celebrating the renowned artist.

Book Synopsis

NOW UPDATED TO INCLUDE DISCUSSION OF HER LATEST MUSIC-THEATRE WORK

This expanded edition of Conversations with Meredith Monk offers a fascinating portrait of the internationally renowned composer, performer, director, and filmmaker, from her early years to the present.

The five long conversations that comprise the volume part of PAJ's "Performance Ideas" series generate invaluable insights into artistic process, the human voice, interrelationships of time, space, and music, and the complexity of artistic legacies.

What is a "contemporary" work? How does an artwork retain its integrity of form over time? In these deeply engaging conversations, Monk speaks in great detail on her creation of music-theatre works, operas, and films, reflecting on the large-cast theatrical works and the more recent poetically distilled, abstract pieces.

In her preface to the new edition, Bonnie Marranca writes: "Now, against the background of life in extremis, it is evident that Monk had already acknowledged both the always unknown future and the resilience of human beings."

Review Quotes

"If Monk is seeking a place in the classical firmament, classical music has much to learn from her. She conveys a fundamental humanity and humility that is rare in new-music circles."--Alex Ross "New Yorker"

"Meredith Monk has given new voice to the spirit, knit the word together with her universal vision to music, and balanced movement and stillness in ways that illuminate and transform us all. Eternity will never be the same."--Pico Iyer

"Meredith Monk is one of the most important composers alive. I remember hearing her Dolmen Music as a teenager. It most definitely provided me with one of my musical DNAs ... As a person she is a fierce spirit, optimistic, spiritual, and soulful."--Björk

"Meredith Monk is one of American Music's greatest treasures and most original voices. I cherish her brave, singular creative journey."--Rick Moody

About the Author

Bonnie Marranca is the author of the essay collections Performance Histories, Ecologies of Theatre, and Theatrewritings. She is the editor of PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art.