KRONOS PRESENTS - Kronos Quartet

KRONOS PRESENTS
SFJAZZ CENTER
FRIDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY
JUNE 26, 27 & 28, 2015
KRONOS QUARTET
David Harrington, violin
John Sherba, violin
Hank Dutt, viola
Sunny Yang, cello
1
“I hear quartets in your music.”
David Harrington, the founder of Kronos, made this comment
during one of our conversations in the hallway at Mills College
in Oakland, California. It was 1979 and this was the phrase that
“shoved the Riley/Kronos boat in the water.” We have more or
less sailed through the decades together searching for quartets
in my music.
Happily the quartets he was “hearing” have generously
manifested at regular intervals over the years, many of them
landing in this festival.
Each of our projects together was launched by
conversations with both David and I “riffing” on ideas. I always
came away from these planning sessions feeling exhilarated,
and these energies would soon get my pen
moving toward a melody or a rhythmic
pattern – or, in the case of Salome Dances
for Peace, a five-quartet cycle. David has
this gift, a unique catalytic effect on so
many collaborators. Because of this gift,
we have this astounding body of work
created for Kronos over the past four
decades.
My own contributions to their
repertoire began with G Song and Sunrise of
the Planetary Dream Collector in 1980, shortly
after meeting the quartet. This was my
re-entry into the world of putting those
little black dots down on paper; making
little blueprints to launch our mutual
adventure together.
For years I had put my performing
and compositional energies into latenight and all-night concerts, playing
electric organs modified to tunings in just intonation. Long
durational forms that evolved like journeys with subtle
doorways between events became a dominant passion. My
performances, even though I had not yet formally studied
Indian classical music, took on the spirit of that ancient music.
Then good fortune brought the perfect teacher into my life,
Pandit Pran Nath. I immersed myself in his teachings and the
tradition while continuing to perform my own work. During
that time I made several trips to India to study. He generously
took me on as a disciple and opened up many hidden doors to
the mastery of North Indian classical music. He taught me to
sing. With the voice as an instrument, I was opened up to the
most deeply intimate of musical experiences and gained many
insights into the nature of sound. The Ragas became soul food
for my solo organ concerts and guided my playing in a way
that led to exciting spiritual and technical pathways. The long
sustained moods that are the foundation of Raga exposition
were propelled in my keyboard performance and allowed
me access to unique waves of pattern formation and melodic
evolution.
At David’s suggestion, I took up the challenge to “write
down” my ideas. I needed to transition to music in written time;
not the real time I was used to as an improvising piano player
or singer. Improvisation is all about being in the moment and
2
making split decisions consciously or unconsciously. Decisions
that are tuned by the driving momentum of the imagination
and its thoughts and feelings as it makes its way in real time.
When one is “constructing,” there is time to observe the flow
of time more slowly and to consider many options and to make
decisions based on the myriad “forks in the road” that might
present themselves. One can also become fascinated by the
visual geometries that appear on the page that might suggest
ideas not solely arrived at by the ears’ guidance.
The first music I wrote for Kronos and our first rehearsals
of these pieces was a new experience for all of us. I was
thrilled to have young collaborators eager to dig in and mine
possibilities out of these pages, whose
indications contained no dynamics or
phrasings or other diacritical markings.
Magically we had hit on a great way of
working together and the end result
was something none of us could have
accomplished in another way. The
quartet examined the music I was
writing under a microscope and found
nuances deep in the layers that always
surprised and delighted me. Kronos
immediately picked up on the purity of
the intonation I wanted. When I brought
to our rehearsals the study of precisely
tuned musical intervals gained in my
training with Pandit Pran Nath as well
as those from my apprenticeship with La
Monte Young’s Theater of Eternal Music,
Kronos took the time to internalize
these new sounds. A good example of
their tenacity was the week we spent together in Snowbird,
Utah, working on only long tones comprising the intervallic
relationships of the “Rosary tuning” designed for the Crow’s
Rosary quintet.
I have learned many things working with Kronos. In the
countless hours I have sat listening to them rehearse I have
witnessed a kind of musical archeology. The musicians holding
each note; turning it around as if in the palm of the hand and
viewing it from different angles; brushing it off; cleaning and
polishing until musical passages gleam with a greater intensity
and life force. It is this burning desire for a perfect musical
understanding, be it grungy or sublime, that electrifies the
quartet’s playing.
I speak from long experience when I say that they really
understand the music they play. They internalize it. They
claim it for their own with love and passion. So to Kronos, I
put my hands together in a deep bow of gratitude. This music
lives through your artistry. And another grateful bow to the
wonderful Janet Cowperthwaite who has guided every single
one of the Kronos/Riley projects with consummate skill.
And isn’t it true that music can never be whole unless
the full devotion of all those involved in its processes return it
freely as an offering back to its mysterious origins?
—T ER RY R I L E Y
at SFJAZZ Center
Friday, Saturday & Sunday
June 26, 27 & 28, 2015
KRONOS QUARTET
David Harrington, violin
John Sherba, violin
Hank Dutt, viola
Sunny Yang, cello
Brian H. Scott, Lighting Designer
Scott Fraser, Sound Designer
Brian Mohr, Audio Engineer
KRONOS PRESENTS is a new initiative showcasing Kronos’ commissioned
works, artistic projects and far ranging musical collaborations through an annual
festival, education and community activities and other events. KRONOS
PRESENTS is a program of the Kronos Performing Arts Association.
KRONOS PRESENTS: Terry Riley Festival is made possible by generous
support from Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, the Clarence E.
Heller Charitable Foundation, and the Board of Directors of the Kronos Performing
Arts Association. Additional support provided by The William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation and the Bernard Osher Foundation.
3
I first met Terry Riley
when he stopped by our rehearsal at Mills College in the spring of 1978. We
were working on Ken Benshoof’s Traveling Music, the first piece ever written
for Kronos. After a very warm and friendly greeting, Terry asked me who
the composer was, saying he really liked that music. It turned out Terry and
Ken had attended San Francisco State in the 1950s and had been in the same
composition class. Terry had not heard a note of Ken’s music since then. So
began our conversation about music and life. Immediately I felt that Terry
Riley had to write for Kronos: our world of music would be more beautifully
interesting and complete if this man with the immensely friendly face,
generous words and kind bearing, the composer of In C and A Rainbow in Curved
Air, would add some of these qualities to the work of Kronos.
Terry probably had no idea how insistent and tenacious I would be
now armed with his phone number. He also probably had no idea that when
meeting him I kept being reminded of Joseph Haydn, the Viennese composer
who first began writing string quartets around 1750. I’d read about Haydn
when I was young, about his geniality, the way his string quartets were a
center of his creativity. I grew up playing his music and at a certain point as
a teenager realized that my true instrument was not the violin but the string
quartet. Feeling this strong connection to the “founder” of the string quartet
form when first meeting Terry Riley, I truly had no choice but to try to bend
events in the direction of there being a relationship between Terry and Kronos.
Since then things have always seemed most right to me when Terry is writing a
new piece for us.
When I step back and think of the fantastic music Terry has written for
Kronos, the amazing rehearsals we’ve had together, how he has expanded
our knowledge of musical things and poured his sensibilities, questions and
revelations into our work, I am immensely grateful for all we have shared. I
remember the instant when Kronos’ sound changed into something I’d never
heard before. We were playing The Wheel and all of a sudden we all believed
in a sound Terry was encouraging us to discover that was vibrato-less and at
the same time infinitely expressive. I recall our work sessions on his joyous
interlocking group rhythms and how he patiently and always has tried to help
us find the calm center of the beat. This is a lifetime sort of task.
There is no other composer who has added so many new musical words
to our vocabulary, words from so many corners of the musical world. Terry
introduced Kronos to Pandit Pran Nath, Zakir Hussain, Bruce Connor, La
Monte Young, Anna Halprin, Hamza El Din, Jon Hassell, Gil Evans and to his
beautiful family: Ann, Colleen, Shahn and Gyan. I have never once heard him
say an unkind word about another musician. In a crazed world laced with
violence and destruction he has consistently been a force for peace. Through
his gentle leadership a path forward has emerged. Terry sets the standard
for what it means to be a musician in our time. He is a true pioneering iconic
Californian who continually transforms himself as his muse dictates. How
wonderful it is to be alive on this planet at the same time as Terry Riley.
—DAV I D H A R R I NG T ON
4
FRIDAY, JUNE 26
7:30 PM
Happy 80th Birthday Terry!
