BBC Radio 4 interview with David Harrington, founder of the Kronos Quartet and librettist Harriet Chessman regarding 'My Lai', the monodrama for tenor, string quartet and Vietnamese instruments, Composed by Jonathan Berger, with libretto by Harriet Chessman. Performed by Rinde Eckhert, Vân-Ánh Võ and the Kronos Quartet.

My Lai - BBC Interview with David Harrington(The Kronos Quartet)and Harriet Chessman

Over the course of a decade, Michael Gordon has collaborated with the world-renowned Kronos Quartet on a series of provocative works that have sought to stretch, bend and otherwise reshape the boundaries of modern classical music. Clouded Yellow assembles these works for the first time, perfectly encapsulating the breadth and complexity of this long-standing creative partnership. 

Clouded Yellow features four pieces: the title track (composed in 2010), Exalted (2010), The Sad Park (2006) and Potassium (2000). The title of the first refers to the clouded yellow butterfly, which is known in England for its mass migrations; the word “clouded” is also meant to describe the blurred harmonies and melodies of the piece. 

Potassium is for amplified string quartet and electronics, with a fuzz box used throughout to lend a mysterious distortion to the sound. The Sad Park is accompanied by recordings of children ages 3 to 4 and their responses to the tragic events of 9/11. Exalted, which also features the Young People’s Chorus of New York City conducted by Francisco Núñez, sets the opening of the Jewish Kaddish in Aramaic, connecting the choral voices of mourning to those of the children in The Sad Park.

Clouded Yellow

Michael Gordon & Kronos Quartet – Clouded Yellow

To celebrate some of the most bizarre animals on the planet (as well as some of the most bizarre musical instruments), Michael Hearst has devised Song For Unusual Creatures. The album consists of instrumental songs inspired by such beastly oddities as the aye-aye, the magnapinna squid, the bobfish, the elephant shrew, the blue-footed booby, and many more. Instruments include daxophone, theremin, claviola, stylophone, tuba, and more. Guest musicians include Kronos Quartet, Margaret Leng Tan, Wade Schuman, and Cecilia Brauer, among others.

www.unusualcreatures.com



WEDDELL SEAL  Featuring the Kronos Quartet.

Inspired by the Kronos Quartet’s performance Music For Change: The Banned Countries, Stanford Live is partnering with the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies to bring together artists and Stanford foreign relations experts to discuss the impacts of the 2017 Executive Orders that limit travel from Muslim-majority countries to the US. How are these orders affecting the institutions that provide much needed cross-cultural exchange and understanding—from higher education to formal diplomacy—and how do we move forward?

Professor Abbas Milani (Director, Iranian Studies) will lead the panel conversation, including Ambassador Michael McFaul (Director, Freeman Spogli Institute), Professor Martha Crenshaw (Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute), and David Harrington (Artistic Director, Kronos Quartet).

Halting Exchange: The Travel Ban's Cultural Effects

You can learn to play this piece. FREE scores and parts, among other materials, are available online: kronosquartet.org/fifty-for-the-future

Composed by Lu Yun
© 2018 Inner Sunset Publishing
℗ 2019 Kronos Performing Arts Association
Commissioned for Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire

Produced by Kronos Quartet and Reshena Liao
Recorded August 2018 at 25th Street Recording, Oakland, CA
Engineered by Zach Miley
Assistant engineer: Gabriel Shepard
Mixed by Zach Miley and David Harrington at Decibelle Recording, San Francisco, CA

Temples in Taiwan - II. Religious Ceremony

Lu Yun - Temples In Taiwan: II. Religious Parade

Kronos Quartet 'Long Time Passing: Kronos Quartet and Friends Celebrate Pete Seeger' available October 9, 2020 on CD, 2xLP, and digital. Pre-order starting 7/29/2020.

On 'Long Time Passing,' the trailblazing Kronos Quartet celebrates the music of Pete Seeger and rejoices in the spirit, inspiration, and fearlessness inherent in his life’s work. Along with guests Sam Amidon, Maria Arnal, Brian Carpenter, Meklit, Lee Knight, and Aoife O’Donovan, the group examines Seeger’s celebration of beauty and the pleasure of singing together. Through the power of these eternally relevant cries for unity and moral integrity, the album articulates the responsibility we have as citizens and members of a greater community to question war and injustice, and to develop the courage to raise our voices together both in word and song.

Kronos Quartet - Where Have All The Flowers Gone? - S. Amidon, B. Carpenter, L. Knight, A. O'Donovan

Kronos Quartet is David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Sunny Yang (cello).

http://kronosquartet.org/

Here you will find our recordings of new work commissioned for Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. Released over five years beginning in 2016, this collection of 50 compositions by 25 men and 25 women from around the world will be devoted to the contemporary approaches to the string quartet and designed expressly for the training of students and emerging professionals. Scores and parts, audio recordings, composer interviews, and many more resources are available for free on our website.

Founded over forty years ago, we are a San Francisco-based 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. For more recordings, please visit http://www.nonesuch.com/artists/kronos-quartet or http://kronosquartet.org/recordings Thank you!