Sound of Emptiness

How do the Buddhist concepts of non-attachment play out in Meredith Monk’s music? Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science Director Joe Loizzo engages with the performance artist on this and many other questions. Monk is marking the recent publication of Conversations with Meredith Monk by Bonnie Marranca. A book signing will follow the program.

The promotional partner for this program is Composers Now

Meet the Speakers

Meredith Monk is a composer, singer, director/choreographer and creator of new opera, music-theater works, films and installations. A pioneer in what is now called “extended vocal technique” and “interdisciplinary performance,” Monk creates works that thrive at the intersection of music and movement, image and object, light and sound in an effort to discover and weave together new modes of perception. 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 fifty years, she has been hailed as “a magician of the voice” and “one of America’s coolest composers”. Celebrated internationally, Monk’s work has been presented by BAM, Lincoln Center Festival, Houston Grand Opera, London’s Barbican Centre, and at major venues in countries from Brazil to Syria. Among her many accolades, she was recently named an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Republic of France, and the 2012 Composer of the Year by Musical America. Monk is also one of NPR’s 50 Great Voices, and has received a 2012 Doris Duke Artist Award and a 2011 Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award for the Arts.

Joe Loizzo, M.D., Ph.D. is a contemplative psychotherapist, researcher and teacher who integrates ancient contemplative science and technology with current breakthroughs in neuroscience and optimal health. After training in psychiatry at Harvard and completing a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies at Columbia, he founded Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science, a contemplative learning community that teaches timeless tools of self-healing and interdependence for today’s complex world. His latest book is Sustainable Happiness: The Mind Science of Well-Being, Altruism, and Inspiration (Routledge, 2012).