Kronos Quartet
"The Kronos Quartet has broken the boundaries of what string quartets do."
– The New York Times
For 50 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet—David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Paul Wiancko (cello)—has challenged and reimagined what a string quartet can be. Founded at a time when the form was largely centered on long-established, Western European traditions, Kronos has been at the forefront of revolutionizing the string quartet into a living art form that responds to the people and issues of our time.
In the process, Kronos has become one of the most celebrated and influential groups of our era, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 70 recordings of extraordinary breadth and creativity, and collaborating with many of the world’s most accomplished composers and performers. Through its nonprofit organization, Kronos Performing Arts Association (KPAA), Kronos has commissioned more than 1,000 works and arrangements for string quartet—including the recently completed 50 for the Future library of free, educational repertoire. Kronos has received more than 40 awards, including three Grammy Awards and the Polar Music, Avery Fisher, and Edison Klassiek Oeuvre Prizes—among the most prestigious awards given to musicians.
Kronos is prolific and wide-ranging on recordings. The ensemble’s expansive discography on Nonesuch includes three Grammy-winning albums: Terry Riley’s Sun Rings (2019), Landfall with Laurie Anderson (2018), and Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite featuring soprano Dawn Upshaw (2003); collections like the boxed set One Earth, One People, One Love: Kronos Plays Terry Riley (2015); the 40th-anniversary boxed set Kronos Explorer Series and companion single-disc A Thousand Thoughts (both 2014); Nuevo (2002), a Grammy- and Latin Grammy–nominated celebration of Mexican culture; and Pieces of Africa (1992), a showcase of African-born composers that simultaneously topped Billboard’s Classical and World Music charts. Kronos’ recent releases include Mỹ Lai (2022), an opera by Jonathan Berger (music) and Harriet Scott Chessman (libretto) featuring Kronos with Vietnamese multi-instrumentalist Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ and vocalist Rinde Eckert; Long Time Passing: Kronos & Friends Celebrate Pete Seeger (2020) with Sam Amidon, Maria Arnal, Brian Carpenter, Lee Knight, Meklit, and Aoife O’Donovan; and Placeless (2019) with Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat singing original songs composed by Mahsa Vahdat, set to poems by Hafez, Rumi, and others. Music publishers Boosey & Hawkes have released two volumes of Kronos Collection sheet music, featuring works by Terry Riley, Hamza el Din, Aleksandra Vrebalov, and Osvaldo Golijov.
Kronos’ work has featured prominently in a number of films, including A Thousand Thoughts, a unique multimedia piece that blends live music by Kronos and narration by Sam Green with archival footage and filmed interviews to create a “live documentary” that tells the story of Kronos’ expansive career. Written and directed by Green and Joe Bini, the work premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018 and has since toured around the world. Most recently, the quartet performed on the soundtrack for Users (2021) and is both seen and heard in the documentary Zappa (2020). Kronos’ music has been featured in two Academy Award–nominated documentaries: Dirty Wars (2013)—for which Kronos’ David Harrington served as Music Supervisor—and How to Survive a Plague (2012). Kronos has also recorded complete film scores by Jacob Garchik for Guy Maddin’s The Green Fog (2017); Clint Mansell for Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain (2006) and Requiem for a Dream (2000); and Philip Glass for Dracula (1999)—a restored edition of the 1931 Bela Lugosi classic.
The quartet is committed to mentoring emerging performers and composers and has led workshops, master classes, and other education programs with Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute (New York), Kaufman Music Center’s Face the Music (New York), Luna Composition Lab (New York), the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music, among other institutions in the U.S. and abroad. Kronos has undertaken extended educational residencies at institutions such as Oakland School for the Arts, UC Berkeley’s Cal Performances, Holland Festival, The John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, and New York University Abu Dhabi.
Based in San Francisco, the nonprofit KPAA staff manages all aspects of Kronos’ work, including commissioning, concert tours and local performances, recordings, education programs, and an annual self-produced Kronos Festival in San Francisco.