W I T H Z A K IR H USS A IN, W U M A N A ND O T HER S
MINER AUDI T OR IUM
Terry Riley / The Cusp of Magic (first movement) *
with special guest Wu Man, pipa
Taal In T
Solo by Zakir Hussain, tabla and tuned percussion
Terry Riley / One Earth, One People, One Love from Sun Rings *
Aleksander Kościów / Oberek for Terry Riley * World premiere
Pete Townshend (arr. Jacob Garchik) / Baba O’Riley + World premiere
Yoko Ono / To Match the Sky World premiere
Birthday Performance Piece to Terry Riley
Terry Riley / Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector *
with special guest Zakir Hussain
Performed without intermission
* W R I T T EN F OR K RONO S
+ A R R A NGED F OR K RONO S
5
SATURDAY, JUNE 27
4:00 – 4:45 PM
Terry Riley and David Harrington in Conversation
JOE HENDER SON L A B
Join Terry Riley and David Harrington as they discuss three and a half decades of
work together, resulting in more than two dozen pieces for Kronos.
5:00 - 5:45 PM
ZOFO Plays Terry Riley
JOE HENDER SON L A B
Terry Riley / Etude from the Old Country from Heaven Ladder, Book 5
commissioned by Sarah Cahill
Terry Riley (arr. Keisuke Nakagoshi) / Half Wolf Dances Mad in Moonlight *
Terry Riley (arr. Keisuke Nakagoshi) / G Song *
Terry Riley / Praying Mantis Rag World Premiere
commissioned by ZOFO
ZOFO
Keisuke Nakagoshi, piano
Eva-Maria Zimmermann, piano
* OR IGI N A L V ER SIONS W R I T T EN F OR K RONO S
6
7:30 PM
Kronos, Terry & Friends
W I T H SPEC I A L GUEST T ER RY R IL E Y
A N D DR EW C A MERON, T HE L I V ING E A RT H SHOW,
MIC H A EL Mc C LU R E, K A L A R A MNAT H, GYA N R IL E Y A ND VOLT I
MINER AUDI T OR IUM
Terry Riley / Salome Dances for Peace: III. The Gift (excerpts) *
with special guest Drew Cameron
Terry Riley / Earth Whistlers from Sun Rings *
with special guest Volti
Yuhi Aizawa Combatti, Shauna Fallihee, section leaders; Lauren Eigenbrode, Farah Kidwai,
Sharmila G. Lash, Kate Offer, Diana Pray, Alexandra Sessler, Colby Smith, Christa Tumlinson
“Minutes” for Terry * World premiere
Jherek Bischoff / Vitality
Caleb Burhans / Where the Wind Blows
Joan Jeanrenaud / 1/86,400 of a mean solar day Maggi Payne / Shimmering
Greg Saunier / Low Res Life Twinkle in Forced Perspective Aleksandra Vrebalov / Cosmic Love
Hamza El Din (realized by Tohru Ueda) / Escalay (Water Wheel) *
Terry Riley
(Reimagined and reinterpreted by The Living Earth Show, Dan Becker, Danny Clay)
A Rainbow in Curved Air + World premiere
with special guest The Living Earth Show
Travis Andrews, guitar and Andy Meyerson, percussion
INTERMISSION
Terry Riley and Michael McClure / I Like Your Eyes, Liberty
Performed by Terry Riley and Michael McClure
Terry Riley / Turning
Performed by Terry Riley, keyboards, Gyan Riley, guitar
and Kala Ramnath, violin
Terry Riley / Crazy World * West Coast premiere
with special guests Terry Riley, voice and Gyan Riley, guitar
Gyan Riley / the first pancake * World premiere
1. Butter ’n’ Syrup
2. Funky Texture and the Floury Lumps
3. Full Stack of Injera: The Savory Shuffle
with special guests Terry Riley, keyboards and Gyan Riley, guitar
* W R I T T EN F OR K RONO S
+ A R R A NGED F OR K RONO S
7
SUNDAY, JUNE 28
7:00 PM
Salome Dances for Peace
MINER AUDI T OR IUM
Terry Riley / Salome Dances for Peace *
I. Anthem of the Great Spirit
The Summons
Peace Dance
Fanfare in the Minimal Kingdom
Ceremonial Night Race
At the Ancient Aztec Corn Races Salome Meets Wild Talker
More Ceremonial Races
Oldtimers at the Races
Half Wolf Dances Mad in Moonlight
II. Conquest of the War Demons
Way of the Warrior
Salome and Half Wolf Descend Through the Gates to the Underworld
Breakthrough to the Realm of the War Demons
Combat Dance
Victory: Salome Re-enacts for Half Wolf Her Deeds of Valor
Discovery of Peace
The Underworld Arising
INTERMISSION
III. The Gift
Echoes of Primordial Time
Mongolian Winds
IV. The Ecstasy
Processional
Seduction of the Bear Father
The Gathering
At the Summit
Recessional
V. Good Medicine
Good Medicine Dance
Kronos dedicates this performance of Salome Dances for Peace to the memory of Judithe Bizot.
* W R I T T EN F OR K RONO S
8
9
Program Notes for FRIDAY, JUNE 26
Terry Riley (b. 1935)
The Cusp of Magic: Movement I
(2004)
The Cusp of Magic significantly fills the picture that my
collaboration with Kronos has been portraying since 1980. My
compositions for Kronos are the most important of my notated
works, each one staking out a different mood and musical
structure and setting up new challenges for both composer and
performer. In this work, the different timbre and resonance of
the Chinese pipa and the western string ensemble highlight the
crossover regions of cultural reference, so that Western musical
themes might be projected with an Eastern accent and viceversa. My plan was to make these regions seamless so that the
listener is carried between worlds without an awareness of how
he/she ends up there.
The work is in six movements: ‘The Cusp of Magic,’
‘Buddha’s Bedroom,’ ‘The Nursery,’ ‘Royal Wedding,’ ‘Emily
and Alice’ and ‘Prayer Circle.’ [The first movement will be
performed tonight.] ‘The Cusp of Magic’ movement is based on
a cycle of 108 beats (considered in India to be a sacred number
and one on which prayer beads called malas are based). It is
subdivided 9–7–6–5–4–3–2–3–4–5–6–6–5–4–3–2–3–4–5–6–7–9
with contrasting sections based on a cycle of 2 x (12 x 4 + 6) that
also results in 108 beat cycle organization. With this complex
rhythm, the first violin assumes the role of percussionist/
timekeeper, creating the rhythmic pulse with a peyote rattle or
shaker and bass drum. This also gives the piece the ritualistic
atmosphere that its title implies.
The Cusp of Magic is dedicated to Gary Goldschneider, whose
book The Secret Language of Relationships provided the title of this
piece. Goldschneider has given the imaginative name ‘the Cusp
of Magic’ to the Zodiac position 27 degrees Gemini and 4 degrees
Cancer taking place in the period June 19 – 24, which happens to
include the day I was born.
—T ER RY R I L E Y
Terry Riley
One Earth, One People, One Love
from Sun Rings (2002)
In Sun Rings, the wonders of technology meet the expansive and
compassionate imagination of composer Terry Riley, bringing
the music of the spheres to life. The composition includes
sounds harvested from our solar system—the crackling of solar
winds, the whistling of deep-space lightning, and other cosmic
events—which create auditory landscapes. This interplanetary
musical story unfolds in a visual environment of imagery
gathered by NASA spacecraft and prepared for the project by
Kronos in collaboration with visual designer Willie Williams.
On his approach to bringing together the music of Kronos
and the sounds of outer space, Riley notes, “The ten ‘spacescapes’
that comprise Sun Rings…were written as separate musical
atmospheres, with the intention to let the sounds of space
influence the string quartet writing and then to let there be an
interplay between live ‘string’ and recorded ‘space’ sound.”
10
The project was nearly derailed by the tragic events of
September 11, 2001, after which all parties concerned questioned
Sun Rings’ relevance in the wake of the terrorist attacks and
impending war. But then, a new and vital link emerged: as the
L.A. Times put it: “Riley heard poet and novelist Alice Walker
on the radio talking about how she had made up a September 11
mantra—‘One Earth, One People, One Love.’ It occurred to him
that contemplating outer space could be a way to put the problems
on Earth into perspective.” Walker’s mantra not only gave Riley
the inspiration to continue; it also provided a title and focal
point for Sun Rings’ concluding movement, the excerpt performed
by Kronos in the present program. (The fifth movement, ‘Earth
Whistlers,’ will be performed on Saturday night.)
