Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers (1978–1999) had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola and Joan Jeanrenaud on cello. Jennifer Culp replaced Jeanrenaud in 1999, and Jeffrey Zeigler in turn replaced Culp in 2005.
New music
Kronos specializes in new music and has a long history of commissioning new works. In fact, over 600 works have been created for the Kronos Quartet. They have worked with many minimalist composers including Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Roberto Carnevale, Terry Riley and Kevin Volans.
Kronos has collaborated with composers from a diversity of countries such as Franghiz Ali-Zadeh from Azerbaijan and Osvaldo Golijov from Argentina. Golijov is a MacArthur Fellow who has done compositions and arrangements for Kronos CDs such as Caravan and Nuevo.
Recently, the Kronos Quartet began a commission process for composers under the age of 30, in the hope of bringing some of the talented young composers of our day to light.
Diverse genres
Kronos covers a very broad range of musical genres: Mexican folk, experimental, pre-classical early music, movie soundtracks (Requiem for a Dream, Heat), jazz and tango. Kronos has even recorded adaptations of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze", Sigur Rós's "Flugufrelsarinn," Television's "Marquee Moon", and Raymond Scott's "Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals".
Composers aside, Kronos has teamed up with artists from around the world, including the legendary Bollywood playback singer Asha Bhosle; Mexican-American painter Gronk; the American soprano Dawn Upshaw; Mexican pop-rockers Cafe Tacuba; and the Romanian gypsy band Taraf de Haidouks.
Kronos has performed live with the likes of the late poet Allen Ginsberg, the Modern Jazz Quartet, David Bowie, and Björk, and has appeared on recordings with such diverse talents as singer-songwriters Dave Matthews, Nelly Furtado, Rokia Traore, Joan Armatrading, and Texas yodeler Don Walser.
Awards & recognition
- National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences The Recording Academy President's Merit Award 2005
- Rolf Schock Prize in Music/Royal Swedish Academy of Music for Musical Arts (1999)
- Musical America (2003) Musicians of the Year
- Le Diapason d'Or de Mai 1997 for the Kronos Quartet recording of Osvaldo Golijov's The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind (France) (1997)
- Grammy Awards & Grammy Nominations
- Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance: The Kronos Quartet & Dawn Upshaw for Berg: Lyric Suite (2004)
- Grammy Award Nomination for Best Contemporary World Music Album for Kronos Quartet with Asha Bhosle, You've Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman's Bollywood (USA) (2005)
- Grammy Award Nomination for Best Chamber Music Performance for Peteris Vasks’ String Quartet No. 4 (USA) (2003)
- Grammy Award Nomination for Best Classical Crossover Album for The Tiger Lillies with Kronos Quartet, The Gorey End (USA) (2003)
- Latin Grammy Award Nomination for Best Classical Album for Nuevo (USA) (2003)
- Grammy Award Nomination for Best Classical Crossover Album for Nuevo (USA) (2002)
- Grammy Award Nominations for Best Classical Album & for Best Chamber Music Performance for Kronos Quartet Performs Alfred Schnittke: The Complete String Quartets (USA) (1998)
- Grammy Award Nomination for Best Chamber Music Performance for Early Music (Lachrymae Antiquae) (USA) (1997)
- Grammy Award Nomination for Best Chamber Music Performance for Black Angels (USA) (1991)
- Grammy Award Nomination for Best Chamber Music Performance for White Man Sleeps (USA) (1987)
Quotation
- "I've always wanted the string quartet to be vital, and energetic, and alive, and cool, and not afraid to kick ass and be absolutely beautiful and ugly if it has to be. But it has to be expressive of life. To tell the whole story with grace and humor and depth. And to tell the whole story, if possible."
- – David Harrington
Recordings
- Kronos Quartet Plays Music of Thelonious Monk (1985)
- Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters: Soundtrack composed by Philip Glass (1985)
- Kronos Quartet (1986), with music of Peter Sculthorpe, Aulis Sallinen, Philip Glass, Conlon Nancarrow and an arrangement of Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze.
- Music of Bill Evans (1986)
- White Man Sleeps (1987)
- Terry Riley: Cadenza on the Night Plain (1988)
- Winter Was Hard with music of Aulis Sallinen, Terry Riley, Arvo Pärt, Anton Webern, John Zorn, John Lurie, Astor Piazzolla, Alfred Schnittke and Samuel Barber (1988)
- Kronos Quartet Plays Terry Riley: Salome Dances for Peace (1989)
- Steve Reich: Different Trains (1989)
- Black Angels (including George Crumb's Black Angels) (1990)
- Witold Lutosławski: String Quartet (1991)
- Kevin Volans: Hunting:Gathering (1991)
- Five Tango Sensations (with Ástor Piazzolla) (1991)
- Henryk Górecki: Already It Is Dusk (1991)
- Pieces of Africa (1992) (music by seven African composers)
- Short Stories (1993)
- Henryk Górecki: String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 (1993)
- Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet (1993) (with pianist Aki Takahashi)
- At the Grave of Richard Wagner (1993)
- Bob Ostertag: All the Rage (1993)
- Night Prayers (1994)
- Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass (1995)
- Released: 1985-1995 (1995)
- Heat (Soundtrack) (1995)
- Howl, USA (Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl set to music, as well as other Cold War pieces) (1996)
- Osvaldo Golijov: The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind (1997)
- Tan Dun: Ghost Opera (1997)
- Early Music (1997)
- Kronos Quartet Performs Alfred Schnittke: The Complete String Quartets (1998)
- John Adams: John's Book of Alleged Dances (1998)
- Kronos Quartet: 25 Years (10 disks)
- Dracula (Soundtrack by Philip Glass) (1999)
- Requiem for a Dream (Soundtrack by Clint Mansell) (2000)
- Caravan (2000) (with guest artists: Zakir Hussain, Taraf de Haidouks, Kayhan Kalhor, Ziya Tabbassian, Ali Jihad Racy, Souhail Kaspar, Martyn Jones)
- Steve Reich: Triple Quartet (2001)
- Terry Riley: Requiem for Adam (2001)
- Nuevo (music of Mexican composers) (2002)
- Alban Berg: Lyric Suite (2003) (Grammy Award Winner)
- Harry Partch: U.S. Highball (2003)
- Peteris Vasks: String Quartet No. 4 (2003)
- Mugam Sayagi: Music of Franghiz Ali-Zadeh (2005)
- You've Stolen My Heart by Kronos Quartet, Asha Bhosle (Released August 2005), a tribute to Rahul Dev Burman.