< Alternative Radio

Kronos Quartet invites radio host David Barsamian to join them for a special stage version of his program, Alternative Radio, giving new voice to issues and insights neglected by mainstream media. Kronos provides the prism for a thrilling musical experience which explores contemporary international culture – in such contexts as politics, economics and environmentalism – by interweaving discussions with scholars and other guests, led by Barsamian.

“I’ve always resisted the idea of the string quartet as an art form that exists for Sunday afternoon soirées. I feel emboldened and empowered and enabled to make programs of our music that, in their own way, examine things in our society. While making concerts that are still incredibly gripping and fun and richly textured, I am looking for a community of people who are able to make statements about what we’re all a part of."

—David Harrington, Kronos Quartet

< Sun Rings

Music by Terry Riley, sounds from space, visual design by Willie Williams, commissioned by NASA.

Multi-media, evening length

"Thought-provoking, ear-opening and just plain beautiful….Surrounded by an array of twinkling lights, with an ever-changing display on the video screen, Kronos carved an expert path through Riley’s wide-ranging score—from tango and pop to serene chord clusters."

—Melinda Bargreen, Seattle Times

"Stunning visual information put together by Willie Williams, visual designer for U2 and Bowie….the result is an overwhelming multimedia epic of a show."

—Peter Culshaw, Daily Telegraph (UK)

" A masterpiece. Riley’s music is many kinds of gorgeous—the enchanting tripping of his folk-dance stuff and a melodic manner rich, lyrical and breath-stopping I haven’t heard before."

—Alan Rich, LA Weekly

"Dr. Donald Gurnett, a NASA physicist who has spent his 40-year career recording amazing sounds from the cosmos, contributed the raw heart of the piece. The impact of these recordings on Riley, one of America’s most resourceful and prolific composers, was galvanic and inspiring…..Sun Rings emerges as a suite of 10 hauntingly powerful “spacescapes” composed to join together Dr. Gurnett’s sounds with the string quartet for a distinctive weaving of live performance and recorded space emanations."

—Barbara Rose Shuler, The Herald (Monterey)

"Space. Not only is there something out there, but Donald Gurnett recorded it, Terry Riley set it to music, and the Kronos Quartet performs it in a stage and sound show created by Willie Williams."

—John Kenyon, The Gazette
(Iowa City)

"There is a particular sort of refined humanity to the sound made by a string quartet, and Riley's setting of the Kronos Quartet inside this cathedral of otherworldly whooshes and clangs was inspired."

—James Parker, Boston Globe

"Think of Terry Riley's Sun Rings as a spaceship that faces ahead into the planets but also looks back toward its starting point on Earth. …You are awe-struck by the shrieks, roars and sibilant explosions that Mr. Riley and his sound designer, Mark Grey, have collected and organized from the NASA recordings, while whirling images of Earth and Mars and the volatile close-ups of the Sun are both frightening and fascinating."

—Bernard Holland, The New York Times

"If any composer could make an effective multi-media musical jamboree out of sounds taped directly from the vastness of outer space, it is Terry Riley. Part shaman, part guru, part pre-minimalist, Riley's palate is repetitive, ethereal, tonal, and spiritually driven, perfect for meditation on the infinite."

—Daniel Felsenfeld, Musical America

< Visual Music

“The Kronos players are masters of multimedia…."

—Allan Kozinn, The New York Times

"… the Kronos Quartet's 'Visual Music' program… was uncomplicated, direct, heart-on-sleeve. Three of the 10 works played consecutively asserted an antiwar, world-peace message, and fourth—through pure music—rose to the fervor of an anthem."

—Chris Pasles, Los Angeles Times

"A concert by the Kronos Quartet is always an involving experience, but even longtime fans had to be amazed by the enveloping sensory input of the legendary string ensemble's latest venture, 'Visual Music.' … [A] dazzling 90-minute performance incorporating video, lighting, pre-recorded sound and musical 'sculpture'—all integrated with the same seamless brilliance audiences have come to expect from these estimable musicians."

—Georgia Rowe, Contra Costa Times

" The concert folded 10 diverse pieces into a seamless 90-minute multimedia production…. [The] precise staging, the committed playing and true integration of aural and visual elements left a lasting impression.…the concert bristled with adventure and relevance."

—Mark Styker, Detroit Free Press

" For sheer visual ingenuity, ['Visual Music'] could hardly have been bettered. Each of ten pieces of was presented in a different scenic context, all of them very high-tech.
This was the Kronos doing what they do best: mixing up genres and arriving at something new and entrancing.”

—Richard Morrison, The Times (UK)

" For years there has been talk about the disappearance of boundaries between art disciplines and look: the Kronos Quartet bombards the interaction between sound and image as the subject of this performance."

—Saskia Törnqvist, Het Parool

" The musical program is like a 'best of' for Kronos: Reich, Nancarrow, Riley, or Penderecki. But the music designers…Mark Grey and his team, outdid themselves by playing a screen in four panels on top of which they added the filmic projections."

—Jacques Doucelin, Le Figaro

" After 30 years they continue to place their abilities and pass at the service of the newest of new music. 'Visual Music' is an engaging testament to their achievement."

—Paul Hopwood, The Australian