- Kronos Quartet
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Kronos Quartet 
Kronos Quartet performing in Warsaw, Poland in the summer of 2006Background information Origin Seattle, Washington, United States Genres Contemporary classical Occupations Chamber ensemble Years active 1973-present Labels Nonesuch/Elektra Records Website www.KronosQuartet.org Members David Harrington, violin
John Sherba, violin
Hank Dutt, viola
Jeffrey Zeigler, celloPast members Jim Shallenberger (original member, 1973-75), violin
Roy Lewis (1975-76), violin
Tim Killian (original member, 1973-76), viola
Walter Gray (original member, 1973-78), cello
Joan Jeanrenaud, cello (1978-99)
Jennifer Culp, cello (1999-2005)Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers (from 1978 to 1999) had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan Jeanrenaud on cello. In 1999, Joan Jeanrenaud left Kronos because she was "eager for something new";[1] she was replaced by Jennifer Culp[2] who, in turn, left in 2005 and was replaced by Jeffrey Zeigler. With almost forty studio albums to their credit and having performed worldwide, they were called "probably the most famous 'new music' group in the world"[3] and were praised in philosophical studies of music for the inclusiveness of their repertoire.[4]
By the time the quartet celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary, in 1999, they had a repertoire of over 600 works, which included 400 string quartets written for them, more than 3,000 performances, seven first-prize ASCAP awards, Edison Awards in classical and popular music, and had sold more than 1.5 million records.[5]
Contents
New music/Contemporary Classical
Kronos specializes in new music/contemporary classical music and has a long history of commissioning new works. Over 600 works have been created for the Kronos Quartet. They have worked with many minimalist composers including John Adams (composer), Arvo Pärt, George Crumb, Henryk Górecki, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Roberto Carnevale, Terry Riley, and Kevin Volans; collaborators hail from a diversity of countries--Kaija Saariaho from Finland, Pēteris Vasks from Latvia, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh from Azerbaijan, Roberto Paci Dalò from Italy, Jan W. Morthenson from Sweden, and Osvaldo Golijov from Argentina. Some of Kronos' string-quartet arrangements were published in 2007.[6]
Under 30 Project
When Kronos turned 30, in 2003, they decided on a commissioning process for composers under the age of 30, in the hope of bringing some of the talented young composers to light. The program is now run in cooperation with Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Montalvo Arts Center. The first recipient was Alexandra du Bois (at the time a student at Indiana University, later a Juilliard School graduate),[7] followed by Felipe Perez Santiago (born in Mexico in 1973),[8] and Dan Visconti (born in Illinois in 1982);[9] in 2007, Israeli composer Aviya Kopelman became the fourth.[10]
Diverse genres
"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 story with grace and humor and depth. And to tell the whole story, if possible."
—David Harrington[11]Kronos covers a very broad range of musical genres: Mexican folk, experimental, pre-classical early music, movie soundtracks (Requiem for a Dream, Heat, The Fountain), jazz and tango. Kronos has also 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".
Kronos has also worked with a variety of global musicians, including Bollywood playback singer Asha Bhosle;[12] Mexican-American painter Gronk; American soprano Dawn Upshaw; jazz composer/performer Pat Metheny; Mexican rockers Café Tacuba; Azerbaijani mugam singer Alim Qasimov; and the Romanian gypsy band Taraf de Haidouks among others.
Kronos has performed live with the poet Allen Ginsberg, Ástor Piazzolla, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Tom Waits, David Bowie, and Björk, and has appeared on recordings with such diverse artists as the Dave Matthews Band, Nelly Furtado, Rokia Traore, Joan Armatrading, Brazilian electronica artist Amon Tobin, Texas yodeler Don Walser, Faith No More, Tiger Lillies and David Grisman.
The quartet also performed on the 1998 Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets on the tracks Halloween and The Stone. They also appeared on the Nine Inch Nails remix album, Year Zero Remixed, released November 20, 2007, doing a rendition of the track Another Version of the Truth. They also performed Lee Brooks' score for the short film 2081, based on the Kurt Vonnegut short story "Harrison Bergeron."
In 2009, the quartet contributed an acoustic version of Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was the Night" for the AIDS benefit album Dark Was the Night produced by the Red Hot Organization.
Awards and recognition
- Le Diapason d'Or de Mai
- 1997 Osvaldo Golijov's The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind
- Rolf Schock Prize
- 1999 Royal Swedish Academy of Music for Musical Arts in Music
- Musical America
- 2003 Musicians of the Year[13]
- 2004 Alban Berg: Lyric Suite
- 2005 The Recording Academy President's Merit Award
- 2011, the quartet was Laureates of The Polar Music Prize 2011 is being awarded to American string quartet Kronos Quartet. For almost 40 years, the Kronos Quartet has been revolutionizing the potential of the string quartet genre when it comes to both style and content. The same type of chamber music ensemble – two violins, a viola and a cello – for which Mozart and Beethoven wrote can also be used to comment on international politics, interpret avant-garde rock and incorporate music from every corner of the world[14]
Recordings
Main article: Kronos Quartet discographyPublished music
- Kronos Collection, Vol. 1. Boosey and Hawkes. 2007.
Films
- 1995 - Musical Outsiders: An American Legacy - Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, and Terry Riley. Directed by Michael Blackwood.
- 2000 - Requiem for a Dream Soundtrack by Clint Mansell featuring Kronos Quartet.
- 2006 - The Fountain Soundtrack by Clint Mansell featuring Kronos Quartet and Mogwai.
