Kronos Quartet
Three Bones: Hearing the USA multimedia concert experience celebrating the power of listening through stories of American cultures that meld, layer and endure. In honor of America's 250th anniversary.
We experience a world of sound thanks to the three smallest bones in our bodies. These tiny bones in our ears—the malleus (hammer), incus (anvil) and stapes (stirrup)—amplify faint vibrations from the outside world, enabling our minds to transform these signals into the aural landscape we know.
Against a projected background, Three Bones combines music, storytelling, vintage recordings, video elements and visual arts to share vivid histories and amplify underrepresented stories. Kronos is joined by an array of luminary special guests to bring three of these American stories to life.
The first segment, Ground, will feature guest artist Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) in her visceral, gripping and poignant performance of vocals and electric Apache violin with music by composer and artist Raven Chacon (Diné) and recorded elements of work by the late storyteller and stand-up comedian Andrew "Drew" Lacapa (Apache Hopi Tewa).
The second segment, At the Sea Islands, is a tribute to the work of linguists Lorenzo Dow Turner, Patricia Jones-Jackson and others, highlighting direct connections among the cultures of Western Africa and the United States that were nearly lost to history. Featuring a guest performance by percussionist Quentin Baxter, this segment will center on Amelia's Song, recorded by Turner in 1932, and will include music by Charlton Singleton of South Carolina and longtime Kronos arranger and composer Jacob Garchik; excerpts of recorded interviews by the iconic American historian Studs Terkel, and more.
The third segment, Beyond the Golden Gate, is rooted in the work of San Francisco community activist David Lei and explores how Chinese Americans have harnessed the US legal system to define and expand civil and immigrant rights. Guest artists include pipa virtuoso Wu Man and experimental musician Victoria Shen, with music by composers Lei Liang, Dai Wei and others, along with projected visuals by San Francisco fiber artist Windy Chien and others. This segment will build upon a version of Beyond the Golden Gate that was created for the 2024 Kronos Festival.
For over 50 years, San Francisco's Kronos Quartet has reimagined what the string quartet experience can be. One of the most celebrated and influential groups of our era, Kronos has given thousands of concerts worldwide, released more than 70 recordings, and collaborated with many of the world's most accomplished composers and performers across many genres. Kronos has received more than 40 awards, including three Grammys and the Polar Music, Avery Fisher, and Edison Klassiek Oeuvre Prizes. In 2024, Kronos' Pieces of Africa album was inducted into the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. Most recently, Kronos Quartet has been selected as the Doomsday Clock Artists in Residence for The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Through its nonprofit organization, Kronos Performing Arts Association (KPAA), Kronos has commissioned more than 1,100 works and arrangements for quartet. KPAA also manages Kronos' concert tours, local performances, recordings, and education programs. In its most ambitious commissioning effort to date, KPAA has recently completed Kronos Fifty for the Future. Through this initiative, Kronos has commissioned—and distributed online for free 50 new works for string quartet designed for students and emerging professionals, written by composers from around the world.
A soloist musician, composer, and vibrant collaborator, Laura Ortman creates across multiple platforms, including recorded albums, live performances, and filmic and artistic soundtracks. An inquisitive and exquisite violinist, Ortman is versed in Apache violin, piano, electric guitar, keyboards, and amplified violin, and often sings through a megaphone. She is a producer of capacious field recordings.
Raven Chacon is a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer whose work has been exhibited at The National Museum for the American Indian, the Sydney Bienniale, the Kennedy Center and the Whitney Biennial. Chacon has also collaborated with Ortman on The Journey of the Horizontal People for the Kronos Fifty for the Future initiative.
Charlton Singleton is an acclaimed multi-instrumentalist and composer whose most recent project, the band Ranky Tanky, celebrates the unique language and culture of the Gullah in the Black American Southeast. His work Testimony is part of the Kronos Fifty for the Future initiative.
Quentin Baxter is a Grammy Award–winning artist and co-collaborator in Ranky Tanky. Quentin is a master percussionist who specializes in bringing Gullah traditions to new settings.
Trevor Weston is an American composer, author and educator who currently chairs the Music Department at Drew University in New Jersey. His work Juba for String Quartet explores Gullah music as well as traditional performance practices from the African American musical tradition.
Wu Man is an internationally acclaimed pipa player and frequent collaborator with the Kronos Quartet.
Dai Wei is an experimental composer and vocalist whose work seeks to uncover unseen and untold histories from the communities about which she writes.
Victoria Shen is a sound artist, experimental composer and instrument maker. Her work centers around the spatial experience of sound in the human body.
Lei Liang, a Rome Prize-winning artist, creates immersive musical and video art that encourages audiences to listen deeply and actively.
“the original rock band of string quartets”
The Washington Post
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