Meow Meow

Bio

Post-post-modern diva Meow Meow has hypnotised, inspired, and terrified audiences globally with unique creations and sell-out seasons from New York’s Lincoln Center and Berlin’s Bar Jeder Vernunft to London’s West End and the Sydney Opera House.

Named one of the “Top Performers of the Year” by The New Yorker, the spectacular crowd-surfing artist has been called “sensational” (The Times, UK), a “diva of the highest order” (New York Post), “The Queen of Chanson” (Berliner Zeitung), and “a phenomenon” by the Australian press. Her award-winning works have been curated by David Bowie, Pina Bausch, Mikhail Baryshnikov and numerous international arts festivals.

Meow Meow’s original works include Vamp, Beyond Glamour, Feline Intimate, Meow Meow’s Little Match Girl, Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid, His Master’s Choice, Apocalypse Meow, and An Audience with Meow Meow. These shows have played from Edinburgh International Festival to Berkeley Rep, from the Southbank Centre to the Sydney Festival and Shakespeare’s Globe, and from Shanghai to Slovenia and most recently the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). They have garnered numerous awards including the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe Award, Green Room, and Australian Helpmann Awards. Meow’s Pandemonium and More Pandemonium “orchestrated chaos” concerts have played Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Festival with the Bergen Philharmonic, Norway and most recently New Year’s Eve at Seattle Symphony and with the Western Australian Symphony for Perth International Arts Festival 2020.

Meow Meow’s work extends to large-scale events -  She conjured a bespoke civic creation for Liverpool Culture’s Sgt. Pepper at Fifty celebrations involving the city’s brass bands, a three-day “riot”, a multi-media installation in an oratory, and a requiem in a graveyard. She created fantastical multimedia song cycles for the Brighton Festival UK, the Theatre Royal Tasmania and Her Majesty’s Theatre South Australia with composers Jherek Bischoff, August Von Trapp, Jethro Woodward and designer Andrea Lauer. In Australia, Meow has a long-standing creative relationship with Malthouse Theatre and the nation’s international arts festivals and orchestras.

As well as being a prolific original music and theatre creator, Meow Meow specializes in the Weimar repertoire and French chanson. She has played Jenny in Brecht/Weill’s Threepenny Opera in Paris and London with the London Philharmonic and Anna 1 and 2 in Brecht/Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with Orchestra Victoria, and with United Ensemble at the Konzerthaus Berlin, as well as numerous Weimar works with Sydney Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Seattle Symphony, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra and the Bergen Philharmonic. Meow Meow has performed Schoenberg Ensemble founder Reinbert de Leeuw’s homage to Schubert and Schumann, Wunderschön, throughout Australia and in the UK with the Hebrides Ensemble. She is a guest artist with Pina Bausch Tanztheater and has performed with them in Wuppertal, Berlin and Moscow

In other works, Meow has played Titania in Emma Rice’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe and appeared on the West End in Kneehigh and Michel Legrand’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg in a role created especially for her - La Maîtresse. She played Pegleg in Tom Waits’ musical fable The Black Rider with Victorian Opera and Malthouse Theatre; and Édith Piaf in Cocteau’s Le Bel indifferent, for the Greenwich Music Festival. Richard Mills created an opera for her.

Highlights of recent seasons include Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls at Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Sitwell/Walton’s Façade at the Berlin Konzerthaus, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; concerts at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Series, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, and an extended run of concerts at the Barbican London with Barry Humphries and the Aurora Orchestra. That program, a highly-acclaimed return season, resurrected lost and banned works from the Weimar period. Meow Meow and Humphries premiered this program in the major concert halls of Australia including the Sydney Opera House, and then toured it to Tanglewood Music Festival, London’s Cadogan Hall, and the Edinburgh International Festival with the Australian Chamber Orchestra lead by Richard Tognetti.

Meow Meow was commissioned for David Bowie’s Highline Festival by Bowie and director John Cameron Mitchell. Her piece An Audience with Meow Meow premiered at Berkeley Rep with direction by Emma Rice and was recreated for Boston Arts Emerson, directed by Leigh Silverman and designed by Andrea Lauer, choreographed by Sonya Tayeh, MD Lance Horne. Meow has appeared at Joe’s Pub NYC, in the Bard College Spiegeltent Summer series and has performed in concert with Alan Cumming at The Met Museum, and in Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music series. Meow Meow performed in the PIAF! Centenary Celebration Concert at Town Hall with the American Pops Orchestra. Meow Meow has guested with the La Clique, Club Swizzle, and La Soiree companies globally including premiering their seasons at Sydney Opera House, London’s Roundhouse, and in New York City.

Meow’s recent work “Apocalypse Meow: Crisis is Born” was originally commissioned and presented by Southbank Centre London,  followed by a sell-out season at the Wanamaker Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, London. It was then re-imagined for a season at Malthouse Theatre Melbourne directed by Michael Kantor, and later presented as “ A Very Meow Meow Holiday Show” at the Next Wave Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music in December 2019.

Meow Meow has performed as guest artist with iconic orchestra Pink Martini at the Berlin Philharmonie, Royal Albert Hall, Opera Garnier Monte Carlo, the Hollywood Bowl, and across the concert stages of Europe, Canada, and the United States. Their album Hotel Amour : Meow Meow with Thomas M Lauderdale includes duets with Rufus Wainwright, Barry Humphries, the Von Trapps and the late Michel Legrand. It was released in 2019 and named one of The Times’ top 100 albums of the year.

