Kronos: Listen Local - Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

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Kronos: Listen Local at YBCA, February 21-22, 2013exclusive San Francisco home for concerts and experimentation for three seasons. Kronos andYBCA have co-produced performance programs each season, and have co-commissionedthree new works so far. In the 2010–2011 season, Kronos presented the program Black Angels,which included the world premiere of Sahba Aminikia’s String Quartet no. 3, A Threnody forThose Who Remain, commissioned for Kronos through this partnership. This was followed by AChinese Home with guest performer Wu Man. In addition to Women’s Voices, featuring guestvocalist Tanya Tagaq and the world premiere of the newest commission, Vân-Ánh VanessaVõ’s All Clear, Kronos also performed another commission in YBCA’s 2011–2012 season,Fragile with Eiko & Koma."Kronos has been thrilled with the three-year partnership with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.We are inspired by the Center's programs and artistic vision, and we feel a great synergy in ourmutual commitment to the creation and performance of new work. We’ve been excited by theopportunity to deepen our relationship with YBCA and its audiences. Kronos has always lovedperforming at YBCA, and have enjoyed planning very special programs and performances inour hometown." — David Harrington, Artistic Director, Kronos Quartet.“The Kronos Quartet is one of the world’s leading string quartets, pushing the boundaries ofcontemporary music and constantly reinventing themselves through their explorations withartistic partners. YBCA has been honored to partner with the Kronos Quartet—an organizationthat shares our vision and commitment to innovation—which delights music fans with new worksand experimentations and will for several years to come.” — Kenneth J. Foster, ExecutiveDirector, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.About Kronos QuartetFor nearly 40 years, San Francisco's Kronos Quartet—David Harrington, John Sherba (violins),Hank Dutt (viola), and Jeffrey Zeigler (cello)—has pursued a singular artistic vision, combining aspirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to expanding the range and context of the stringquartet. In the process, the Grammy-winning Kronos has become one of the most celebratedand influential ensembles of our time, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasingmore than 45 recordings of extraordinary breadth and creativity, collaborating with many of theworld’s most eclectic composers and performers, and commissioning more than 750 new worksand arrangements for string quartet. In 2011, Kronos became the only recipients of both thePolar Music Prize and the Avery Fisher Prize, two of the most prestigious awards given tomusicians.Since 1973, Kronos has built a compellingly eclectic repertoire for string quartet, performing andrecording works by 20th-century masters (Bartók, Shostakovich, Webern), contemporarycomposers (Aleksandra Vrebalov, John Adams, Alfred Schnittke), jazz legends (OrnetteColeman, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk), and artists from even farther afield (rock guitarlegend Jimi Hendrix, Azeri vocalist Alim Qasimov, interdisciplinary composer/performer MeredithMonk).Integral to Kronos' work is a series of long-running, in-depth collaborations with many of theworld's foremost composers. Kronos has worked extensively with composers such as "Father ofMinimalism" Terry Riley, whose work with Kronos includes Salome Dances for Peace, themultimedia production Sun Rings, and 2005's The Cusp of Magic; Philip Glass, recording hisstring quartets and scores to films like Mishima and Dracula; Azerbaijan’s Franghiz Ali-Zadeh,featured on the 2005 release Mugam Sayagi: Music of Franghiz Ali-Zadeh; Steve Reich, whoseKronos-recorded Different Trains earned the composer a Grammy; Argentina's Osvaldo Golijov,whose work with Kronos includes both compositions and extensive arrangements for albumslike Kronos Caravan and Nuevo; and many more.
Kronos: Listen Local at YBCA, February 21-22, 2013In addition to composers, Kronos counts numerous artists from around the world among itsregular collaborators, including Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man; the legendary Bollywood"playback singer" Asha Bhosle; Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq; Mexican rockers Café Tacuba;the Romanian gypsy band Taraf de Haïdouks; and the renowned American soprano DawnUpshaw. Kronos has performed live with the likes of icons Allen Ginsberg, Zakir Hussain,Modern Jazz Quartet, Noam Chomsky, Rokia Traoré, Tom Waits, Howard Zinn, Betty Carter,and David Bowie, and has appeared on recordings by such diverse talents as Nine Inch Nails,Amon Tobin, Dan Zanes, DJ Spooky, Dave Matthews, Nelly Furtado, Joan Armatrading, andDon Walser.A non-profit organization, the Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association is committedto mentoring emerging musicians and composers, and to creating, performing, and recordingnew works. The quartet spends five months of each year on tour, appearing in concert halls,clubs, and festivals around the world including BAM Next Wave Festival, Carnegie Hall, theBarbican in London, WOMAD, UCLA's Royce Hall, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, ShanghaiConcert Hall, and the Sydney Opera House. Kronos is equally prolific and wide-ranging onrecordings. The ensemble's expansive discography on Nonesuch Records includes collectionssuch as Pieces of Africa (1992), a showcase of African-born composers, which simultaneouslytopped Billboard's Classical and World Music lists; 1998's ten-disc anthology, Kronos Quartet:25 Years; Nuevo (2002), a Grammy- and Latin Grammy-nominated celebration of Mexicanculture; the 2003 Grammy-winner, Alban Berg's Lyric Suite; and Floodplain (2009), spotlightingmusic from regions of the world riven by conflict. www.kronosquartet.orgAbout Yerba Buena Center for the ArtsYerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), located in San Francisco's Yerba Buena culturaldistrict, is one of the nation's leading multidisciplinary contemporary arts centers. With a beliefthat contemporary art is at the heart of community life, YBCA brings audiences and artists of allbackgrounds together to express and experience creativity. The organization is known fornurturing emerging artists at the forefront of their fields and presenting works that blend artforms and explore the events and ideas of our time. As part of its commitment to the SanFrancisco Bay Area, YBCA supports the local arts community and reflects the region's diversityof people and thought through its arts and public programming.YBCA programs around four Big Ideas to organize its wide-ranging programs and provide acontext with which to engage the art. The Big Ideas are: ENCOUNTER: Engaging the socialcontext; SOAR: The search for meaning; REFLECT: Considering the personal; and DARE:Innovations in art, action, audience. These ideas, which encompass art from all disciplines, aredesigned to focus an investigation of contemporary art and its relationship to the largerworld. Using the Big Ideas as portals, YBCA has established a framework of thought that invitesexploration and risk-taking, quiet reflection and active engagement.Performing arts, visual arts and film/video programs are curated thematically around Big Ideaswhich illustrate the connections and associations between the works. Public programs and BigIdea Nights, YBCA's popular free open house series, are dedicated to establishing a deeperunderstanding and appreciation of contemporary art. YBCA presents programming year-roundin the Forum, Screening Room, Galleries and the Lam Research Theater (formerly the NovellusTheater). For tickets and information, call 415.978.ARTS (2787) or visit www.ybca.org.Kronos: Listen Local Program:Dan Becker/Carrying the Past – West Coast premiereNathaniel Stookey/String Quartet No. 3, The Mezzanine – World premiereRahul Dev Burman (arr. Stephen Prustman/Kronos)/Mehbooba Mehbooba (Beloved, OBeloved)
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Kronos: Listen Local - Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

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