World-Renowned Kronos Quartet Set to Premiere Latest Work at RISD

World-Renowned Kronos Quartet Set to Premiere Latest Work at RISD

The world-renowned Kronos Quartet and the Community MusicWorks Players will perform "A Voice Exclaiming," a piece commissioned by Community MusicWorks and FirstWorks, from Emmy-nominated composer Kareem Roustom, on Friday, November 8 at 8 p.m. at the RISD Auditorium in Providence. Click here for ticket information.

Artist Up-Close

In addition to performing on Friday, the Kronos Quartet will participate in a discussion to be held on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. at Alumnae Hall, Brown University Alumnae Auditorium. Moderated by conductor/composer Paul Phillips, Director of Orchestras and Chamber Music at Brown University, the discussion will include the inspiration that led to forming Kronos, the process of working with composers (young, established, ethnic), working with musicians from other cultures (India, Mali, China, Iraq, Serbia), developing performance techniques using technology and driving the innovation of music technology. Click here to pre-register for the event.

A Voice Exclaiming

According to composer Kareem Roustom, the inspiration behind "A Voice Exclaiming" comes from a poem written by Omar Al-Khayaam, a celebrated 12th century Persian poet.

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

"Al-Khayaam’s deeply contemplative poem opens with language that urges the reader to wake up and actively seize the moment before life passes by. The voice in the text can perhaps be associated with the divine, but it could also be a calling to seek in life something greater than the mundane, deep sleep being a metaphor for blind acceptance or willful ignorance of greater things. However one chooses to interpret the text, it says to me that this is an urgent call and one that must be heeded. This is the inspiration that I sought to bring to this work – the rejection of ignorance and the mundane, and the passionate seeking out of deeper meaning," said Roustom.

Kronos Quartet

For 40 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet—David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Sunny Yang (cello)—has combined a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to continually re-imagining the string quartet experience. In the process, Kronos has become one of the world’s most celebrated and influential ensembles, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 50 recordings, collaborating with many of the world’s most eclectic composers and performers, and commissioning more than 800 works and arrangements for string quartet.

A Grammy winner, Kronos is also the only recipient of both the Polar Music Prize and the Avery Fisher Prize. With a staff of ten, the non-profit Kronos Performing Arts Association (KPAA) manages all aspects of Kronos’ work, including the commissioning of new works, concert tours and home-season performances, and education programs.