As Riley describes his fully-realized, post-September 11
conception of Sun Rings: “This work is largely about humans as
they reach out from Earth to gain an awareness of their solar
system neighborhood…. Do the stars welcome us into their
realms? I think so or we would not have made it this far. Do they
wish us to come in Peace? I am sure of it. If only we will let the
stars mirror back to us the big picture of the Universe and the
tiny precious speck of it we inhabit that we call Earth, maybe we
will be given the humility and insight to love and appreciate all
life and living forms wherever our journeys take us.”
—M AT T H E W C A M PBEL L
Aleksander Kościów (b. 1974)
Oberek for Terry Riley (2015)
Aleksander Kościów was born in Opole, Poland, and graduated
from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw
in composition in 1998. Since 2008 he has been a teaching
employee at the Academy of Music’s Department of Composition,
Conducting and Music Theory. In 2005 he received a Fulbright
scholarship (2005). His pieces have been performed at music
festivals, concerts and events throughout Europe, in Japan and
South Korea, and in the U.S.
Oberek for Terry Riley was written for the Kronos Quartet
as a musical gift to celebrate Terry Riley’s 80th birthday.
Its inspiration comes from one of the most characteristic
Polish dances, the oberek, known for its endless trance-like
repetitiveness and vigorous circle-shaped motion—features
which appear here as a tribute to Riley, who has made both
repetitiveness and reduced material one of the most prominent
and productive mechanisms in contemporary musical
language. The need for pure joy is a human natural expression,
taking shape in dance and music—a simple truth known by
everyone—and this is what the piece hopes to serve for such a
great occasion.
—A L EK S A N DER KO Ś C IÓW
Pete Townshend (b. 1945)
Baba O’Riley (1971)
A R R A NGED BY JAC OB G A RC H I K
Pete Townshend, The Who’s guitarist and principal songwriter,
was born into a musical family in Chiswick, West London. He
graduated from Ealing Art College, where he broadened his
mind on a diet of radical performance art and American blues
music. As guitarist and composer for the influential band, he
became the driving force behind one of the most powerful,
inventive bodies of work in rock music. Townshend has run his
own book publishing company and worked as an editor at the
literary house of Faber & Faber, which in 1985 published Horse’s
Neck, a collection of his short stories. He published his memoir
Who I Am and is currently working on Floss, an ambitious new
music project.
Baba O’Riley (also known as Teenage Wasteland) was recorded
by The Who for the 1971 album Who’s Next. The title is inspired by
Meher Baba, the Indian spiritual master, and Terry Riley, whose
A Rainbow in Curved Air was a great influence on Townshend.
Yoko Ono (b. 1933)
To Match the Sky (2015)
To Match The Sky
Birthday Performance Piece To Terry Riley
Make a sound with your instrument
that would match the sound
the sky is making at the time.
1) Sky with clouds floating
2) Raining
3) Snow falling
4) Thunder and lightening
You may decide the duration.
yoko ono, june 2015
Yoko Ono is a multi-media artist who constantly challenges
the traditional boundaries of sculpture, painting, theatre and
music. Ono’s groundbreaking conceptual and performance
pieces in the late 1950s and early 1960s, experimental films,
solo music, and music done in association with John Cage
and Ornette Coleman, among others; and then a remarkable
collaboration with John Lennon from the time they met
until his death, and international one-woman shows and
retrospectives from the 1980s to the present day, illustrate
her varied career. In this new millennium, Yoko’s creative
influence and prolific artistic output continues to inspire new
generations.
Reflecting on her reputation for being outrageous, Yoko
smiles and says, “I do have to rely on my own judgment,
although to some people my judgment seems a little out of sync.
I have my own rhythm and my own timing, and that’s simply
how it is.”
Yoko Ono is a Citizen of Nutopia.
Terry Riley
Sunrise of the Planetary Dream
Collector (1981)
This work first came about as a minor key extension of A
Rainbow in Curved Air (1968) and some of the material appeared in
a 1973 recording I made as a soundtrack for a film by the French
filmmaker Joel Santoni called Les Yeux Fermes. The real ancestor
to this string quartet version with this title wasn’t composed
until 1975 and was premiered in a series of concerts I gave at
RIAS in Berlin in 1976. The title occurred to me one morning
over breakfast during a conversation with Delphine Santoni,
Joel’s 7-year old daughter.
In 1980, when asked by David Harrington of the Kronos
Quartet to compose some music for their, at that time, very
young group, I chose this work as a starting point. It had been
over ten years since I had written any music on paper as I had
occupied myself at that time with keyboard improvisation and
the study of North Indian raga but I felt the atmosphere of this
work would be very appropriate for strings. I was confident that
the modular construction of the music would allow the quartet
members freedom to use their performance skills to enhance its
basic melodic and rhythmic framework, and to give it a shape
that would reflect their insights regarding its musical content
and feeling.
—T ER RY R I L E Y
11
Program Notes for SATURDAY, JUNE 27
Terry Riley
The Gift from Salome Dances for
Peace (1985–86)
See notes for Salome Dances for Peace (Sunday).
Terry Riley
Earth Whistlers from Sun Rings
(2002)
See notes for One Earth, One People, One Love (Friday).
“Minutes” for Terry Riley
Jherek Bischoff (b. 1979)
Vitality (2015)
I met Terry Riley briefly in San Francisco, at a Kronos concert
we were both involved in. The show was to celebrate Kronos’
40th anniversary, and as I wrote my contribution with those
decades in mind, the thought of working with such ferocity
over that many years overwhelmed me. At the same show,
Kronos performed Riley’s Another Secret eQuation, a piece with
such beauty, care and magic—it was absolutely stunning. I’ve
been a long-time admirer of all of Riley’s works, but when asked
to write a piece to celebrate his 80th, it immediately brought
me back to the moment. At 79, he attacked that piece with a
beautiful abandon—it made it clear to me why he and Kronos
share such a kinship. For my one-minute birthday gift, I decided
to create something bubbling with kinetic energy, in honor of a
virtue that runs strong in that beautiful man. Vitality.
Maggi Payne (b. 1945)
Shimmering (2015)
Having used sonification of data from various detectors in
space in my electronic music works since 1983, I was fascinated
that Terry Riley and Kronos drew from sonifications in the
exquisite Sun Rings. Shimmering is reminiscent of the phenomenon
of whistlers, which are produced by lightning stroke impulses
traveling along the earth’s magnetic field lines. Although
whistlers have a downward frequency trajectory this work
uses both upward and downward glissandi, poised against the
background noise of the universe.
—M AG GI PAY N E , W W W. M AG GI PAY N E .C OM
Greg Saunier
Low Res Life Twinkle in Forced
Perspective (2015)
Aleksandra Vrebalov (b. 1970)
Cosmic Love (2015)
Whoever has met Terry knows that his is the kind of radiance
that turns air into breathable particles of love. In one minute
of Cosmic Love, 80 beats of a single G unfold both as a cube and
a sphere. What starts as one pitch played by four instruments,
leaps and expands over and beyond the range of the string
quartet into a grid of its own charged variants and continues
into eternity! Happy Birthday Terry, Cosmic Love!
—ALEKSANDRA VREBALOV, WWW.ALEKSANDRAVREBALOV.COM
Hamza El Din (1929–2006)
—J H ER EK BIS C HOF F, W W W. J H ER EK BIS C HOF F.C OM
Escalay (Water Wheel) (1989)
Caleb Burhans (b. 1980)
Where the Wind Blows (2015)
R E A L I Z ED BY T OH RU U EDA
To simply say that Terry Riley is a minimalist composer does
not do him justice. His work spans so many different genres
that it made my job quite difficult. At the end of the day, Where
the Wind Blows mainly focuses on the use of just intonation and
repeated motivic cells.
— C A L EB BU R H A NS, W W W.C A L EBBU R H A NS.C OM
Joan Jeanrenaud (b. 1956)
1/86,400 of a mean solar day (2015)
Terry Riley is that first ray of sunshine, a moon beam on a
starry night, the sound of resonating chords like an organ in
perfect intonation, an intense groove created by overlapping
patterns—a raga giving you a connection within yourself, a
connection with the universe.
—JOA N J E A N R EN AU D, W W W. J JC EL L O.C OM
My country Nubia was flooded after the construction of
the Aswan dam, and we lost it after a recorded history of
9,000 years, so I have a nostalgia for that place. Escalay is a
representation of how to start the water wheel and let it run.
