NEA Grant for Kronos’ Fifty for the Future

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $80 million in grants as part of the NEA’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018. Included in this announcement are two Art Works grants totaling $60,000 to the Kronos Performing Arts Association for Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire, our education and legacy project that is commissioning – and distributing for free – the first learning library of contemporary repertoire for string quartet. The Art Works category is the NEA’s largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts. Learn more >

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Fifty for the Future at Kronos Festival 2018

Just ten days until Kronos Festival 2018 kicks off at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco on Thursday, April 26. We are already in rehearsals with Zakir Hussain and Guillermo Galindo, whose Fifty for the Future pieces will premiere at this year’s festival. Works by 50FTF’s Islam Chipsy, Fodé Lassana Diabaté, Philip Glass, Rhiannon Giddens, Nicole Lizée, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Garth Knox, Yevgeniy Sharlat, and Aftab Darvishi will also be performed throughout the festival by Kronos, students from Ruth Asawa SOTA, and the Amaranth Quartet.

Tickets are going fast (opening night has already sold out!), so don’t wait to get your tickets. Learn more and reserve your seats >

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Two Fifty for the Future Composers on NPR’s Fresh AIr

Our recent collaborations with Laurie Anderson – “Landfall” on Nonesuch Records – and Trio Da Kali – “Ladilikan” on World Circuit Records – were featured on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross today. Thank you to critic Milo Miles. Listen to the review here.

Laurie Anderson and Trio Da Kali’s Fodé Lassana Diabaté are both composers for Kronos’ Fifty for the Future. Scores, parts, recordings and more for Anderson’s and Diabaté‘s string quartets are available on our website free of charge.

Fifty for the Future at UCLA

We’ve been having a wonderful time working with student quartets at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music for the past two days during our CAP UCLA residency. They’ve surprised us more than once: collaborating with a tabla player to perform Amrit by Kala Ramnath, and reimagining Sunjata’s Time by Fodé Lassana Diabaté by adding thumb piano and percussion!

If you’re in the area, come by UCLA Royce Hall today at 7:15PM to see the 50/50 Quartet, a UCLA student/alumni ensemble, play these selections (and more) from Kronos’ Fifty for the Future on the Terrace for free! Afterwards, we’ll perform My Lai: Kronos Quartet, Rinde Eckert and Vân-Ánh Võ at 8PM.

CAP UCLA is a Legacy Partner of Kronos’ Fifty for the Future.

Fifty for the Future on SiriusXM Symphony Hall’s “Living American”

Did you miss David Srebnik’s interview with Kronos’ artistic director, founder, and violinist David Harrington on SiriusXM Symphony Hall’s “Living American,” a weekly series devoted to living American composers, yesterday? You can catch it again on SiriusXM Radio Channel 76 (or stream online) on FRIDAY (July 14) at Midnight ET / 9PM PT, or Sunday (July 16) at 6PM ET / 3PM PT.

You’ll hear music composed for Kronos’ Fifty for the Future by Ken Benshoof, Wu Man, Aleksandra Vrebalov, and Kala Ramnath, as well as a live version of Bryce Dessner’s Aheym, recorded in the SiriusXM Performance Theatre in Washington DC, “God Music” from George Crumb’s Black Angels, and “The Ecstasy” from Terry Riley’s Salome Dances for Peace.