Interview with Meriel Price

By Digital in Berlin · On 17. February 2019

Meriel Price writes contemporary music theatre, is an award winning saxophonist, actress/performer and visual artist. As a member of the ensemble DieOrdnungDerDinge she creates staged concert programmes that explore the space between concert and theater/performance in a visual, playful manner. They perform internationally in venues such as the Guggenheim, Bilbao, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Schauspielhaus Zurich, Grüner Salon (Volksbühne) Berlin.

FACTS:

1: A ducks quack will not echo.

2: Iñigos moustache is fake.

3: Fake news spreads fast – EchoChamberMusic.

QUESTIONS:

1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
   For the music theatre pieces I write, everyday life and all the strange coincidences and occurences going on. For our current programme – Echo Chambers.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
   I started playing the ocarina aged about 7. Then I moved onto the violin, then the viola before finally finding the saxophone.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
   The Cranberries – Everybody else is doing it so why can’t we? – songs of my teenage years
   Nina Simone – her first recording in New York in 1957
   Simon and Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water – car trips with my parents
   Michael Jackson – Bad – Man in the Mirror has the best key change in the history of music
   Benjamin Britten – Peter Grimes
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
   Long winters, great summers – in winter you can’t imagine it will ever be warm again and in summer you can’t remember the winter.
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
   One of the lakes – Krumme Lanke maybe.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
   Paint, make sculptures and films. I studied art before music.
7. What was the last record/music you bought?
   Powder Her Face Suite by Thomas Adés – I was playing it with the Berlin Philharmonic and had to learn my part.
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
   Simon Steen Anderson or Beyoncé.
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
   Performer – Playing the Guggenheim with DieOrdnungDerDinge.
   Spectator – Simon and Garfunkel at the collosseum in Rome.
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
    Very important and not important – I’m more of an analogue person but some of the stuff I make involves spending hours at the computer, for example cutting films.
11. Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career/art?
    My brother doesn’t think I have a proper job.