- 2009 - 2081. Directed by Chandler Tuttle.
References
- ^ Templeton, David (Mar 2004). "Flight of Fancy: The sky is the limit for ex-Kronos cellist Joan Jeanrenaud". Strings (String Letter Publishing) 18 (7): 122.
- ^ "News and Notes: People". Strings (String Letter Publishing) 14 (4): 18. Nov/Dec 1999.
- ^ McCalla, James (2003). Twentieth-century Chamber Music: Routledge Studies in Musical Genres. Routledge. p. 259. ISBN 9780415966955. http://books.google.com/?id=bA57EoLC9JoC.
- ^ Bruce Ellis, Benson (2003). The improvisation of musical dialogue: a phenomenology of music. Cambridge University Press. p. 189. ISBN 9780521009324. http://books.google.com/?id=qJ1Q7ZeRr5EC.
- ^ Richardson, Derk (Jan 1999). "Portrait of a Quartet: The Kronos reaps the rewards of 25 years of not fitting the mold". Strings (String Letter Publishing) 13 (5): 49–57.
- ^ Silberman, Daryl (Oct 2007). "First Edition: Kronos finally publishes its highly coveted string-quartet arrangements". Strings (String Letter Publishing) 22 (3): 90.
- ^ Greg, Cahill (Jan 2003). "Kronos@30". Strings (String Letter Publishing) 17 (5): 14.
- ^ Sisario, Ben (2003-08-19). "Arts Briefing". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9401E5DE1030F93AA2575BC0A9659C8B63. Retrieved 2009-01-13.
- ^ Martini, Tiffany (June/July 2006). "Sonic Youth: Kronos Quartet gears up for new round of composition contest". Strings (String Letter Publishing) 21 (1): 18.
- ^ "Aviya Kopelman Commissioned Through Kronos: Under 30 Project". MusicalAmerica. 2007-03-15.
- ^ Yaple, Carol. "Four Hundred Candles: The Creation of a Repertoire". Kronos Quartet. http://kronosquartet.org/25th/01.html. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
- ^ Kettle, David (December 2005). "Kronos Quartet/Asha Boshle (singer)". The Strad 116 (1388): 86.
- ^ Mattison, Ben (2002-12-13). "Kronos Quartet Named Musical America's Musicians of the Year for 2003". Andante. http://www.andante.com/article/article.cfm?id=19434&highlight=1&highlightterms=&lstKeywords=. Retrieved 2009-01-12.
- ^ "The Laureates of the Polar Music Prize 2011 are Kronos Quartet & Patti Smith". 2011-05-03. http://www.polarmusicprize.org/2011/05/the-laureates-of-the-polar-music-prize-2011-are/. Retrieved 2011-05-21.
External links
- Kronos Quartet Official website
- Kronos Quartet at Allmusic
- David Harrington of Kronos talks to Karishmeh for OFFBEAT, Dublin City FM. Feature Special on Kronos Quartet
- Interview with founding Kronos member David Harrington
Rolf Schock Prize laureates Logic and philosophy Willard Van Orman Quine (1993) · Michael Dummett (1995) · Dana Scott (1997) · John Rawls (1999) · Saul Kripke (2001) · Solomon Feferman (2003) · Jaakko Hintikka (2005) · Thomas Nagel (2008)Mathematics Elias M. Stein (1993) · Andrew Wiles (1995) · Mikio Sato (1997) · Yuri I. Manin (1999) · Elliott H. Lieb (2001) · Richard P. Stanley (2003) · Luis Caffarelli (2005) · Endre Szemerédi (2008)Musical arts Ingvar Lidholm (1993) · György Ligeti (1995) · Jorma Panula (1997) · Kronos Quartet (1999) · Kaija Saariaho (2001) · Anne Sofie von Otter (2003) · Mauricio Kagel (2005) · Gidon Kremer (2008)Visual arts Rafael Moneo (1993) · Claes Oldenburg (1995) · Torsten Andersson (1997) · Herzog & de Meuron (1999) · Giuseppe Penone (2001) · Susan Rothenberg (2003) · SANAA / Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa (2005) · Mona Hatoum (2008)Laureates of the Polar Music Prize 1992–1999 Paul McCartney / the Baltic states (1992) · Dizzy Gillespie / Witold Lutosławski (1993) · Quincy Jones / Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1994) · Elton John / Mstislav Rostropovich (1995) · Joni Mitchell / Pierre Boulez (1996) · Bruce Springsteen / Eric Ericson (1997) · Ray Charles / Ravi Shankar (1998) · Stevie Wonder / Iannis Xenakis (1999)2000–2009 Bob Dylan / Isaac Stern (2000) · Burt Bacharach / Robert Moog / Karlheinz Stockhausen (2001) · Miriam Makeba / Sofia Gubaidulina (2002) · Keith Jarrett (2003) · B.B. King / György Ligeti (2004) · Gilberto Gil / Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (2005) · Led Zeppelin / Valery Gergiev (2006) · Sonny Rollins / Steve Reich (2007) · Pink Floyd / Renée Fleming (2008) · Peter Gabriel / José Antonio Abreu / El Sistema (2009)2010–present Björk / Ennio Morricone (2010) · Kronos Quartet / Patti Smith (2011)Categories:- Musical groups from California
- Contemporary classical music ensembles
- Grammy Award winners
- Nonesuch Records artists
- Musical groups established in 1973
- Rolf Schock Prize laureates
- American string quartets
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