Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association (KPAA) is proud to announce the fifth and final group of composers to be commissioned for Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire: Mark Applebaum, Rafiq Bhatia, Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté, Alexandra du Bois, Barry Guy, Angélique Kidjo, Sky Macklay, Aruna Narayan, Charlton Singleton, and Paul Wiancko.

For 45 years, Kronos Quartet has collaborated with composers and musicians representing tremendous stylistic and cultural diversity. Drawing on this legacy, the nonprofit organization KPAA is developing the first learning library of contemporary repertoire for string quartet. Launched in 2015, Kronos’ Fifty for the Future is a partnership with Carnegie Hall and others that is commissioning 50 new works – by 25 women and 25 men – expressly for the training of students and emerging professionals. Scores and parts, recordings, and other learning materials for 25 of the compositions are available free of charge online here. As the remaining 25 string quartets and their supporting materials are developed, they are scheduled to be added to Kronos’ Fifty for the Futurewebsite through the 2020/21 Season.

Since the initiative was launched four years ago, Kronos has frequently coached young players on these works, mentoring over 800 musicians in workshops, coaching sessions, and residency activities around the world. Among these are student string quartets from Berkeley High School, Oakland School for the Arts, and the Crowden School, who performed with Kronos as part of its Cal Performances concert last Friday (January 25, pictured below) at UC Berkeley, and student ensembles from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) and San Francisco Unified School District’s George Washington High School, Lowell High School, and Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, who perform with Kronos as part of a free community concert tonight (January 30) at SFCM.

photo by Lenny Gonzalez

With half of the library currently available online for free, the impact of this project is already measurable. To date, there have been more than 12,000 downloads of the scores and parts in 86 countries and territories.

Previously announced Kronos’ Fifty for the Future composers are Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Laurie Anderson, Ken Benshoof, Raven Chacon, Islam Chipsy, Aftab Darvishi, Bryce Dessner, Fodé Lassana Diabaté, Mario Galeano Toro, Guillermo Galindo, Erin Gee, Rhiannon Giddens, Philip Glass, Yotam Haber, Zakir Hussain, Susie Ibarra, Joan Jeanrenaud, Jlin, Garth Knox, Aleksander Kościów, Nicole Lizée, Lu Yun, Soo Yeon Lyuh, Tod Machover, Vladimir Martynov, Missy Mazzoli, Anna Meredith, Misato Mochizuki, Onutė Narbutaitė, Kala Ramnath, Karin Rehnqvist, Terry Riley, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Trey Spruance, Tanya Tagaq, Stephan Thelen, Henry Threadgill, Merlijn Twaalfhoven, Aleksandra Vrebalov, and Wu Man.