Meow’s albums Vamp and Songs from a Little Match Girl, co-written with long-time collaborator and composer Iain Grandage are available on iTunes. She features on Jherek Bischoff’s Theater Basel opus Johnny Breitweiser, released 2018. Her album Songs from A Little Mermaid with the Siren Effect Orchestra will be released in 2020.

Major international press includes: The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, LA Times, The Australian, The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, The Monthly, The Financial Review, The Times UK, The Independent, The Irish Times, The Scotsman, The West-Deutsche Zeitung, Berliner Zeitung, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, Schön Magazine and Vogue Italia.  TV appearances include for the ABC, John Bishop BBC and Graham Norton BBC.

Original works: Meow Meow's Little Matchgirl, (Malthouse Theatre, Sydney Festival, Southbank Centre London, Queen Elizabeth Hall, dir Marion Potts ). Meow Meow's Little Mermaid (Malthouse Theatre/Sydney/Perth/Auckland, Brisbane, Edinburgh International Arts Festivals, dir Michael Kantor). An Audience with Meow Meow (Berkeley Rep, dir Emma Rice) (Boston Cutler Majestic, dir Leigh Silverman). Meow Meow in Concert (Apollo West End, Kennedy Centre DC, Lincoln Center NY, CAP UCLA at Ace Theatre, Symphony Davies Hall, SF). Feline Intimate (Sydney Opera House, London Wonderground, Edinburgh International Festival Fringe Prize, Maribor Festival Slovenia, Austrian tour). Vamp (Malthouse Theatre, Sydney Opera House, dir Michael Kantor). Beyond Glamour (Australian Festivals, Edinburgh, UK tour incl. Soho Theatre London, Bar Jeder Vernunft Berlin, North American Tour incl. Koerner Hall Toronto). Insert the Name of the Person you Love (Sydney Festival, Pilgrim Theatre). My Mouth is a Wonder/ Meow Marathon (Time Based Arts Festival, PICA, Portland Oregon). His Master’s Choice (Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide Cabaret Festival). Tales of Love Most Monstrous (Melbourne Festival), Meow’s Pandemonium (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Festival Hall, cond Iain Grandage, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Festival Hall, cond Ben Northey, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Arlene Schnitzer Hall, cond Kalmar, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Benaroya Hall, cond Randy Fleischer, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Concert Hall, Bergen Festival Norway, cond Guy Noble, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, Sydney Festival, WA Symphony Orchestra, Perth Concert Hall, Perth International Arts Festival, cond Iain Grandage), Rita Riots/Rita Dreaming/Rita Requiem (Sgt Pepper at 50, Liverpool City UK, Oratory and Graveyard), Souvenir Royale (Theatre Royal Hobart, Festival of Voices, Theatre Royal Brighton, Brighton Festival, Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide). Apocalypse Meow (Southbank Centre UK, Shakespeare’s Globe London, Malthouse Theatre Melbourne, Brooklyn Academy of Music BAM Next Wave Festival)

 

Other Theatre: Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe, dir Emma Rice, Titania/Hippolyta), Brecht/Weill’s Die Dreigroschenoper / Threepenny Opera (London Philharmonic, Paris Théatre des Champs-Elysées, Royal Festival Hall, cond Jurowski, Jenny), Die Sieben Todsünden/Seven Deadly Sins (Opera Victoria, Hamer Hall dir Cameron Menzies/ United Ensemble Berlin Konzerthaus, cond Jurowski, Anna I and II), Michel Legrand/Demy, Kneehigh Theatre’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (West End, dir Emma Rice, La Maîtresse), Le Bel Indifférent (Cocteau, Greenwich Music Festival US, dir Ted Huffman), De Materie (Andriessen, LA Philharmonic, Disney Hall, cond Reinbert de Leeuw). Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (Schubert /Schumann /de Leeuw, Australian National Academy of Music, Malthouse Theatre, Perth International Arts Festival, Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, dir Rodney Fisher/ Hebrides Ensemble Edinburgh, Glasgow). Sitwell/Walton’s Façade (United Ensemble Berlin Konzerthaus, cond Jurowski), Tom Waits/William S Burroughs’ The Black Rider (Malthouse Theatre and Victorian Opera, dir Matthew Lutton, Pegleg), Venus and Adonis (Malthouse Theatre, Bell Shakespeare Co, Sydney Theatre Co, Auckland Festival, dir Marion Potts), David Chesworth’s Cosmonaut (Melbourne Festival, dir David Pledger), Tom Lehrer’s Tomfoolery (Melbourne Theatre Company, dir Simon Phillips), Noel Coward’s Design For Living Melbourne Theatre Company, dir Rodney Fisher) Richard Mills’ Tis Pity (Victorian Opera, dir Cameron Menzies), Liza Lim/Beth Yahp’s Jue Ling Jie (Moon Spirit Feasting, Melbourne Festival, Adelaide Festival, Brisbane Festival, Hebbel Theater Berlin, Zurich Theater Spektakel, Saitama Japan, dir Michael Kantor), Babysitting Caspar (Robyn Orlin Company, Altes National Galerie Berlin), When I take off my skin and touch the sky with my nose… (Robyn Orlin Company Theatre de la Ville Paris, France, Germany tour), Barry Humphries’ Weimar Cabaret (Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Opera House, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane Concert Halls, Cadogan Hall London, Usher Hall Edinburgh International Festival, Tanglewood Festival US, Barbican Season London (with Aurora Orchestra)).  Guys and Dolls (Royal Philharmonic, Royal Albert Hall, dir and choreography Stephen Mears, Miss Adelaide), Sieben Todsünden/ Fürchtet Euch Nicht, Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal (Opernhaus, Berlin Festspiel, Moscow)