STAGE THE VANCOUVER SUN NOVEMBER 10-16, 2005 D9 MEREDITH M O N K Cracking the secret code to enjoying music BY K E V I N G R I F F I N VANCOUVER SUN A lmost the first thing Meredith Monk says when I reach her on the phone is to thank me for changing the day of the interview. "Thanks so much for doing it today rather than yesterday," she says. "I really appreciate it." What's unusual is that Monk seems genuine. She really sounds like she means it — plus she's changed the usual sequence where a r e p o r t e r thanks whomever for agreeing to an answer. But then Monk isn't like most of the people. She's the only one, for example, who has performed in a 4 Vi hour concert organized to celebrate 40 years as a discipline-breaking artist in New York's Carnegie Hall. The concert, which featured performers such as Bjork, DJ Spooky, Bruce Brubaker, John Zorn and the Bang on a Can All-Stars, was on Sunday and the experienced left her so drained, she didn't realize how tired she was. She took a bit of a voice break Monday, hence the delay in the interview. How was the concert? "It was just incredible. The audience went wild from the beginning to the end," she said, laughing at the memory of it. Monk is the kind of artist who defies classification. In describing her own work, Monk said in one interview that her goal is to create art that "seeks to reestablish the unity existing in music, theatre and dance, the wholeness that is found in cultures where performing-arts practice is considered a spiritual discipline with healing and transformative power." For Monk, her work starts with music that's almost bred in the bone. She's a fourth-generation singer whose greatgrandfather was a cantor in Russia, grandfather a bass-baritone, and mother a singer for CBS. Monk studied piano starting at age three but had problems as a youngster with her physical coordination. By studying Dalcroze Eurhythmies, she learned movement through music — rather than the other way around. Shortly after graduating from Sarah Lawrence in 1964, Monk began to wow audiences with her performances, especially through her unique use of the voice. She's a pioneer in what's called extended vocal technique — a method of using the voice as a instrument to create sounds that are otherworldly and deeply emotional. A reviewer in the New York Times Magazine described one of her vocal works as "an incantation." Another said she had a "one-of-a-kind vocal instrument" that produced sounds that are "haunting, poignant, terrifying and sometimes screamingly funny." Monk herself has said that she works "in between the cracks, where the voice starts dancing, where the body starts singing." Monk starts looking for those cracks every day by playing her piano and singing. That's where she finds the seeds of whatever it is that she eventually creates. Monk throws the seeds on the earth and then waits to see which ones germinate and grow and which ones don't. Then she gathers her vegetables and puts them in a pot of water on the stove where she lets them simmer and boil and cook down — what's left is the essence. Her highly intuitive process aims to find sounds that are timeless. "I think that as technology speeds up, our experience becomes more indirect," she said from New York. "We have many, many things that are coming at us and in a sense these things are very much designed to divert our attention. As the diversions multiply, I think what happens we become less and less in contact with ourselves and our internal world — with that quiet that you really need to have to make that connection with yourself. "What I'm trying to do in my work is to provide direct experience — bypassing that filter that we have of naming things, of that constant chatter we have in our minds. For me, and for so many artists that I have a lot of respect for, we're trying to find experience that's nameless. "And I think the society that we live in is very frightened of experience that you cannot put into a box that you don't have a name for." Meredith Monk and her Vocal Ensemble will perform at the Chan Centre at the University of B.C. on Saturday at 8 p.m. To advertise call 604-605-2703, 604-605-2429 or 604-605-2492 LIVE THEATRE M U S I C S DANCE Flamenco i he Great Riven A Flamenco Journey 60th Anniversary Tour Borodin Quartet Quartet Miguel Angel Les Deux Mondes' Governor General's A w a r d Winning Production With "achingly Sun Momi de Cadiz, Myriam Allard "an unforgettable, journey" Rosario Ancer, Victor Kolstee, Afifa Moxness, Nanako Aramaki, Tom Keenlyside "a polished South China Morning Nov11,12&13 8pm beautiful" The Vancouver jewel" The New York Nov 28 th t o Dec 10 th Times Post 8pm Show info: 604.251.1363 Norman Rothstein Theatre Tickets t h r o u g h T i c k e t M a s t e r , 604.280.3311 Dmitri Shostakovich No. 10 in A flat major, Opus 118 950 West 41 st at Oak Tickets $35/530 at Ticketmaster s Dmitri 604-280-3311 incl. service charges or www.ticketmaster.ca A « - ™ Shostakovich Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Opus Quartet Ludwig v a n in C major, Opus 110 Beethoven 59, No.3 |Tue, November 15. 8pm Vancouver Playhouse Hamilton & Dunsmuir Get it delivered. 604-605-READ Tiara Tnelaleorleeka rcdiuniiy Direct from Spain in his first ever Canadian appearance! WHERE TO CATCH HER Monk and her Vocai Ensemble perform at the Chan Centre Saturday at 8 p.m. as part of the LIVE Biennial of Performance Art. Saturday's program includes several selections from mercy and Turtle Dreams (Waltz). Tickets are $37 to $47 at Ticketmaster.ca, 604280-331 or in person at the Chan Centre Ticket Office. More information at www.mundomundo.com *% FRIENDS OF Tickets $40 (students $ 15) CHAMBER www.festivalboxoffice.com MUSIC 604-257-0366 or at the door www.friendsofchambermusic.ca ADVERTISING FORMATION www.png.caiiwest.com THE VANCOUVERSUN! or www.ticketmaster.ca 30 general, s25 students/seniors • <«•>> I H H I 1 2 8 0.3311 #977 JSL ticketmaster PREMIERE CHAINE TELEVISION ^•^•^••^•••^••i Vancouver East Cultural Centre 1895 Venabies St. (at Victoria) www.vecc.bc.ca A V Hii f I I H/fffflllJTOtl PSBHWHWl M I