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-“The experience allowed me to appreciate Monk’s work on a deeper level.” -“Each day was miraculous…it opened me up to possibility.” -“The workshop exceeded my expectations. The teachers were all phenomenal.” – former workshop participants |
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Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble Friday-Sunday, Workshop Fee: $350 With Tom Bogdan, Janis Brenner, Allison Easter, Ellen Fisher, Katie Geissinger and Workshop Coordinator, Pablo Vela*
Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble consists of some of the finest and most adventurous singer/performers active in new music theater. Reflecting diverse backgrounds and interdisciplinary approaches to performance, members past and present share Monk’s process for creating work. Beginning with breathing techniques and a detailed vocal and movement warm-up, participants work with the voice and body as multifaceted instruments for exploring range, timbre, gesture, resonance, character, landscape and rhythm. The work aims to uncover the fundamentals of performance as a vehicle for spiritual transformation. Selected pieces from Monk’s repertoire will also be taught.
To begin to build the “feel” of an ensemble, both in rehearsal and performance. To provide a springboard from which participants can discover and develop a personal viewpoint and means of expression. More Info: The workshop is open to all levels of performance experience. Participants should wear clothing and shoes allowing for ease of movement. 14 Students Maximum * Please note, Meredith Monk does not teach during this program offered by The House Foundation. For more information about Ms. Monk’s offerings, please sign up for our mailing list here. For a registration form, click here. Please complete and mail registration form by July 31, 2011. Acceptance into the workshop is on a first-come, first-served basis. Preference will be given to students able to attend all three days. To pay via PayPal, please click on the Donate button below.
AM Session: PM Session: Friday,8/19 Saturday, 8/20 Sunday, 8/21 Instructors and schedule subject to change. Participants will be notified beforehand. Ellen Fisher’s session will be movement based, using some of Meredith's language of gestural shaping. There will be group improvisations as well as simple solo & group choreographic problem solving, using terminology of rituals, rites and trance dance. Tom Bogdan will deal with a simple approach to voice production and teach a basic tour of exercises to help with breathing, resonance, range and color. He’ll also teach a round, do an improvisatory exercise and work on one of Meredith's pieces, Panda Chant, Quarry Weave, or other. Pablo Vela’s class will be devoted to Composition. Form in three-dimensional space: vertical, horizontal, diagonal, curved, straight. Content and Meaning: near/far, tight/loose, up/down, flat/full; and, last but not least, Style. Allison Easter will focus on movement integrated with singing; a movement warm up influenced by Laban/Bartenieff work and Irene Dowd, to improve clarity, strength and expressiveness in the body, singing in rounds. The session will include Monk repertory and creative work influenced by Quarry and A Celebration Service. Janis Brenner’s session will include a brief physical warm-up, and a vocal warm-up with the teaching of a song to be sung in "round" and then with movement. This will lead into movement/voice integration through structured improvisations and character development. Katie Geissinger will lead an extensive vocal warm-up, exploring relaxation, breathing, flexibility, ease of production, and expressivity. The session will focus on calling, canoning, voice and movement, and hocketing exercises, incorporating selections from Monk’s vocal repertoire. Biographies Tom Bogdan teaches voice at Bennington College and has worked with Meredith Monk since 1991. Ms. Monk wrote NY Requiem especially for him. Bogdan has received critical acclaim for his performances in Concert, Opera, Recital, Cabaret and his own interdisciplinary pieces, L’Amour Bleu and Tell Me The Truth About Love, both produced by the Danspace Project, NY. Of his many recordings his favorites include Monk's ATLAS, Tom Bogdan's L'Amour Bleu, a gay celebration of love, and his For Your Delight with pianist Harry Huff. He received a Fulbright award to teach Monk’s A Celebration Service to a Hungarian Ensemble in Budapest. Bogdan's new cd Hungarian Folk Songs by Bartók and Kodály is available on Centaur Records. Janis Brenner is an award-winning dancer/choreographer/singer/teacher and is Artistic Director of Janis Brenner & Dancers in N.Y. She has toured in 31 countries and is recognized as a "singular performer" with a multifaceted artistic range receiving numerous honors/grants from the US State Dept., The Trust for Mutual Understanding, Asian Cultural Council, The Fund for US Artists, UNESCO for tours in Indonesia, Senegal, Taiwan, Russia, etc. Janis joined Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble (1990-2005), receiving a group "Bessie" award for The Politics of Quiet in 1997. For many years, she performed an acclaimed suite from Monk's Songs