Music From Other Minds

Program 851: New Works: Meredith Monk / Henry Threadgill / Elliot Sharp

KALW Broadcast Date: December 7, 2025 | Host: Ed Herrmann

This program offers three new works by New York based musicians.

Cellular Songs, a new album by Meredith Monk, has 15 compositions for vocal ensemble, with some using vibraphone, piano, and percussion. Of the collection Monk says, “I wanted to make a piece that can be experienced as an alternative possibility of human behavior, where the values are cooperation, interdependence, and kindness, as an antidote to the values that are being propagated right now.”

Since founding the jazz trio AIR in the 1970s, Henry Threadgill has led many ensembles, and in recent years his compositions explore unusual instrumental combinations. His latest, Listen Ship, is for six acoustic guitars and two pianos.

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Elliot Sharp has a new work for six electric guitars called Mare Crisium. Sharp says it “offers a non-linear, non-rational coded response to the current world situation and hopes to provide positive psychoacoustic chemical change to the players and listeners.”

Program Audio

30-Second Spot