400 CANDLES, AND COUNTING

"Writing a quartet is hard. You have to have the right texture, the right balance, the right length. I'm very proud of not just playing one piece and then it's over. Kronos is about taking the relationship further. Composers not only know us better—they write in the form better." —JS

"All these great composer-teachers set the stage for making us feel we need to learn more." —DH

More than half of the composers who have written for Kronos have contributed more than one work. In addition to the cultivation of new composer voices, which is an ongoing pursuit, Kronos is constantly commissioning, rehearsing, and performing new and better quartets. At any point in the past 10 years, more than 30 quartets have been in preparation for a Kronos performance or recording somewhere in the world. In the past few years, second quartets have been commissioned from Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Osvaldo Golijov, P.Q. Phan, and Steve Reich, to name but a few. Recent recordings have featured second quartets by Philip Glass, Henryk Górecki, Scott Johnson, and Steve Mackey, among others. They have collaborated in performance with Astor Piazzolla, Dawn Upshaw, Huun-Huur-Tu, Wu Man, Eiko and Koma, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Don Walser, and composer-performers from Africa, in addition to many others. New composers writing for the first time for Kronos include Gabriela Ortiz from Mexico City and Guo Wenjing from China. And numerous quartets, choreographers, and other artists regularly have made Kronos commissions part of their repertoire. It is this literal creation of a repertoire that Kronos celebrates this season, shared with all who are a part of it.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Next: About 4