ARTS

@&®8 Monk charms without words
MUSIC

An International Arts Initiatives/Chan
Centre for the Performing Arts
production, in association with the
LIVE Biennial of Performance Art.
At the Chan Centre for the Performing
Arts on Saturday. November 12

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November 18-December 11

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Jericho Arts Centre
1875 Discovery Street

EARLY M U S I C AT T H E C H A N I 2005-2006

Celebrate the 2005 Holiday Season with Early Music Vancouver
and the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC

T h e Tallis Scholars
celebrate

^ ^ L Meredith Monk's appearance
\ r at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts sparked an unusual
amount of debate among friends
who attended the show, with some
contending that the once-innovative
singer is simply rehashing forms and
techniques she's been using since
the early 1970s.
This maybe true. There's certainly
no mistaking Monk's music for anyone else's, and the most recent work
on the program, an abridged version of 2001's Mercy, is very much of
a piece with Turtle Dreams, the 1981
opus that closed the night. But is it a
crime to develop a signature sound
and stick with it?
I think not—especially when the
artist presents her music with the
kind of loving attention to detail
that Monk brought to the stage on
Saturday night.
At this stage of her 40-year career,
Monk is most certainly a refiner
rather than a radical, but the shape
of her concert reflected her ongoing commitment to the experimental process—and to her audience as
well. Opening with the solo "Porch"
served the dual purpose of focusing
the crowd's attention while providing an accessible sampler of Monk's
techniques: a simple benediction, it
welcomed the crowd into the singer's
space, showed off her vocal flexibility, and reminded us that no matter
how avant-garde her work might appear, it's rooted in the cantorial traditions of her Russian-Jewish ancestors.

Thomas Tallis
Perennial Vancouver favourites, the world's foremost renaissance vocal ensemble
returns for a very special performance at the Chan - celebrating the 500th Anniversary
of the birth of the ensemble's namesake, the great English composer Thomas Tallis.
The programme also includes exquisite music by John Taverner and William Byrd.

Meredith Monk entranced the audience at the Chan Centre with her
signature wordless sound, developed over her 40-year career.

Proceeding, Monk tested the Chan
with short, sharp bursts of highfrequency sound, and then, having
ascertained the acoustic parameters
of the hall, she gave us "Click Song
#1", which initiated her listeners into
the pleasurable and absurd physicality of performance by way of a sweet
lament laced with startling crackles
of vocal percussion.
By the time the wriole ensemble
was brought on-stage for Mercy, all
but a few malcontents were thoroughly on side, having been delighted by the composer's seamless
duet with Katie Geissinger on "Hips
Dance" and entranced by "Jaw
Harp", which is half hoedown, half
seance, and all Monk.
Although not among the most
immediately striking of her longform compositions, Mercy might
be the loveliest, and it's a shame
it wasn't presented in its entirety.
Nonetheless, this truncated version highlighted the New York
City-based composer's ability to
deliver compelling, wordless nar-

rative, and set the crowd up for her
post-intermission performance of
Turtle Dreams, a desolate vision of
urban life that introduced Monk's
choreography into the mix.
Geissinger, Theo Bleckmann, and
Ching Gonzalez helped their leader
realize her simple, effective movements with aplomb. It was their
vocal accomplishments that astonished, however, notably on the long,
descending glissando that accompanied the appearance of the uncredited ballerina who twirled across the
stage in a ballooning white hoop skirt
midway through Turtle. Her passage
made for a beautifully surreal moment—although not quite as odd as
the work's video conclusion, in which
a Godzilla-size tortoise plods through
a depopulated urban landscape before
reappearing, enigmatically, in front of
Lhasa's moonlit Potala palace.
Monk's imagination is a strange,
strange place—and one it was a
real privilege to visit, if only for
two hours.
> ALEXANDER VARTY

EMILY CARR INSTITUTE

1

ART

+ DESIGN

+

MEDIA

I

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\

25th Annual

•• n

T h e Tallis S c h o l a r s
directed by P e t e r P h i l l i p s

Student Art Show + Sale

M o n d a y , D e c e m b e r 5 , 2 0 0 5 at 8 : 0 0 p m
Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at U B C

Hundreds of original paintings, prints,
ceramics and one of a kind works
available - don't miss this opportunity
to catch a bargain and support the
culture of the future!

The Bach Cantata Project:

Friday Nov. 25th
Saturday Nov. 26th
Sunday Nov. 27th

Festive Cantatas
for Christmas

noon - 8pm
10am - 6pm
noon - 5pm

Emily Carr Institute Concourse Gallery
1399 Johnston Street, Granville Island
Vancouver BC

Following last year's hugely successful Christmas concert, Early Music Vancouver's
innovative Bach Cantata Project continues with three joyful cantatas.

Info: contact Elizabeth at
zvonare@eciad.ca or 604.844.3800

S u z i e L e B l a n c soprano, M a t t h e w W h i t e alto,
C o l i n B a l z e r tenor, S u m n e r T h o m p s o n baritone,
w i t h J o h n T h i e s s e n trumpet, S o n j a B o o n traverso,
W a s h i n g t o n M c C l a i n oboe & oboe d'amore, a n d
Early Music Vancouver's Bach C a n t a t a Project Players
PRESENTING SPONSOR:
directed by
690 * W
Marc Destrube
r j i OB DR LOUWWNJ

Image by Les Ramsey,
3 r d year Visual A r t s t u d e n t , ECI

t or >

Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 8:00 pm
Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC

Tickets are on sale now at the Chan Centre Ticket Office
or at ticfo&tmast&r:
6 0 4 280-3311 or www.ticketmaster.ca

Information: 604 732-1610
or w w w . e a r l y m u s i c . b c . c a

l*l

Canadian

Patrimoine

Heritage

canadien

Buy tickets for both concerts,
and save s 9 or more per ticket!

A CO-PRESENTATION OF
EARLY MUSIC VANCOUVER AND
THE CHAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

80

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THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT NOVEMBER 17 - 24 / 2005

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