Photos by Christine Alicino and Mercedes Jelinek

Duet Behavior: Meredith Monk and John Hollenbeck (2022)

Duet Behavior 2022 is an intimate evening of Meredith Monk’s music as it has never been experienced. Through a conversational approach, long-time friends and colleagues Monk and Hollenbeck expand and improvise on pieces from across Monk’s 50+ year catalogue, combining her pioneering vocal magic with his inventive and masterful percussion to generate new arrangements of Monk’s iconic compositions.

Meredith Monk, voice, piano, jew’s harp
John Hollenbeck, percussion

Repertoire includes:  Selections from Songs from the Hill (1975-1976), Light Songs (1988), Book of Days (1988), Cellular Songs (2017); new, and other works.

Versions of Duet Behavior: Meredith Monk and John Hollenbeck have been performed virtually for The Noguchi Museum, Queens, New York, and live at National Sawdust, Brooklyn, New York and Big Ears Festival, Knoxville, Tennessee.

In 1987, Meredith Monk envisioned a series of music duets entitled Duet Behavior that included set pieces and improvisations. The first version was performed with Bobby McFerrin on November 20-22, 1987 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in the Next Wave Festival as part of the program, An Artist and Her Music. 

For bookings, contact Sarah Lerner, Executive Director

“[Monk’s] evening with percussionist John Hollenbeck demonstrated how empathically attuned two artists can be. She deployed the full possibilities of the human larynx, and Hollenbeck enlivened them with textures of all kinds. The acoustics of the darkened space, as both understood, were an instrument in themselves.” – Walker Mimms, The Brooklyn Rail, May 2022

Duet Behavior 2020, presented by Bang on a Can and The Noguchi Museum