Kronos Quartet
For nearly 40 years, the Kronos Quartet has pursued a singular artistic vision, combining
a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to expanding the range and context of
the string quartet. In the process, Kronos has become one of the most celebrated and
influential groups of our time, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more
than 45 recordings of extraordinary breadth and creativity, collaborating with many of the
world's most eclectic composers and performers, and commissioning more than 750 works and
arrangements for string quartet. In 2011, Kronos became the only recipients of both the
Polar Music Prize and the Avery Fisher Prize, two of the most prestigious awards given to
musicians. The group's numerous accolades also include a 2004 Grammy Award for Best Chamber
Music Performance and being named Musical America's Musicians of the Year in
2003.
Kronos' adventurous approach dates back to the ensemble's origins. In 1973, David
Harrington was inspired to form Kronos after hearing George Crumb's Black Angels,
a highly unorthodox, Vietnam War-inspired work that features bowed water glasses,
spoken-word passages, and electronic effects. Kronos then began building a compellingly
diverse repertoire for string quartet, performing and recording works by 20th-century
masters (Bartók, Shostakovich, Webern), contemporary composers (Aleksandra Vrebalov, John
Adams, Alfred Schnittke), jazz legends (Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk),
and artists from even farther afield (rock-guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, Azeri vocalist Alim
Qasimov, interdisciplinary composer-performer Meredith Monk).
Integral to Kronos' work is a series of long-running, in-depth collaborations with many of
the world's foremost composers. One of the quartet's most frequent composer-collaborators
is "Father of Minimalism" Terry Riley, whose work with Kronos includes the early
Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector; Cadenza on the Night Plain;
Salome Dances for Peace; 2002's Sun Rings, a multimedia,
NASA-commissioned ode to the earth and its people that features celestial sounds and images
from space; and Another Secret eQuation for youth chorus and string quartet,
premiered at a concert celebrating Riley's 75th birthday. Kronos commissioned and recorded
the three string quartets of Polish composer Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, with whom the group
worked for more than 25 years. The quartet has also collaborated extensively with composers
such as Philip Glass, recording his string quartets and scores to films like
Mishima and Dracula (a restored edition of the Bela Lugosi
classic); Azerbaijan's Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, whose works are featured on the full-length 2005
release Mugam Sayagi: Music of Franghiz Ali-Zadeh; Steve Reich, whose
Kronos-recorded Different Trains earned a Grammy for the composer;
Argentina's Osvaldo Golijov, whose work with Kronos includes both compositions and
extensive arrangements for albums like Kronos Caravan and Nuevo; and
many more.
In addition to composers, Kronos counts numerous artists from around the world among its
collaborators, including Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man; legendary Bollywood
"playback singer" Asha Bhosle, featured on Kronos' Grammy-nominated You've Stolen My
Heart: Songs from R. D. Burman's Bollywood; Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq; Mexican
rockers Café Tacvba; genre-defying sound artist and instrument builder Walter Kitundu;
Romanian gypsy band Taraf de Haïdouks; renowned American soprano Dawn Upshaw; and the
unbridled British cabaret trio, the Tiger Lillies. Kronos has performed live with the likes
of icons Allen Ginsberg, Zakir Hussain, Modern Jazz Quartet, Noam Chomsky, Rokia Traoré,
Tom Waits, David Barsamian, Howard Zinn, Betty Carter, and David Bowie, and has appeared on
recordings by such diverse talents as Nine Inch Nails, Amon Tobin, Dan Zanes, DJ Spooky,
Dave Matthews, Nelly Furtado, Joan Armatrading, and Don Walser.
Kronos' music has also featured prominently in other media, including film (Requiem
for a Dream, The Fountain, 21 Grams, Heat, True
Stories) and dance, with noted choreographers such as Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor,
Twyla Tharp, and Eiko & Koma setting pieces to Kronos' music.
The quartet spends five months of each year on tour, appearing in concert halls, clubs,
and festivals around the world, including the BAM Next Wave Festival, Carnegie Hall, the
Barbican in London, WOMAD, UCLA's Royce Hall, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Shanghai Concert
Hall, and Sydney Opera House. Kronos is equally prolific and wide-ranging on recordings.
The ensemble's expansive discography on Nonesuch Records includes collections like
Pieces of Africa (1992), a showcase of African-born composers, which
simultaneously topped Billboard's Classical and World Music lists; 1998's 10-disc
anthology, Kronos Quartet: 25 Years; Nuevo (2002), a Grammy- and Latin
Grammy-nominated celebration of Mexican culture; and the 2003 Grammy-winner, Alban Berg's
Lyric Suite. The group's latest releases are Floodplain (Nonesuch, 2009),
spotlighting music from regions of the world riven by conflict;
Rainbow (Smithsonian Folkways, 2010), in collaboration with musicians from
Afghanistan and Azerbaijan; and Uniko (Ondine, 2011) with Finnish
accordion-sampler duo Kimmo Pohjonen and Samuli Kosminen.
Kronos' recording and performances reveal only a fraction of the group's commitment to new
music. As a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, the Kronos Performing Arts
Association has commissioned more than 750 new works and arrangements for string quartet.
Music publishers Boosey & Hawkes and Kronos have released sheet music for three
signature works, all commissioned for Kronos, in the first volume of the Kronos
Collection, a performing edition edited by Kronos. The quartet is committed to
mentoring emerging professional performers, and in 2007 Kronos led its first Professional
Training Workshop with four string quartets at Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute.
Subsequent workshops at Carnegie Hall and other venues have expanded this aspect of the
quartet's work. One of Kronos' most exciting initiatives is the Kronos: Under 30 Project, a
unique commissioning and composer-in-residence program for composers under 30 years old,
launched in conjunction with Kronos' own 30th birthday in 2003. By cultivating creative
relationships with such emerging talents and a wealth of other artists from around the
world, Kronos reaps the benefit of decades of wisdom while maintaining a fresh approach to
music-making inspired by a new generation of composers and performers.