Our music system is Afro-Arab—we are a bridge, musically
and culturally between Africa and the Middle East. I wanted
the Quartet to represent the sound of my instrument, the oud.
The challenge was to make audible the overtones that only the
musician can hear from a solo instrument—the ‘unheard’ voice.
Amazingly, Kronos perform it as if they are from that place.
Terry Riley introduced me to Kronos who asked me to
write a piece for them. They liked the idea of the water wheel.
Everyone who sits behind the oxen which help the water wheel
go round will express himself according to his age. If it’s a
child, he’ll sing a children’s song. If it’s a woman or a man,
they’ll sing a love song. If it’s an older man, he’ll sing a religious
song. I wrote this as the sound of the older man, so with Kronos
it becomes a religious song.
—H A M Z A EL DI N
12
Terry Riley
Terry Riley
R EI M AGI N ED A N D R EI N T ER PR E T ED BY T H E L I V I NG
E A RT H SHOW, DA N BEC K ER A N D DA N N Y C L AY
Crazy World was first written as a partially improvised song for
voice(s) and piano. This version for Kronos, Wu Man (on pipa)
and Terry was arranged for the Big Ears 2015 festival where it
was premiered. The lyric for Crazy World begins, “The wood in
my tamboura speaks with a voice that is ancient and lustrous
and holy... Yet they take that same wood and they make a big
club...break the arms of the poor, break the backs of the weak,
break the bones of the humble and lowly.”
It was written at the start of the Iraq war...need more
be said?
A Rainbow in Curved Air (1968/2015)
A Rainbow in Curved Air was originally released as the title track
of Terry Riley’s influential 1968 album. Riley performed all of
the instruments on the original recording. In tonight’s version,
reimagined by The Living Earth Show, Dan Becker and Danny
Clay, Kronos is joined by The Living Earth Show. Riley’s original
liner notes read:
And then all wars ended
Arms of every kind were outlawed and the masses gladly contributed them
to giant foundries in which they were melted down and the metal poured
back into the earth
The Pentagon was turned on its side and painted purple, yellow & green
All boundaries were dissolved
The slaughter of animals was forbidden
The whole of lower Manhattan became a meadow in which unfortunates
from the Bowery were allowed to live out their fantasies in the sunshine
and were cured
People swam in the sparkling rivers under blue skies streaked only with
incense pouring from the new factories
The energy from dismantled nuclear weapons provided free heat and light
World health was restored
An abundance of organic vegetables, fruits and grains was growing wild
along the discarded highways
National flags were sewn together into brightly colored circus tents under
which politicians were allowed to perform harmless theatrical games
The concept of work was forgotten
Crazy World (2015)
—T ER RY R I L E Y
Gyan Riley (b. 1977)
the first pancake (2015)
Dedicated to my wonderful mom on her 79th birthday (she also
makes great pancakes!)
The first pancake: even though you know it’s not going
to turn out nearly as good as its younger brethren, there still
has to be one. There’s just no way around it. I would have loved
to just skip the first one and start writing my second string
quartet, equipped with all the wisdom I’d gained from the
experience of writing the first string quartet that I never wrote.
But since that wasn’t exactly an option, everyone gets a taste of
this one instead...I hope it turns out ok, Mom!
— G YA N R I L E Y
Terry Riley and Michael McClure (b. 1932)
I Like Your Eyes, Liberty
I Like Your Eyes, Liberty is a line taken from a Michael McClure
poem, and also a music segment from the Riley/McClure CD of
the same name.
Terry Riley
Turning
Turning draws on ideas from a section of the string quartet
Conquest of the War Demons as a basis for solo or group
improvisation. It has been performed for years as a kind of
signature closing piece for my improvising groups Khayal, The
All Stars, and the Gyan/Terry Riley Duo.
—T ER RY R I L E Y
13
Program Notes for SUNDAY, JUNE 29
Terry Riley
Salome Dances for Peace (1985–86)
“The idea for Salome Dances for Peace came out of improvisation
theme from The Harp of New Albion. I realized this was potentially
a whole new piece. Around that time, David Harrington called
me and asked me to write another string quartet.
I thought that it should be a ballet about Salome using
her alluring powers to actually create peace in the world. So
Salome in this case becomes like a goddess who—drawn out of
antiquity, having done evil kinds of deeds—reincarnates and is
trained as a sorceress, as a shaman. And through her dancing,
she is able to become both a warrior and an influence on the
world leaders’ actions.
What I do is to make many, many minute sketches of ideas
and file them away, and at some point as I’m writing, one of
those ideas will be the right one for the time. I trust the fact
that anything that occurs to me is related to whatever occurred
to me before.
All of the kinds of music that appear in my string
quartets are the kinds of music that I personally love, and I
don’t necessarily keep them in separate cabinets. One of the
challenges, in fact, is to bring things you love together to
live harmoniously. It also creates an understanding of how
the notes work. These styles all have their particular flavors
and expressions but they can be united. Notes all work under
certain universal laws, they observe laws just like everything
else in the universe does.
To me it’s all a unified field. It’s the general search we’re
going through now in physics, trying to find a unified theory.
I think for a musician that is also relevant and works towards
evolving new, deeper and richer musical traditions.
I’m always trying to find ways that I can, besides doing
music, contribute to world peace, or maybe neighborhood
peace or home peace. I told David that when we first started
that I thought we ought to create a piece that can be played at
the United Nations on special holidays. It would not be just a
concert piece but a piece that could be played as a rite.”
—TERRY RILEY, FROM A CONVERSATION WITH MARK SWED
14
In Salome Dances for Peace, Terry Riley created a musical legend,
which expresses both the desire to atone for the past and
the hope to redeem the present. In Riley’s mythological tale,
Salome, the alluring daughter of King Herod who demanded
the head of John the Baptist, is brought back to life. In her new
incarnation, she is to make amends for past deeds by turning
her fierce and seductive spirit towards the subjugation of war
and the inspiration of peace.
The figure of Salome is introduced in the opening notes
of the first quartet, Anthem of the Great Spirit. The
serpentine melody, full of seductive curves and alluring twists,
is based on the Hindustani raga Mishra Bhairavi. In Indian
musical thought, each raga incorporates the spirit of a deity. In
the divine Bhairavi, Riley found a spirit kindred to Salome’s.
The multifaceted Bhairavi is at once a universal mother and a
wrathful deliverer of death. Through the five quartets of Salome
Dances for Peace, the title heroine will explore both facets of her
nature.
The first two quartets of Salome Dances for Peace form a
complementary pair, a musical and thematic diptych. In Anthem
of the Great Spirit, Salome sets out on a quest for the mentor who
will reveal to her the full scope of her own soul. Inspired by the
ideal of Peace, she comes to America in search of the original,
Native American spirit of the land. At ceremonial races, she
briefly encounters a number of people and tribes before finally
finding the visionary Half Wolf. At the climax of the first
quartet, ‘Half Wolf Dances Mad in Moonlight,’ the shaman
transforms Salome into a warrior and prepares her for her
struggle against the instigators of strife. The second quartet,
‘Conquest of the War Demons,’ depicts the pair on their journey
to the underworld and the violent, fearful combat in which
Salome subdues the monsters of aggression.
At the heart of ‘Peace Dance,’ the second movement of
the first quartet, sits a type of chorale frequently found in
the composer’s work and improvisations, gently underscored
with rich jazz harmonies. Salome’s central encounter with the
tempting ‘Wild Talker’ brings a note of menace to the night
scene, its eerie melodies representing the base urges Salome
must abandon in pursuit of her higher mission.
Anthem of the Great Spirit culminates with Half Wolf’s
mad dance. Fragments of an angular, chromatic scale pile on
top of one another in cubist disorder, sounding in different
registers and at a variety of speeds, overlapping vertically
and horizontally. The wild, scurrying dance is periodically
punctuated by a short fanfare in brassy thirds, its bizarre
syncopations perpetually catching listeners flat-footed.
Eventually, a chanting melody (a transformation of a motive
that appeared at the beginning of the ‘Peace Dance’) emerges,
echoing throughout the quartet as the smoke of rising scales
curls upwards into thin air.
