Kronos Quartet
Since its founding in 1973, the Kronos Quartet has become the foremost ambassador of contemporary chamber music, determined and successful at breaking down barriers between musical genres and between musicians and audiences. In 2022, with Rinde Eckert and Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ, the Kronos Quartet issued the album Jonathan Berger: Mỹ Lai. As of that year, the quartet had commissioned more than 1,100 works and arrangements, not just for string quartet but also for quartet plus other performers and even other sound sources. In the 2023-2024 season, the Kronos Quartet celebrated its 50th Anniversary with three new albums and two vinyl reissues, and performed in cities throughout North America and Europe.
David Harrington -- the ensemble's founder and first violinist -- was inspired to form the group after hearing George Crumb's Black Angels. By the end of the 1970s, Kronos settled into a tight collaboration between Harrington, violinist John Sherba, violist Hank Dutt, and cellist Joan Jeanrenaud and found a home base in San Francisco, California. Early on, that initial musical inspiration and the audience reception at its performances led Kronos to devote itself entirely to contemporary music and to present its music in a more relaxed environment not normally found at typical chamber music recitals. Kronos' first big album was 1987's White Man Sleeps, and its 1989 recording of Reich's Different Trains won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition. In 1999, Jeanrenaud left the quartet, and Jennifer Culp stepped in as the cellist.
The Kronos Quartet has had a particularly close working relationship with Terry Riley. In 2002, NASA commissioned Riley to write Sun Rings for the group, featuring sounds and images recorded by NASA instruments throughout the solar system. Other long-standing partnerships developed between the Kronos Quartet and composers Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Henryk Górecki, among others. The Kronos' 2002 album Nuevo was nominated for both a Grammy and a Latin Grammy, and the 2003 recording of Berg's Lyric Suite won another Grammy for the ensemble. The group's recordings reflect its broad interests in jazz, world music, young composers, and film. In performance, it is just as catholic in its venues and collaborations, even working with several choreographers and multimedia artists.
Culp left the ensemble in 2005 following the recording of You've Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman's Bollywood and was replaced by Jeffrey Zeigler. Personnel changes aside, the quartet continues to appeal to an eclectic mix of listeners and receives high praise for its championship of unique music. In 2011, just after the release of Uniko, a collaboration with accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen and sampling artist Samuli Kosminen, it was announced that the Kronos Quartet was the recipient of both the Avery Fisher Prize (U.S.) and the Polar Music Prize (Sweden) for its exceptional achievements. Zeigler was succeeded by Sunny Yang in 2013.
Following concerts in New York and London to celebrate Nonesuch's 40th Anniversary with labelmates Oliver Chaney, Rhiannon Giddens, Natalie Merchant, and Sam Amidon, the quartet regrouped with their collaborators to record the album Folk Songs. Released in 2017, the album featured several traditional compositions with contemporary arrangements. The following year saw the release of Landfall, a collaboration with Laurie Anderson inspired by the latter's experience with Hurricane Sandy. After the Nonesuch anniversary, filmmaker Sam Green was asked to make a documentary about the quartet. The result, A Thousand Thoughts (2018), was a live tour event with Kronos performing the music for the film while Green narrated. Kronos won a 2020 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album for Terry Riley's Sun Rings and later that year issued Long Time Passing: Kronos Quartet and Friends Celebrate Pete Seeger on Smithsonian Folkways. The Kronos Quartet returned to that label in 2022 with a recording of Jonathan Berger's Mỹ Lai, performed with vocalist Rinde Eckert and multi-instrumentalist Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ. That year, the Kronos Quartet completed its 50 for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire project, for which it commissioned 50 new works that are provided free of charge to help ensembles develop new skills and techniques.
Marking the group's 50th Anniversary in the 2023-2024 season, the quartet welcomed composer and cellist Paul Wiancko to its ranks (succeeding Yang) and performed many celebratory events, including the release of three albums of new music and vinyl reissues of its Philip Glass and George Crumb: Black Angels albums. In 2024, the quartet announced that Sherba and Dutt would be retiring following the conclusion of its anniversary tour, with violinist Gabriela Díaz and violist Ayane Kozasa joining the quartet to kick out its sixth decade.
© Patsy Morita /TiVo
Artistas semelhantes
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Third Landing: Fishing (Excerpt)
Kronos Quartet, Rinde Eckert, Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ
Classical - Lançado por Smithsonian Folkways Recordings em 21/04/2022
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Kurdish Song (feat. Marjan Vahdat)
Oriental Music - Lançado por Valley Entertainment em 12/01/2024
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CNN Predicts a Monster Storm
Kronos Quartet, Laurie Anderson
Electronic - Lançado por Nonesuch em 06/02/2018
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First Landing: Descent (Excerpt)
Kronos Quartet, Rinde Eckert, Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ
Classical - Lançado por Smithsonian Folkways Recordings em 16/03/2022
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Campaign Songs #1: God Bless America
Kronos Quartet, Michael Gordon
Classical - Lançado por Cantaloupe Music em 24/03/2023
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U.S. Highball
Classical - Lançado por Nonesuch - Warner Records em 19/08/2003
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Outer Spaceways Incorporated - Kronos Quartet & Friends Meet Sun Ra
Electronic - Lançamento no dia 21/06/2024 por Red Hot Organization
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Michael Gordon: Clouded Yellow (David Harrington Remix)
Kronos Quartet, David Harrington
Chamber Music - Lançado por Cantaloupe Music em 21/09/2018
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We Learn to Speak Yet Another Language
Kronos Quartet, Laurie Anderson
Electronic - Lançado por Nonesuch em 04/12/2017
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Which Side Are You on? (feat. Lee Knight)
Pop - Lançado por Smithsonian Folkways Recordings em 26/08/2020
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Daddy's Gonna Tell You No Lie
Red Hot Org, Laraaji, Kronos Quartet, Sun Ra
Electronic - Lançado por Red Hot Organization em 23/04/2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Gloria Coates - Music on Open Strings / String Quartets Nos. 1, 2 & 4 (Remastered)
Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Kronos Quartet
Classical - Lançado por Pro Viva em 31/12/1985
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
One Earth, One People, One Love: Kronos Plays Terry Riley
Classical - Lançado por Nonesuch em 12/06/2015
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Campaign Songs #2: Which Side Are You On?
Kronos Quartet, Michael Gordon
Classical - Lançado por Cantaloupe Music em 28/04/2023
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Our Street Is a Black River
Kronos Quartet, Laurie Anderson
Electronic - Lançado por Nonesuch em 19/01/2018
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Howl, U.S.A.
Classical - Lançado por Nonesuch - Warner Records em 21/05/1996
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Kronos, F. Schubert & Wilanow Quartets
Kronos Quartet, Franz Schubert Quartet, Wilanow String Quartet
Classical - Lançado por Pro Viva em 31/12/1994
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo