Kronos Quartet

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Fri, Aug 1 thru
Sat, Aug 2 2008
Novellus Theater at YBCA

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A World Premiere Collaboration Kronos Quartet Music Without Borders

The Bay Area’s Kronos Quartet is perhaps the most celebrated string quartet in the world, known for pushing music beyond borders and for their Who’s Who list of collaborators. In the spirit of Bay Area Now 5, YBCA presents Music Without Borders, a full weekend of international artistic explorations.

Thu, Jul 31, 7:30 pm • Screening Room
Half Moon
The weekend kicks off with a screening of Half Moon. An iconic Kurdish musician in the twilight of his life travels to Iraq for a concert to celebrate the fall of Saddam Hussein and the end of his repression of Kurdish music. Buy tickets for Half Moon

Fri, Aug 1, 8 pm • Novellus Theater at YBCA
Kronos Quartet
Kronos’ solo performance features music from Ethiopia, India, Palestine and Serbia, plus other works.

Sat, Aug 2, 3:30 pm • Screening Room • FREE with Gallery Admission
What’s David Harrington Listening To?
A listening party with Kronos Quartet’s David Harrington featuring an eclectic selection of recordings, providing insight into his creative process and the expansive world of sounds that provide inspiration.
Read more about What’s David Harrington Listening To?

Sat, Aug 2, 5 pm • Screening Room • FREE with Gallery Admission
Breaking the Silence: Music in Afghanistan
The listening party is followed by a screening of Breaking the Silence: Music in Afghanistan. The film, directed by Simon Broughton, examines the recovery of music in Afghanistan after the Taliban’s prohibition of music was lifted. Shows with the short documentary Homayoun Sakhi: The Art of the Afghan Rubâb.
Read more about Breaking the Silence

Sat, Aug 2, 8 pm • Theater
Kronos Quartet and Homayoun Sakhi
Program to include solo sets by Homayoun Sakhi, one of the world’s finest players of the Afghan rubâb—a double-chambered lute—and Kronos Quartet, plus the world premiere of Rangin Kaman (The Rainbow)*, with Salar Nader on tabla and Abbos Kosimov on doyra.

* Commissioned by the Aga Khan Music Initiative, a program of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Arranged by Stephen Prutsman. Additional commissioning funds provided by The James Irvine Foundation and YBCA.

Kronos Quartet

For more than 30 years, the Kronos Quartet—David Harrington, John Sherba (violins), Hank Dutt (viola) and Jeffrey Zeigler (cello)—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 650 works and arrangements for string quartet.

Kronos has built a compellingly diverse repertoire that includes the work of 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, avant-garde saxophonist John Zorn). They have collaborated with the world's foremost composers, including Terry Riley, Philip Glass and Steve Reich, as well as with an array of master musicians from around the globe, such as the Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man; legendary Bollywood "playback singer" Asha Bhosle, Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq; Mexican rockers Café Tacuba; genre defying sound artist and instrument builder Walter Kitundu; the Romanian gypsy band Taraf de Haïdouks; renowned American soprano Dawn Upshaw; and the unbridled British cabaret trio, the Tiger Lillies.

Kronos has also performed live with the likes of icons Allen Ginsberg, Zakir Hussain, Modern Jazz Quartet, 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, Rokia Traoré, Joan Armatrading and Don Walser. Kronos' music has also featured prominently in both 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.

As a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, the Kronos Performing Arts Association has also commissioned hundreds of new works and arrangements for string quartet. The quartet is committed to mentoring emerging professional performers, and in 2007 Kronos led its first Professional Training Workshop with four string quartets as part of the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall. 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 30 years' wisdom while maintaining a fresh approach to music-making inspired by a new generation of composers and performers.

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Kronos Quartet

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