In the program for Salome Dances for Peace, Half Wolf’s
moonlight rite brings about Salome’s metamorphosis. The
shaman Half Wolf incarnates core tenets of Riley’s aesthetic
philosophy. Though interested in the world’s religions,
the composer himself seeks the divine through music. In
performance, the musician becomes a conduit linking the
listener to the numinous world. Ideally, the audience does
not passively absorb the music, but is actively transformed by
it. The greatest praise Riley can bestow upon a musician is to
call him or her a shaman, a spiritual leader who through his
or her performance presides over ceremonies of celebration,
redemption and transcendence. Salome’s transformation from
repentant sinner to woman warrior, catalyzed by Half-Wolf’s
sacred dance, embodies Riley’s highest aspiration for the
musical experience.
The second quartet of the cycle, Conquest of the War
Demons, is in some sense a reincarnation of the first. It is a
new beginning, but one which draws on the wealth of musical
experience gained in “Anthem of the Great Spirit.” Musical
ideas from the first quartet
appear transfigured during
the mysterious descent to
the underworld and the
ferocious combat with the
hellish spirits. Where the
pace of the first quartet was
ruminative, even halting,
Conquest of the War Demons
is electrified by relentless,
purposeful striving. As
‘Salome and Half Wolf
Descend through the
Gates of the Underworld,’
a recapitulation of the
chorale from the ‘Peace
Dance’ proceeds with
ominous, steady step.
Successive variations on
the chorale theme quicken
the pulse as danger nears.
When combat is finally joined, the running figures heard in the
previous quartet’s ceremonial races break out in pandemonium.
The sinister ostinato associated with Wild Talker resurfaces,
making the netherworld malice fully palpable.
At the point of conquest, Salome’s theme in raga Bhairavi
makes an imposing and triumphant return. ‘The Underworld
Arising,’ an infernal counterpart to Half Wolf’s Mad Dance,
symbolizes perhaps the war demons’ submission to Salome’s
power. Yelping trumpet calls, bracing open fifths, and furious
ostinatos suggest the unleashing of great powers. Yet through it
all, Salome’s theme trips lightly across the surface of the music,
taming the chaos that lurks beneath. A jig-like figure in 7/16,
a transformation of the melodic chant which closed Anthem of
the Great Spirit, brings the four instruments into concord and,
eventually, into silence.
The third quartet of Salome Dances for Peace, The Gift, is
the quiet, inward core of the whole work. ‘Echoes of Primordial
Sounds’ places Salome among the Himalayan peaks. The form of
the movement resembles an alap – the slow, measured exposition
of a Hindustani raga. Short, soulful phrases resound from one
instrument to another. Repetitive loops fix them in meditative
posture. A version of Salome’s theme reappears halfway through
the movement, exhaled peacefully in rapt contemplation. The
Gift enacts Salome’s own awakening to the cosmos.
In ‘Mongolian Winds,’ the second and final section of “The
Gift,” sighing figures in the upper strings vent breezes flowing
along vast, desolate plains. Or perhaps they echo horn calls
from a distant, fabled monastery. In the sounding stillness, a
pizzicato pattern of 11 beats steals in. The strings take turns
offering up their own lyrical and effusive hymns.
The final two quartets of the cycle, The Ecstasy and
Good Medicine, form yet another musical and thematic
diptych. In these two works, Salome herself assumes the role
of the shaman. She fulfills her destiny, in Riley’s words, “To
raise the consciousness of the earth, of the people.” Salome
encounters The Bear Father and The Great White Father,
symbols for Mikhail
Gorbachev and Ronald
Reagan. She seduces
the two men by turns,
dancing with each of
them in a series of
intimate pas de deux.
The quartet smolders
with hushed, tender, yet
unabashed carnality.
The two Fathers are
driven wild with desire
for her.
‘At the Summit,’
a transformation befalls
the two men. Salome
invites them separately
for an assignation at
dawn. With the rising
of the sun, the sounds of
the lower chakras fade
away; The Bear Father and The Great White Father are to be led
towards higher pleasures. A gently rocking dance in 15/16, all
open fifths and shepherd piping, evokes the idyllic, pastoral
never-never lands of Debussy or Ravel. As the music reaches its
climax, the two men, at the height of their passion for Salome,
transfer their affection from her to each other. As brothers, the
two world leaders are consumed with deep and mutual love.
The ‘Good Medicine Dance’ is the celebration of their
epiphany. Salome gives the men this dance to be performed
whenever conflicts arise, as a reminder of the invisible bonds
that join all peoples. The sounds of the ‘Good Medicine Dance’
resolve all the tensions that had accrued over the course of the
work. Intricate, interlocking figures shimmer in the white-note
radiance of major scales. In the midst of this vibrant and joyous
dance, a brief recollection of Salome’s theme pays tribute to the
woman who instructed men about universal harmony.
— GREGORY DUBINSKY
Excerpted from a longer note included in the 5CD set One Earth, One
People, One Love: Kronos Plays Terry Riley on Nonesuch Records.
15
Artist Bios
Terry Riley
Kronos Quartet
Terry Riley first came to prominence in 1964 when he subverted
the world of tightly organized atonal composition then in
fashion. With the groundbreaking In C—a work built upon
steady pulse throughout; short, simple repeated melodic
motives; and static harmonies—Riley achieved an elegant and
non-nostalgic return to tonality. In demonstrating the hypnotic
allure of complex musical patterns made of basic means, he
produced the seminal work of Minimalism.
Riley’s facility for complex pattern-making is the
product of his virtuosity as a keyboard improviser. He quit
formal composition following In C in order to concentrate on
improvisation, and in the late 1960s and early ’70s he became
known for weaving dazzlingly intricate skeins of music from
improvisations on organ and synthesizer. At this time, Riley
also devoted himself to studying North Indian vocal techniques
under the legendary Pandit Pran Nath, and a new element
entered his music: long-limbed melody. From his work in Indian
music, moreover, he became interested in the subtle distinctions
of tuning that would be hard to achieve with a traditional
classical ensemble.
Riley began
notating music again
in 1979 when both he
and the Kronos Quartet
were on the faculty at
Mills College in Oakland.
By collaborating with
Kronos, he discovered
that his various
musical passions could
be integrated, not as
pastiche, but as different
sides of similar musical
impulses that still maintained something of the oral performing
traditions of India and jazz. Riley’s first quartets were inspired
by his keyboard improvisations, but his knowledge of string
quartets became more sophisticated through his work with
Kronos, combining rigorous compositional ideas with a more
performance-oriented approach.
This three-decade-long relationship has yielded 27 works
for string quartet, including a concerto for string quartet, The
Sands, which was the Salzburg Festival’s first-ever new music
commission; Sun Rings, a multimedia piece for choir, visuals and
space sounds, commissioned by NASA; and The Cusp of Magic,
for string quartet and pipa. Kronos’ album Cadenza on the Night
Plain, a collection of music by Riley, was selected by both Time
and Newsweek as one of the 10 Best Classical Albums of the Year
in 1988. The epic five-quartet cycle, Salome Dances for Peace, was
selected as the #1 Classical Album of the Year by USA Today and
was nominated for a Grammy in 1989.
For more than 40 years, the Kronos Quartet—David Harrington
(violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and
Sunny Yang (cello)—has pursued a singular artistic vision,
combining 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 most celebrated
and influential groups of our time, performing thousands
of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 50 recordings of
extraordinary breadth and creativity, collaborating with many
of the world’s most intriguing and accomplished composers
and performers, and commissioning more than 850 works and
arrangements for string quartet. In 2011, Kronos became the
only recipients of both the Polar Music Prize and the Avery
Fisher Prize, two of the most prestigious awards given to
musicians. The group’s numerous awards also include a Grammy
for Best Chamber Music Performance (2004) and “Musicians of
the Year” (2003) from Musical America.
Kronos’ 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
(Sophia 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).
Integral to Kronos’ work is a series of long-running,
in-depth collaborations with many of the world’s foremost
composers. One of the quartet’s most frequent composercollaborators is “Father of Minimalism” Terry Riley, whose
work with Kronos includes Salome Dances for Peace (1985–86);
Sun Rings (2002), a multimedia, NASA-commissioned ode to the
earth and its people, featuring celestial sounds and images
from space; and The Serquent Risadome, premiered during Kronos’
40th Anniversary Celebration at Carnegie Hall in 2014. Kronos
commissioned and recorded the three string quartets of Polish
composer Henryk Górecki, with whom the group worked
for more than 25 years. The quartet has also collaborated
extensively with composers such as Philip Glass, recording a
CD of his string quartets in 1995 and premiering String Quartet
No. 6 in 2013, among other projects; Azerbaijan’s Franghiz
Ali-Zadeh, whose works are featured on the full-length 2005
release Mugam Sayagi; Steve Reich, from Kronos’ performance of
the Grammy-winning composition Different Trains (1989) to the
September 11–themed WTC 9/11 (2011); and many more.
