INTERVIEW WITH he M6: Meredith Monk Music Third Generation

The M6 is a vocal ensemble dedicated to continuing the legacy of legendary composer/singer/director Meredith Monk. The members of the group were among 19 singers chosen from around the world to participate in a professional training workshop offered by Monk and the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall in January 2006, culminating in the Meredith Monk Young Artists Concert at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. In 2007 six of the participants reconvened to form The M6 out of the desire to continue learning Monk’s work through direct coachings with the composer herself, as well as with past and present members of her Vocal Ensemble. Since the majority of Monk’s work is created and taught in the oral tradition, the group is devoted to immersion in this process and believes it is vital in order to assure that her extraordinary work lives on.  M6 perform tonight, November 16th at Roulette!

ROULETTE:  Tell us as about the work you’ll be doing at Roulette.
M6: We’re very excited to be doing our most substantial show to date at Roulette on Tuesday night, which includes a short premiere as well as a newer work in progress for us. The M6 is a six-member vocal ensemble, comprised of singers who met in 2006 during a professional training workshop offered by Meredith Monk through Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. Later that year, Holly Nadal initiated a remount of Meredith’s Tablet, a work for three women, piano and recorders that hadn’t been performed in about 20 years. In 2008, Symphony Space produced a series dedicated to Meredith’s music. At Meredith’s request, it was decided that the three women and the men who learned and performed Dolmen Music at Carnegie should reconvene to perform these two works and a selection of solos and duets. Hence The M6 was born…We’ve since been slowing building our repertoire of Meredith’s works, with suggestions from her and periodic coachings with both her and members of her Ensemble from over the years- Andrea Goodman, Robert Een, Theo Bleckmann, Katie Geissinger, etc. Since most of Meredith’s work exists and is taught in more of an oral tradition, the coachings have been vital and have created a new atmosphere for the transmission of not only the material, but of the particular worlds that Meredith creates. Our intention is to continue reaching new audiences and to preserve the working methods and philosophies of Meredith’s lineage.

R:  Are there working artists today with whose work you identify, or rather, who do you consider to be your peers?
M6: I think we’re in a very interesting and unique position being of a younger generation that is doing an established composer’s work, and so our peer group kind of revolves around people who have engaged with Meredith and her music in some way. At the same time, each of us in The M6 has worked with numerous other singers and composers, so there’s a duality there too. There is definite kinship with folks like Missy Mazzoli, Nadia Sirota, Ha-Yang Kim, and others who have engaged with Meredith’s music like Brian Snow, Courtney Orlando, Caleb Burhans, Sabrina Lastman, and Nick Hallett, for example.

R:  What are some defining characteristics of the musical scene you would fit yourself into? What elements of your scene differentiate it from what has come before, or what is happening now?
M6: Again, I think we’re in a kind of in-between zone, trying to serve a bridge between something that came before and what is happening now. It’s a fantastic gift to be working with a living composer who is continuing to evolve and write new music, some of which we also have been given to perform. When Meredith began working in the ‘60s it was a much different time. I’ve heard her describe the feeling as an “anything is possible” kind of era. It’d be nice to continue living with that feeling, while continue to honor and learn from what came before.

R: Do you do other things aside from music?
M6: All of us are engaged in multiple things outside of music including families, pursuit of higher education, teaching, dance/choreography, arts administration, grants writing- you know, the things you have to do to survive! In our case, the diversity is also what we enjoy.