from the Hill in concert. Her classes/workshops in technique, improvisation, choreography, repertory and voice have been taught throughout the world. She is currently on the faculty at Juilliard serving as Choreographic Mentor and Creative Process instructor, as well as creating work for JB&D. www.janisbrenner.com Allison Easter has worked with Meredith Monk since the 1985 revival of Quarry. As a member of Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble, she has sung on recordings, toured the US, Europe, Asia, received a “Bessie” Award for her work in The Politics Of Quiet, and directed the chorus of Quarry in the 2003 Spoleto Festival. She was the first American woman to appear in the Off-Broadway percussion sensation STOMP. She played Vengeance in Will Pomerantz’s A Tale Of Two Cities, Jerri Lewis in Tony Zertuche’s Anchors, Ms. Porgy in the feature Vacuums, Anita Chambers on Law & Order, and danced with Susan Marshall and Company receiving a special mention in The Village Voice. She has produced and directed original works at Ensemble Studio Theatre, the NY Fringe Festival, and has taught dance and performance at Bennington College, Naropa Institute, Marymount Manhattan College, Sarah Lawrence and NYU-Tisch. She currently teaches modern dance at Pace University in downtown NYC. Ellen Fisher's performance art production combines gestural actions partnered with visual components such as film, video, shadow play, puppets and apparatus. Her performance work is informed by ethnographic research on the rituals and trance dance of South Asia. She began performing with Meredith Monk/The House in the ‘70’s, in such works as The Plateau Series and Recent Ruins, and more recently has appeared in mercy, impermanence and Songs of Ascension. Fisher has also toured internationally with her solo performances. These works have been funded by NEA, NYFA, Jerome Foundation, Art Matters Inc. and the Asia Cultural Council. In addition to solo work, she continues to collaborate with community groups and other artists on intergenerational and intercultural projects. She and Katie Geissinger have also led the Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble education program at LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts for the last three years. Katie Geissinger has been performing with Meredith Monk since 1990, at festivals and venues worldwide, in concert, and in pieces such as ATLAS, The Politics of Quiet (for which she is a Bessie recipient), mercy, the Grammy-nominated impermanence, and Songs of Ascension. She premiered Bang on a Can’s OBIE award-winning The Carbon Copy Building and performed in the world tour of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson's Einstein on the Beach, which was recently revived in concert at Carnegie Hall. Other Carnegie Hall appearances include Bach’s Magnificat with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Witch in Honegger’s Le Roi David, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar. Katie has also appeared in Jonathan Miller’s staged productions of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at BAM, and in John Tavener’s The Veil of the Temple at Lincoln Center. Her Broadway credits include Baz Luhrmann’s production of La Boheme and Coram Boy, and Off-Broadway she has appeared in many Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. She has premiered many new music theater pieces, including Mark Mulcahy and Ben Katchor’s The Rosenbach Company and Philip Miller’s The Hottentot Venus at MASSMoCA. In March, she premiered Monk’s new work, WEAVE for Two Voices, Chamber Orchestra and Chorus in St. Louis. Katie's teaching experience ranges from choral work in Estonia and San Francisco to workshops at Naropa, Bang on a Can's new music institute at MASSMoCA, Oberlin, ETW at NYU, Berklee, the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, and LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts. Pablo Vela has been a member of Meredith Monk/The House since 1975, appearing in theater productions such as Quarry and Specimen Days and on film in Book of Days and Ellis Island. He was also Associate Director of Monk's opera ATLAS, American Archeology #1, and The Politics of Quiet. He received his theater training at Yale University and, in addition, studied with Viola Spolin (improvisation) and Jacques Lecoq (masks and mime). His work as performer/director/teacher has been presented throughout the United States and Canada as well as in Europe and Central America. Vela has created a series of memorable cabaret performances in New York City. The 11th Hour Lounge and Particular People (1 & 2) were performed in Manhattan, the latter at La MaMa ETC. WB Club WB (a tribute to film noir) and das MAX cabaret (inspired by the paintings of Max Beckmann) were presented at the fabled BACA Downtown in Brooklyn. Cocktail Cabaret, his latest creation, was shown at The Club/La MaMa. In the past, Vela has taught at institutions such as the Dell’Arte School in California and Denmark’s National Theater School. At the present time he teaches at The City College of New York and at the Trinity College/La MaMa Urban Arts Semester in NYC. Photos: Tara Cassady |
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