In addition to composers, Kronos counts numerous
performers from around the world among its collaborators,
including the Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man; Azeri master
W W W.T ER RY R I L E Y.N E T
16
vocalist Alim Qasimov; legendary Bollywood “playback singer”
Asha Bhosle, featured on Kronos’ 2005 Grammy-nominated CD
You’ve Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman’s Bollywood; Inuit
throat singer Tanya Tagaq; indie rock band The National;
Mexican rockers Café Tacvba; sound artist and instrument
builder Walter Kitundu; and the Romanian gypsy band Taraf
de Haïdouks. Kronos has performed live with the likes of Paul
McCartney, Allen Ginsberg, Jarvis Cocker, Zakir Hussain,
Modern Jazz Quartet, Noam Chomsky, Rokia Traoré, Tom
Waits, Rhiannon
Giddens, Howard
Zinn, Betty Carter,
and David Bowie,
and has appeared on
recordings by artists
such as Nine Inch
Nails, Dan Zanes, Glenn
Kotche, Dave Matthews,
Nelly Furtado, Joan
Armatrading, and Don
Walser. In dance, the
famed choreographers
Merce Cunningham,
Paul Taylor, Twyla
Tharp, Eiko & Koma,
and Paul Lightfoot and
Sol León (Nederlands
Dans Theater) have
created pieces with
Kronos’ music. Kronos’ work has been featured prominently in
film, including two recent Academy Award–nominated
documentaries: the AIDS-themed How to Survive a Plague (2012)
and Dirty Wars (2013), an exposé of covert warfare. Kronos also
recorded full scores by Philip Glass (for Mishima and Dracula) and
by Clint Mansell (Noah, The Fountain, and Requiem for a Dream) and
has contributed music to 21 Grams, Heat, and other films.
The quartet tours extensively each year, appearing in
concert halls, clubs, and festivals including Carnegie Hall,
Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Big Ears, BAM Next Wave
Festival, the Barbican in London, WOMAD, UCLA’s Royce Hall,
Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Shanghai Concert Hall, and
the Sydney Opera House. Kronos is equally prolific and wideranging on recordings, including the Nonesuch releases Pieces
of Africa (1992), a showcase of African-born composers that
simultaneously topped Billboard’s Classical and World Music
lists; Nuevo (2002), a Grammy- and Latin Grammy–nominated
celebration of Mexican culture; and the 2004 Grammy-winner,
Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite, featuring renowned soprano Dawn
Upshaw. Among the group’s recent releases are Aheym: Kronos
Quartet Plays Music by Bryce Dessner (Anti-, 2013) and two 2014
Nonesuch releases: Kronos Explorer Series, a five-CD retrospective
boxed set; and the single-disc A Thousand Thoughts, featuring
mostly unreleased recordings from throughout Kronos’ career.
2015 brought the release of Tundra Songs by Derek Charke as well
as a boxed set of Terry Riley’s music written for and performed
by Kronos. Music publishers Boosey & Hawkes and Kronos have
released two editions of Kronos Collection sheet music: Volume
1 (2006) and the new Volume 2 (2014), featuring six Kronoscommissioned arrangements by composer Osvaldo Golijov.
With a staff of 11 based in San Francisco, 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 educational program.
KPAA’s Kronos: Under 30
Project, features a unique
commissioning and residency
program for composers
under age 30. KRONOS
PRESENTS is a new presenting
program showcasing Kronos’
commissioned works,
artistic projects, and musical
collaborations through an
annual festival, education and
community activities, and
other events in the Bay Area
and beyond.
In 2015 KPAA launched
a new commissioning and
education initiative – Fifty
for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. With Carnegie Hall
as lead partner, KPAA is commissioning 50 new works – by
5 women and 5 men each year for five years – devoted to
contemporary approaches to the quartet and designed expressly
for the training of students and emerging professionals.
The quartet will premiere each piece and create companion
materials, including scores and parts, recordings, videos,
performance notes, and composer interviews, to be distributed
online for free. Through this model, Kronos’ Fifty for the Future
will providing young musicians with both an indispensable
library of learning and a blueprint for their own future
collaborations with composers. Kronos, Carnegie Hall, and an
adventurous list of project partners that includes presenters,
academic institutions, foundations and individuals, have joined
forces to support this exciting new initiative of unprecedented
scope and potential impact.
W W W.K RONO S QUA RT E T.ORG
17
Guest Performers
Drew Cameron
The Living Earth Show
Drew Cameron is a hand
papermaker, printer and book
artist based in San Francisco.
He earned a degree in Forestry
from the University of Vermont
and served in the US Army
from 2000–06. Cameron was
the managing director of Green
Door Studio Artist Collective in
Burlington, VT from 2006–10,
co-founded Combat Paper in 2007
and is a partner in the Peoples
Republic of Paper, LLC. His current and ongoing work with
Combat Paper and as a partner in the Shotwell Paper Mill in San
Francisco is practicing and teaching the art and craft of hand
papermaking.
Called “a vanguard effort of
new chamber music” by the San
Francisco Examiner, “transcendent”
by the Charleston City Paper, and “a
fully distorted perpetual motion
of awesome” by I Care If You Listen,
The Living Earth Show, a Bay
Area new music initiative, exists
as a megaphone and canvas
for some of the world’s most
progressive artists. Comprised
of electric guitarist Travis
Andrews and percussionist Andy
Meyerson, the ensemble commissions, curates, organizes and
promotes composers by challenging them to realize their most
ambitious creative visions. Whether through live performance,
audio and video recordings, or educational outreach, the
ensemble crafts musical experiences that engage both its
collaborators and its audience.
W W W.C OM B AT PA PER .ORG
W W W.T H EL I V I NGE A RT HSHOW.C OM
Michael McClure
Zakir Hussain
Zakir Hussain is widely celebrated as the the pre-eminent
classical tabla virtuoso of our time. Hussain’s contribution to
world music has included many historic and genre-defying
collaborations, including Shakti, Remember Shakti, the Diga
Rhythm Band, Planet Drum, Tabla Beat Science, Sangam, a
trio with Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer and, most recently, a
project with Herbie Hancock. He has scored music for numerous
feature films, major events and productions. A Grammy Award
winner, he is the recipient of countless awards and honors, and
is founder and president of Moment Records, an independent
record label presenting rare live concert recordings of Indian
classical music and world music. Zakir is currently a resident
artistic director at SFJAZZ.
W W W. Z A K I R H USS A I N.C OM
18
Poet, playwright, essayist,
songwriter and journalist
Michael McClure gave his first
poetry reading at the age of 22
at the Six Gallery event in San
Francisco, where Allen Ginsberg
first read Howl. Today McClure is
more active than ever, writing
and performing his poetry at
festivals, and colleges and clubs
across the country. McClure
has published eight books of
plays, four collections of essays
and two novels, in addition to many books of poetry; has
written twenty plays and musicals; and created two television
documentaries. He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim
Fellowship, an Obie Award, an NEA grant, the Alfred Jarry
Award, and a Rockefeller grant. His CD I Like Your Eyes, Liberty is a
collaboration with composer Terry Riley.
Kala Ramnath
Grammy-nominated violinist
Kala Ramnath has been
recognized as one of the fifty
best instrumentalists in the
world by Songlines Magazine, and
has received many honors in
her home country of India.
A disciple of vocalist Pandit
Jasraj, Ramnath has performed
at all the major music festivals
in India, as well as prestigious
stages around the world, including the Sydney Opera House,
London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and New York’s Carnegie Hall.
She has collaborated with world music legends Zakir Hussain,
Kai Eckhart, Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, Abbos Kossimov, Ayrto
Moriera and Giovanni Hidalgo, incorporating elements of
Western classical, jazz, flamenco and traditional African music
into her varied repertoire.
American music and composers, and to introduce contemporary
vocal music from around the world to local audiences. The group
has commissioned nearly 100 new works, by emerging as well
as established composers. A six-time winner of the prestigious
ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary
Music, Volti boasts a 36-year track record of some of the most
imaginative and innovative repertoire yet composed.
