Meredith Monk awarded Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement
La Biennale di Venezia has awarded Meredith Monk the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of Biennale Musica 2025.
On April 16, La Biennale di Venezia announced that American composer and performer Meredith Monk is the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of Biennale Musica 2025, an interdisciplinary artist whose influence extends from new experimental music to contemporary classical, from electronic to Jazz and pop, inspiring generations of artists.
The decision was made by the Board of Directors of La Biennale di Venezia at the recommendation of Caterina Barbieri, director of the Music Department. The ceremony to award the Golden Lion will take place during the 69th International Festival of Contemporary Music (October 11-25).
“Meredith Monk has revolutionised music and the performing arts with an approach that has expanded the potential of the human voice, transforming it into a vehicle for unprecedented sonic exploration. The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Music acknowledges her remarkable and enduring impact on the contemporary music scene, her unique artistic vision and constant commitment to research into sound. Through her compositions and performances, Meredith Monk has demonstrated an unwavering capacity for innovation, transforming music into an immersive ritual experience. Her music exists in the same space that The Star Within proposes to explore: a sonic cosmogony, a vibration that runs through us connecting us with the other, a deep echo in which listening becomes transformation. Her wordless incantations and ability to build entire sonic worlds from the simplest gestures give rise to a dialogue between matter and spirit, between presence and transcendence. Her work cannot be confined within historical categories, but opens up a living universe of sound, in constant evolution, which appears both ancient and radically innovative at the same time."
Born in New York in 1942, following her studies at Sarah Lawrence College, Meredith Monk became a leading figure of the New York experimental scene of the 1960s, developing an extended vocal technique and interdisciplinary aesthetic which have redefined contemporary performance. The founder of The House (1968) and of the Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble (1978), she has created works that blend music, theatre, dance and cinema, pushing the boundaries of the arts. Her most significant works include Dolmen Music (1981), which marked a turning point in vocal music, and ATLAS (1991), a three-part opera commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera. Another visionary work is Vessel: an opera epic (1971), for an ensemble of 75 voices, electronic organ, dulcimer and accordion, consolidating Monk’s reputation as a pioneer of site-specific art. Her cycle Songs of Ascension (2008) represents one of the pinnacles of her musical research, combining voice, sonic architecture and spirituality in a composition that explores elevation in music. The work, conceived for an eight-story tower designed by visual artist Ann Hamilton, brings together a string quartet, wind instruments, percussion and chorus.
In Venice Meredith Monk was invited to Biennale Teatro and Musica in 1975 and 1976, the famous editions directed by Luca Ronconi, with Education of the Girlchild: an opera and Quarry: an opera in three movements, two of the works that revealed her to the entire world.
Biennale Musica 2025 will host a special performance by Meredith Monk at the Teatro Malibran, with an ample programme of works spanning the entirety of her working life, sung by her and members of her Vocal Ensemble. The festival will also showcase other dimensions of her multifaceted creative career through film, installation and discourse.
In the past the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Music has been awarded to Goffredo Petrassi (1994), Luciano Berio (1995), Friedrich Cerha (2006), Giacomo Manzoni (2007), Helmut Lachenmann (2008), György Kurtág (2009), Wolfgang Rihm (2010), Peter Eötvös (2011), Pierre Boulez (2012), Sofia Gubaidulina (2013), Steve Reich (2014), Georges Aperghis (2015), Salvatore Sciarrino (2016), Tan Dun (2017), Keith Jarrett (2018), George Benjamin (2019), Luis De Pablo (2020), Kaija Saariaho (2021), Giorgio Battistelli (2022), Brian Eno (2023), Rebecca Saunders (2024).
Visit labiennale.org for more information.
Photo: Christine Alicino