Kronos Festival 2019 closes out with a celebration of folk icon and activist Pete Seeger, who would have turned 100 in May. Kronos debuts a new work that explores Seeger’s musical legacy, written by frequent collaborator Jacob Garchik. Joined by folk artists Sam Amidon and Lee Knight, San Francisco Bay Area singer-songwriter Meklit, musician Brian Carpenter (of Beat Circus and Ghost Train Orchestra) and others, Kronos also debuts the first part of a project that reinterprets music that Pete Seeger helped popularize. Amidon also joins Kronos for a set of songs arranged by Nico Muhly that include his contributions to Kronos’ 2017 Folk Songs album.

Kronos premieres a Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire composition inspired by the endangered handclapping song traditions of Malian girls and written by griot singer Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté, who performed last Festival with Trio Da Kali. The ensemble is joined for the piece by artist-in-residence Valérie Sainte-Agathe and the San Francisco Girls Chorus, who also perform the world premiere of the choral version of Aleksander Kościów’s meditative Hílathi, which was also composed for Kronos’ Fifty for the Future education and legacy project.

Come early at 6:30 PM to listen to broadcaster, music producer, and professor of music at SOAS University of London, Dr. Lucy Durán talk about the tegere tulon. These are the handclapping songs and dances created spontaneously by girls in country villages of southern Mali that serve as the basis for Diabaté’s composition for Kronos’ Fifty for the Future initiative. Although this tradition is in danger of dying out, it remains an important source of inspiration for many Malian artists such as Diabaté, who learned how to coordinate words, rhythm, dance, and composition through the tegere tulon.

Get a taste of the guest artists and composers who will be featured during Kronos Festival 2019 on Youtube or Spotify.

Reserved Seating / Robert N. Miner Auditorium
Tickets: $20 / $30 / $45 / $65 // Buy tickets >