Meredith Monk to Live-Stream from Mills

Image from the “Rotation” video to be shown during Indra’s Net (created by Meredith Monk, courtesy of Sacks & Co.)

Indra’s Net is the latest interdisciplinary evening-length work created by composer, director, and performer Meredith Monk. It completes a trilogy dedicated to our relationship with the natural world. That trilogy was launched in 2013 with the performance of On Behalf of Nature, conceived as a plea for ecological awareness. This was followed in 2018 by Cellular Songs, which focused on the fabric of life itself. Indra’s Net had been scheduled to premiere in November of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed that premiere; but it also informed the making of the work, prompting new perspectives of the world in which we now find ourselves and the expression of those perspectives through music and performance.

The title is taken from a legend of both Buddhist and Hindu origins. Indra is an enlightened king, who stretches a large net across the entire universe. Each intersection of the threads of the net is marked by an infinitely faceted jewel. Each jewel, in turn, is wholly unique; but it reflects all the others, illuminating the interdependence of all living things. This serves as an appropriate metaphor for the overall theme of Monk’s trilogy. Initial work on Indra’s Net took place at Mills College, beginning in the fall of 2018 and running through 2019 with the participation of Bay Area musicians. Work then shifted to the ArtLab at Harvard University during the spring of 2020.

The premiere concert performance of Indra’s Net will be presented by Mills Music Now. It will take place at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 12, and at 5 p.m. on Saturday, November 13. These performances will be held for limited-capacity audiences in the Jeannik Méquet Littlefield Concert Hall on the campus of Mills College. Admission will be free for all those with Mills ID; all others will be charged $25. Masks will be required for all attending, regarding of vaccination status.

Tickets will go on sale this coming October 12. In addition, the entire program will be live-streamed at no charge. Information about acquiring tickets will be added on October 12 to the Web page for this event on the Mills Performing Arts Web site. Closer to the time of the performance, that Web page will also provide the necessary information for live-streaming.