EVENING OF NEW WORKS ON FEBRUARY 11
Program Includes World Premiere of New Work by Rhiannon Giddens
Alongside Additional Music Commissioned for
Carnegie Hall’s 125 Commissions Project and Kronos’s Fifty for the Future Project
Steve Reich’s Triple Quartet Completes Program
 On Saturday, February 11 at 7:30 p.m., San Francisco’s celebrated Kronos Quartet returns to Zankel Hall for a program of new works, six of which were commissioned as part of Carnegie Hall’s 125 Commissions Project, including the world premiere of Rhiannon Giddens’s At the Purchaser’s Option with Variations. Additional commissioned works include Garth Knox’s Satellites; Kala Ramnath’s Amrit (arr. Reena Esmail); Nicole Lizée’s Another Living Soul; Tanya Tagaq’s Sivunittinni (arr. Jacob Garchik); and Fodé Lassana Diabaté’s Sunjata’s Time (arr. Jacob Garchik) on which Diabaté will join the quartet on the balafon.
Kronos also gives the New York premiere of Mark Applebaum’s Darmstadt Kindergarten—an instrumental work that is as visual as it is musical—and a performance of Triple Quartet by composer Steve Reich, holder of Carnegie Hall’s Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair. Reich’s Triple Quartet was commissioned by and is dedicated to Kronos Quartet, who premiered it in 1999 and recorded it in 2001. For Carnegie Hall’s 125 Commissions Project, at least 125 new works will be commissioned and premiered over five seasons (from 2015–2016 through 2019–2020) in celebration of Carnegie Hall’s 125th anniversary. Fifty of these new works, including six on this concert, are also part of Kronos’s project Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. Through Fifty for the Future, Kronos will collaborate with many diverse partners to commission 50 new works—to be performed at Carnegie Hall and many other venues around the world—creating a body of work devoted to contemporary approaches to the string quartet, designed expressly for the training of students and emerging professional. About the Artists Kronos’s adventurous approach dates back to the ensemble’s origins. In 1973, David Harrington was inspired to form Kronos after hearing George Crumb’s Black Angels, a highly unorthodox, Vietnam War–inspired work featuring bowed water glasses, spoken word passages, and electronic effects. Kronos then began building a compellingly diverse repertoire for string quartet, performing and recording works by 20th-century masters (Bartók, Webern, Schnittke), contemporary composers (Sofia Gubaidulina, Bryce Dessner, Aleksandra Vrebalov), jazz legends (Ornette Coleman, Maria Schneider, Thelonious Monk), rock artists (guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, Brazilian electronica artist Amon Tobin, and Icelandic indie-rock group Sigur Rós), and artists who truly defy genre (performance artist Laurie Anderson, composer/sound sculptor/inventor Trimpin, and singer-songwriter/poet Patti Smith). In addition to its role as a performing and recording ensemble, the quartet is committed to mentoring emerging performers and composers and has led workshops, master classes, and other education programs via the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, and other institutions in the U.S. and overseas. Kronos has recently undertaken extended educational residencies at UC Berkeley’s Cal Performances, the Kaufman Music Center’s Face the Music, and many others. 125 Commissions Project and Kronos’s Fifty for the Future As part of the 125 Commissions Project, Kronos Quartet / Kronos Performing Arts Organization continues Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. Collaborating with many diverse partners over five seasons, Kronos will co-commission 50 newworks by 25 men and 25 women devoted to contemporary approaches to the string quartet, designed expressly for the trainingof students and emerging professionals. Composers commissioned to write works for the 2015–2016 season were FranghizAli-Zadeh, Ken Benshoof, Fodé Lassana Diabaté, Rhiannon Giddens, Yotam Haber, Garth Knox, Tanya Tagaq, MerlijnTwaalfhoven, Aleksandra Vrebalov, and Wu Man. Commissions for the 2016–2017 season include works written by LaurieAnderson, Raven Chacon, Guillermo Galindo, Philip Glass, Aleksander Kościów, Nicole Lizée, Anna Meredith, Kala Ramnath,Karin Rehnqvist, and Trey Spruance. Highlights from the 2016–2017 season of the 125 Commissions Project include the world premiere of Pulse by Steve Reich, holder of the 2016–2017 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair, which was performed by ICE and conductor David Robertson; three new works from Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw, featuring pieces for Brooklyn Rider and Anne Sofie von Otter, Ensemble Connect, and yMusic; a new work for solo piano by Jörg Widmann to be performed by pianist Mitsuko Uchida; two works by Nico Muhly, including the world premiere of No Uncertain Terms; a triple concerto by Sofia Gubaidulina for violinist Baiba Skride, cellist Harriet Krijgh, bayan player Elsbeth Moser, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by Music Director Andris Nelsons; two world premieres by Bryce Dessner; a world premiere by Chris Thile for yMusic; a world premiere by James MacMillan for violinist Simone Lamsma and pianist Robert Kulek; and Frederic Rzewski’s Dreams, Part IIfor pianist Igor Levit. Program Information GARTH KNOX Satellites (co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall) Lead support for the 125 Commissions Project is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Public support for the 125 Commissions Project is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding is provided by members of Carnegie Hall’s Composer Club. Steve Reich is the holder of the 2016–2017 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall. Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.
Image at top of release by Chris Lee. |
