Bios:
Meredith Monk is a composer, singer, and creator of new opera, music-theater works, films and installations. Recognized as one of the most unique and influential artists of our time, she is a pioneer in what is now called “extended vocal technique” and “interdisciplinary performance”. Her groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an instrument, as an eloquent language in and of itself, expands the boundaries of musical composition, creating landscapes of sound that unearth feelings, energies, and memories for which there are no words. Over the last six decades Monk has received numerous awards and honors including a MacArthur Fellowship, Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters from the Republic of France, induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, and a National Medal of Arts. She has also been hailed as one of National Public Radio’s 50 Great Voices and “one of America’s coolest composers”. Celebrated internationally, her work has been presented at major venues throughout the world.
Monk has recorded with the ECM New Series label since 1981 and was recently honored with a 13-disc box set of her work, Meredith Monk: The Recordings, in celebration of her 80th birthday, which includes the 2008 GRAMMY® nominated impermanence. In addition to numerous vocal pieces, music-theater works and operas, she has created vital new repertoire for orchestra, chamber ensembles and solo instruments. Her music has also been featured in films by Terrence Malick, Jean-Luc Godard, David Byrne and the Coen Brothers. Selected scores of her work are available through Boosey & Hawkes. She is also the subject of two books of interviews: Conversations with Meredith Monk, by arts critic and Performing Arts Journal editor Bonnie Marranca, and Une voix mystique, by French author Jean-Louis Tallon.
From Fall 2023 to Spring 2024, Meredith Monk. Calling, her first European retrospective exhibition, was realized as a collaboration between Oude Kerk Amsterdam with Hartwig Art Foundation, and Haus der Kunst München. A catalogue of interviews, essays, previously unpublished archival material and documentation of the exhibitions was published in Fall 2024. Recently Monk celebrated her 60th Performance Season with a series of concerts, residencies and special events centered in New York City, including the North American premiere of Indra’s Net, her third work in a trilogy exploring our interdependent relationship with nature.
Katie Geissinger has been performing with Meredith Monk since 1990, in concert and theater works including ATLAS (Houston Grand Opera), The Politics of Quiet (BESSIE winner), WEAVE (St. Louis Symphony), the GRAMMY-nominated impermanence, and most recently Indra's Net at the Park Avenue Armory. Geissinger premiered Bang on a Can’s OBIE Award-winning The Carbon Copy Building and performed in the second world tour of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s Einstein on the Beach. She has also appeared in Jonathan Miller’s staged productions of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Steve Reich's Music for Eighteen at BAM, in John Tavener’s The Veil of the Temple at Lincoln Center, and in Ann Hamilton’s the event of a thread, with music by David Lang, at the Park Avenue Armory. Geissinger’s Broadway credits include Baz Luhrmann’s production of La Boheme and Coram Boy, and she has appeared off-Broadway in many Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. She has premiered many new music theater pieces, including works by Mark Mulcahy, Ben Katchor, Philip Miller, Julia Wolfe, Aaron Siegel, Marisa Michelson, John Kelly, and Anne Bogart.
Allison Sniffin has been a member of Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble since 1996, performing in The Politics of Quiet, A Celebration Service, Magic Frequencies, mercy, Turtle Dreams, Book of Days (concert version), impermanence, Songs of Ascension, On Behalf of Nature, Cellular Songs, and Indra’s Net. With Meredith Monk she has orchestrated Possible Sky, Night, WEAVE, Realm Variations, Backlight and Indra's Net. She has arranged Monk’s music for Bang on a Can All-Stars and Alarm Will Sound, edited two albums of her piano music, and prepared many of her works for publication. Sniffin is also a composer and has received grants from Meet the Composer and Concert Artists Guild. She is a frequent arranger/orchestrator for The Stonewall Chorale and Melodia Women’s Choir NYC and serves as organist at St. Paul's Church in Englewood NJ and at Temple Sha’aray Tefila in New York City.
