For nearly 50 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet—David Harrington (violin), Gabriela Díaz (violin), Hank Dutt (viola) and Ayane Kozasa (cello)—has reimagined what the string quartet experience can be. One of the most celebrated and influential groups of our era, Kronos has given thousands of concerts worldwide, released more than 70 recordings, and collaborated with many of the world’s most accomplished composers and performers across many genres. Kronos has received more than 40 awards, including three Grammys and the Polar Music, Avery Fisher, and Edison Klassiek Oeuvre Prizes.
Through its non-profit organization, Kronos Performing Arts Association (KPAA), Kronos has commissioned more than 1,000 works and arrangements for quartet. KPAA also manages Kronos’ concert tours, local performances, recordings, and education programs, and produces an annual Kronos Festival in San Francisco. In its most ambitious commissioning effort to date, KPAA has recently completed 50 for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. Through this initiative, Kronos has commissioned—and distributed online for free—50 new works for string quartet designed for students and emerging professionals, written by composers from around the world.
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PRESS
„Now after 45 years, the Kronos life journey [has become] a relentless endeavor to open up the world’s music for everyone.“
Metro Silicon Valley
„As Ben Jonson said of Shakespeare, [Kronos Quartet is] not of an age but for all time.“
Santa Cruz Sentinel
„The most far-ranging ensemble geographically, nationally and stylistically the world has known.“
Los Angeles Times
PROJECTS 2027/28 – A Selection
Dates upon request
A HARD RAIN
David Harrington, violin / Gabriela Díaz, violin / Ayane Kozasa, viola / Paul Wiancko, cello
On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb exploded – eighty years later, the Grammy-winning Kronos Quartet dedicates the program A Hard Rain to this subject, creating a powerful concert evening that interweaves music, eyewitness accounts, and artistic reflection. The dramaturgy spans a wide arc—from intimate, hushed moments to eruptive sound worlds that make the threat of nuclear destruction palpable. At the same time, A Hard Rain is a celebration of humanity: an evening about hope, resilience, and the power of art to demand responsibility.
Music by Terry Riley, Bob Dylan, Tanya Tagaq, Laurie Anderson, Gabriella Smith, Philip Glass, Hildur Guðnadóttir and Viet Cuong, arrangements of traditionals
Texts from diaries, letters, and speeches by Kiyoshi Tanimoto, Nikita Khrushchev, Sad-dam Hussein, and General Lee Butler
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PAST CONCERTS
14 MAY 2024 Kunstfestspiele Herrenhausen
KRONOS Five Decades
The Kronos Quartet has massively expanded, if not blown up, the boundaries of the string quartet with sound and style experiments, excursions into genres far removed from classical music and multimedia worlds. In the current season, the quartet is celebrating its 50th birthday with an European tour: new commissioned works, characteristic interpretations from its extensive repertoire and pieces from its latest project “Kronos Fifty for the Future” are on the anniversary programme.
Works by Terry Riley, Sun Ra, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Nicole Lizee, Tanya Tagaq
Kronos Quartet © KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen 2024, Helge Krückeberg
„An intense evening ends in a standing ovation.“
Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, 22. Mai 2024
16 May 2023, Pierre Boulez Saal
A THOUSAND THOUGHTS – A Live Documentation with the Kronos Quartet
Sam Green, speaker
20 May 2023, Pierre Boulez Saal
BLACK ANGELS
Works for string quartet by F. Ali-Sade, S. Gubaidulina, M. Gordon, T. Riley & G. Crumb
21 May 2023, Pierre Boulez Saal
Open house day
Works for string quartet by various composers
Kronos Quartet / students of the Barenboim-Said Akademie, Hochschule für Musik „Hanns Eisler“ and Berliner Universität der Künste
The legendary Kronos Quartet was a guest at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin for a week as part of the Quartet Summer. In addition to a concert with groundbreaking string quartet works from the 20th and 21st centuries, the quartet also presented a live musical documentation of its eventful history. The residency was also accompanied by a comprehensive education programme with young string quartets.
“Crumbs Black Angels are part of music history, just like the very lively Kronos Quartet.“
111 Konzertgänger in Berlin, 23 May 2023