W W W.K A L A R A M N A T H .C OM
W W W.VOLT ISF.ORG
Wu Man
Gyan Riley
Gyan Riley won his first guitar in a raffle when he was 12 years
old, and embarked on a life-long adventure in music, becoming
the first full-scholarship graduate guitar student at the San
Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has toured as a classical
guitar soloist and in various ensembles, including performances
with Zakir Hussain, Michael Manring, Mike Marshall, Dawn
Upshaw, the San Francisco Symphony, and with his father,
composer Terry Riley. Riley has been commissioned by the
Carnegie Hall Corporation, American Composers Forum, and the
New York Guitar Festival, and has released four solo CDs, most
recently on the Tzadik label.
W W W.G YA N R I L E Y.C OM
Volti
Volti, a professional vocal ensemble under the direction of
founder and Artistic Director Robert Geary, is dedicated to the
discovery, creation, and performance of new vocal music. The
ensemble’s mission is to foster and showcase contemporary
Recognized as the
world’s premier pipa
virtuoso and a leading
ambassador of Chinese
music, Grammy Awardnominated musician
Wu Man has carved out
a career as a soloist,
educator and composer
celebrated for giving her
instrument a new role
in both traditional and
contemporary music. Brought up in the Pudong School of pipa
playing, Wu Man is now recognized as an outstanding exponent
of the traditional repertoire, as well as a leading interpreter of
contemporary pipa music by today’s most prominent composers.
Wu was named Musical America’s 2013 Instrumentalist of the
Year, the first time the award had been bestowed on a player of
a non-Western instrument.
W W W.W UM A N PI PA .ORG
ZOFO
Since joining forces as the duo
ZOFO in 2009, internationally
acclaimed solo pianists EvaMaria Zimmermann and Keisuke
Nakagoshi have electrified
audiences from Carnegie Hall
to Tokyo with their artistry
and outside-the-box thematic
programming for piano-fourhands. The Grammy-nominated,
prize-winning Steinway Artist
Ensemble focuses on 20th
and 21st century repertoire,
commissioning new works from noted composers each year.
ZOFO, which is shorthand for 20-finger orchestra (ZO=20 and
FO=finger orchestra), has received two Grammy nominations
for the ensemble’s debut album Mind Meld, was awarded first
place in the 2010 Bradshaw & Buono International Piano
Competition, and was named a finalist in the 2011 Osaka
International Chamber Music Competition.
W W W. Z OF ODU E T.C OM
19
CONTRIBUTORS
The Kronos Performing Arts Association is grateful for the generous support of individuals, foundations, government agencies and others
that make our work possible. This list reflects gifts received or pledged between July 1, 2014 and our publication date of June 10, 2015.
Founders
$50,000 and above
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Peggy Dorfman and The Ralph I.
Dorfman Family Fund
Grants for the Arts/San Francisco
Hotel Tax Fund
The William & Flora Hewlett
Foundation
Andrea Abernethy Lunsford
Visionaries
$25,000-$49,999
Anonymous
Clarence E. Heller Charitable
Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts/
Art Works
Producers Circle
$10,000-$24,999
The Aaron Copland Fund for Music
The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia
Foundation
Marjorie Randolph
Curtis Smith and Susan Threlkeld
Tides Foundation
USArtists International/MidAtlantic Arts Foundation
Alice Wingwall and
Donlyn Lyndon
Composers
Circle
$5,000-$9,999
Jim Bengston
Helen Gilbart
Robert Gordon
Sumiko Ito and Don Allison
David and Evelyne Lennette
The Bernard Osher Foundation
David Rumsey
State Street Foundation Matching
Gift Program
Priscilla Stoyanof and
David Roche
Thendara Foundation
Artists Circle
$2,500-$4,999
The Amphion Foundation
Gretchen Brosius
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Stephen Cassidy and
Rebecca Powlan
Ken Foster and Nayan Shah
Jeanne Giordano and Bob Frasca
Zvart and Rouben Potoukian
Elenka Stoyanof
Carol Yaple and Richard Klasa
Patrons
$1,000-$2,499
Wally and Karen Chappell
Jeremy Cowperthwaite and
Elba Watkins
Hank Dutt and Greg Dubinsky
Christine and Tom O’Connor
The Maxine and Stuart Frankel
Foundation
James Hormel and
Michael Nguyen
Joan Jeanrenaud
Leslie Kandell
Vladimir Kasnar
Gates McFadden and Robert Straus
Jim Melchert
Kathleen Heitz and George Myers
Jim Newman and Jane Ivory
David and Camilla Olson
Vladimir Pavlovic
Anna Ranieri and Stephen Boyd
Sara Sackner and Andrew Behar
Dayna Sumiyoshi and
Greg Smedsrud
Sponsors
$500-$999
Anonymous (3)
Janet Cowperthwaite and
Paul Kilduff
Brooke Gladstone and Fred Kaplan
Mary Edna Harrell
David and Regan Harrington
IXIA
Beryl Korot and Steve Reich
Linda Lichter and Nick Marck
John Lipsky and Zsuzsanna Karasz
Katherine Michiels
Michael Milligan
Kären and Tom Nagy
Lory and Carol Ratner
Jonathan F. P. and Diana Rose
Tim Savinar and Patty Unterman
Judith Sherman and
Curtis J. Macomber
Leland and Gloria Smith
Alta Tingle
Bill Viola and Kira Perov
Affiliates
Friends
$150-$499
Up to $149
Anonymous
Donald Albrecht
Caroline Alioto
Jacquelynn Baas and Rob Elder
Mona Baroudi and
Patrick Whitgrove
Douglas Bayer
Jenny Bilfield and Joel Friedman
Linda Brumbach
Jennifer Burke
Matthew Campbell and
Laura Harger
Ted and Constance Captanian
Yvette Chalom
Harriet Chessman and Bryan Wolf
Valentina Cugnasca
Stuart Epstein
Roland Feller Violin Makers
Adam L. Frey
Margrette and Joseph Glynn
Todd Gordon and Susan Feder
Joan Gelfand
Kay Sprinkel Grace
Marilyn Green and Drew McCalley
Edward G. and
Debra Heimerdinger
Jon Jackson
Joan and James Jordan
Michael Kimber
Brian Kleis and James Lock
Paula Little
Teresa Lynn
Jim McQuade
Morgan Stanley Matching Gift
Program
NVIDIA Employee Giving Program
Donald Patterson
Henk Pel
Steve and Suzan Plath
John and Mizue Sherba
Alexandra Quinn and
Mark Spolyar
Ann and Terry Riley
Laird Rodet and Sharon Shepherd
Dr. Scott C. and Alice So
Oliver and Jennifer Sommer
Karl Sterne
Ting and Randy Vogel
Alice Waters
Barbara Whipperman
Chester Wood
Wu Man and Peng Wang
Sunny Yang and Frédéric Rosselet
Diane Zagerman and Don Golder
Fumiko Zeigler
Anonymous (48)
Michael Alexander and
Victoria Kirsch
Robert Allen and Pat Mcinteer
Amazon Smiles
Albert Arustamov
Susan Averbach
Susan Backman
Stella and Harout Baronian
Patricia Bashaw and Eugene Segre
Darlene Basmajian and
Bob Matano
Elisabeth Beaird
Nurhan Becidyan
Dmitrij Beloussow
Benevity Community Impact Fund
Anna Skwarcan Bidakowska
Jeannette Boudreau
Teddy Boys
Gregg Butensky
George Carter
Lucinda Carver and Karen Kramer
John Chodera
Michael Cowperthwaite
Ximena Diaz
Mason and Jennifer Dille
David Drexler
Lisa Ede and Greg Pfarr
Betsy and Kenyon Erickson
Dominica Eriksen
Ruth Fink-Winter
Jimmy Frazier
Wendy Garling
John and Mary Gill
Gaida Giovanile
Martha Gish
Michael and Hansine Goran
Meri Grigoryan
Donald and Marie Gurnett
Eric V. Hachikian
Narineh Hacopian
Rosanne Haggerty and
Lloyd Sederer
Anna Harmandarian
Ken Herman
Laura Higdon
John Hillyer
Armineh Hovanesian
Ara Howrani
Megan Ihnen
Kim and Dennis Isaac
Christina Johnson
Paul Johnson and Joan Steele
Tatevik Khoja-Eynatyan
John Kilgore
William S. Kirkham
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS
This adventurous group of presenters, academic institutions and other arts organizations
partner with Kronos to engage in performances and educational programs, and Kronos works
with each to extend the reach of their own educational programs within their communities.
Lynn Landor
Leslie Mainer
Mimi Malayan
Rene Mandel
Harmik Mansourian
Laura McDonnell
Kenneth McKlinski
Raymond Meyer
Kate Morrison
Jennifer Moser
James Murray
Armine Nazarian
David Newton
Laurie Olinder
Toni Howell Pentecouteau
Richard Peters
Vaghinak Petrosyan
Susan Pratt
Mary Risley
Sheila Rizzo
Laurel Rogers and Jeff Saltzman
Asima FX Saad Maura and
Raymond J McConnie
Yoshiro Saimi
Jeffrey Seeman
Brooke Shipley
Ken Shorley
Gail Silva
Tanniel Simonian
Allegra Snyder
Joseph Stanco
Maki Sugimoto
Yuri Syuganov
Steven Takasugi
Morgan Taylor
Lydia Titcomb
Ola Torstensson
Anush Tserunyan
Susan Tuohy
Leaha Maria Villarreal
Kirsten Volness
Aleksandra Vrebalov
Susan Watterson
John Watts
Richard Winchell
Terri Wong
Geert Van Wonterghem
Mehrdad Ziari
Aga Khan Music Initiative (Geneva, Switzerland)
Cal Performances/University of California (Berkeley, California)
Carnegie Hall (New York, New York)
Cornish College of the Arts (Seattle, Washington)
Harris Theater for Music and Dance (Chicago, Illinois)
Holland Festival (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Kaufman Music Center’s Face The Music (New York, New York)
Serious/Barbican (United Kingdom)
Washington Performing Arts (Washington, DC)
KRONOS’ FIFTY FOR THE FUTURE
Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association is pleased to
announce an exciting new commissioning initiative – Fifty for the
Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. Beginning in the 2015/16 season,
Fifty for the Future will commission 50 new works – 10 per year for
five years – devoted to contemporary approaches to the quartet
and designed expressly for the training of students and emerging
professionals. The works will be created by an eclectic group of
composers – 25 men and 25 women. Kronos will premiere each piece
and create companion digital materials, including scores, recordings,
and performance notes, which will be distributed online for free. Fifty for the Future will present
string quartet music as a living art form. Kronos, Carnegie Hall, and an adventurous list of
project partners will join forces to support this exciting new commissioning, performance,
education, and legacy project of unprecedented scope and potential impact.
For more information, please visit:
K RONO S QUA RT E T.ORG/ F I F T Y-F OR-T H E -F U T U R E
KRONOS PRESENTS
KRONOS PRESENTS: Terry Riley Festival is made possible by generous support from Grants for
the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, and the
Board of Directors of the Kronos Performing Arts Association. Additional support provided by
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The Bernard Osher Foundation.
We strive for accuracy in our
listings and acknowledgments.
Please notify us of any errors
by contacting Mason Dille,
Development Associate:
[email protected]
or 415.731.3533.
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For more than forty years, San Francisco’s Grammy-winning Kronos
Quartet has championed new music on stage, on disc and in the
classroom, continually reimagining the string quartet experience and
inspiring listeners and fellow musicians the world over.
But Kronos is more than four people. Behind the quartet
is the non-profit Kronos Performing Arts Association (KPAA),
which has commissioned more than 850 new works from
composers worldwide, managed dozens of Kronos recordings
and thousands of concerts, and served countless young people
and adults with singular education and community programs—
from master classes for emerging quartets and composers to free
concerts in schools and more.
And behind KPAA, in turn, is an invaluable family of
supporters whose generous gifts have made possible this work
of four decades.
Please join us as Kronos enters its Fifth Decade—and
share in the thrill of musical exploration and innovation—
by making a tax-deductible donation to KPAA today at
kronosquartet.org/donate. Thank you!
For the Kronos Quartet/Kronos
Performing Arts Association:
Kronos Performing Arts
Association Board of Directors
Janet Cowperthwaite, Managing Director
Laird Rodet, Associate Director
Sidney Chen, Artistic Administrator
Mason Dille, Development Associate
Scott Fraser, Sound Designer
Christina Johnson, Communications and New Media Manager
Nikolás McConnie-Saad, Office Manager
Kären Nagy, Strategic Initiatives Director
Hannah Neff, Production Associate
Lucinda Toy, Business Operations Manager
Andrea A. Lunsford, Chair
Sumiko Ito Allison
Anders Anderson
Judithe Bizot
Wallace Chappell
Janet Cowperthwaite
Hank Dutt
Kenneth Foster
Jeanne Giordano
Robert E. Gordon
David Harrington
Donlyn Lyndon
Michael L. Milligan
Greg G. Minshall
Christine O’Connor
Marjorie M. Randolph
John Sherba
Curtis Smith
Priscilla Stoyanof
Alice Wingwall
Carol Yaple
For KRONOS PRESENTS:
Mona Baroudi, Public Relations
Cath Brittan, Production Coordinator
Lisa Mezzacappa, Marketing Coordinator
Kronos Quartet/
Kronos Performing Arts Association
P. O. Box 225340
San Francisco, CA 94122-5340 USA
K RONO S QUA RT E T.ORG
FAC EB O OK .C OM / K RONO S QUA RT E T
I NS TAGR A M .C OM / K RONO S _ QUA RT E T
T W I T T ER : @K RONO S QUA RT E T #K RONO S
The Kronos Quartet records for Nonesuch Records.
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CREDITS
Terry Riley’s The Cusp of Magic was written and
commissioned for the Kronos Quartet and Wu Man as
part of a national series of works from Meet the Composer
Commissioning Music/USA, made possible by the National
Endowment for the Arts, the Helen F. Whitaker Fund, and the
Target Foundation. Major support was generously provided by
the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, with additional
funds from the Margaret E. Lyon Trust. Kronos and Wu Man’s
recording is available on Nonesuch Records.
Salome Dances for Peace was commissioned for
the Kronos Quartet by IRCAM and Betty Freeman. Kronos’
recording is available on Nonesuch Records.
Sun Rings was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by the
NASA Art Program, the National Endowment for the Arts, the
Rockefeller Foundation’s Multi-Arts Production Fund, Hancher
Auditorium/University of Iowa, Society for the Performing
Arts, Eclectic Orange Festival/Philharmonic Society of Orange
County, SFJAZZ, Barbican, London, U.K., and University of Texas
Performing Arts Center, Austin (with the support of the Topfer
Endowment for Performing Arts). Additional contributions from
Stephen K. Cassidy, Margaret Lyon, Greg G. Minshall, and David
A. and Evelyne T. Lennette made this work possible. Kronos’
recording of One Earth, One People, One Love is available on the
Nonesuch CD Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector.
Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector was
commissioned for the Kronos Quartet. Sheet music for Sunrise of
the Planetary Dream Collector is available in Volume 1 of the Kronos
Collection, a performing edition published by Boosey & Hawkes.
Kronos’ recording is available on the Nonesuch CD Sunrise of the
Planetary Dream Collector.
Hamza El Din’s Escalay was commissioned for the Kronos
Quartet by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and is
included on the Quartet’s Nonesuch recording Pieces of Africa.
Sheet music for Escalay is available in Volume 1 of the Kronos
Collection, a performing edition published by Boosey & Hawkes.
Aleksander Kościów’s Oberek for Terry Riley and Jacob
Garchik’s arrangement of Baba O’Riley were commissioned
for the Kronos Quartet by the David Harrington Research and
Development Fund.
“Minutes” for Terry Riley and the reinterpretation of
Terry Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air by The Living
Earth Show, Dan Becker and Danny Clay were commissioned
for the Kronos Quartet by the David Harrington Research and
Development Fund and the Kronos Performing Arts Association.
Gyan Riley’s the first pancake was commissioned for
the Kronos Quartet, Terry Riley and Gyan Riley by the David
Harrington Research and Development Fund and the Kronos
Performing Arts Association on the occasion of Terry Riley’s
80th birthday.
IMAGE CREDITS
Cover image: “Sensation Quanta” by Andy Gilmore
Photos: Chris Felver (Riley), Jay Blakesberg (Kronos), Richard
McCaffrey (Riley’s 50th birthday celebration at Great American
Music Hall, 1985), Luis Delgado (Kronos and Riley, Harrington
and Riley), Betsy Kersher (Volti), Jon Orlando (Drew Cameron),
David Port (Michael McClure). Kala Ramnath and ZOFO photos
courtesy of the artists.
TERRY RILEY FESTIVAL GRAPHIC DESIGN
Dan D Shafer / dandy-co.com
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TERRY!
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