Geniuses @ REDCAT

photo Cameron Wittig courtesy of Walker Art Center

MacArthur Genius Award winners Meredith Monk and Ann Hamilton are bringing their Songs of Ascension for a Los Angeles premiere at REDCAT for five shows this week!

Originally inspired by poet Norman Fischer’s translations of the Psalms and by an eight-story sculpture and performance space created by Hamilton called Tower, the recently created work includes Hamilton’s raw, sensuous video imagery, Monk’s Vocal Ensemble, a string quartet led by violinist Todd Reynolds, and a 20-person choir composed of members of the voice program at the Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts

This multimedia performance combines Monk’s pristine, primal music, vocals, movement and her iconoclastic theatricality to discover and weave together new modes of perception. Visual artist Hamilton, internationally recognized for the sensory surrounds of her large-scale, multi-media installations created Tower as an intensely resonant acoustic environment for the site-specific inaugural concert by Monk & Ensemble

Songs of Ascension draws from ritual spiritual motifs of ascension from throughout the world -- the processionals at Buddhist stupas, Moses’ journey up Mt. Sinai, and the Tawaf around the Ka’Bah in Islam.

You don’t wanna miss this!

Here are a few (of many) youtube clips: