JFB 2023: Kronos Quartet: 50 years on the scene

The renowned string ensemble Kronos Quartet is celebrating its anniversary in 2023. He has been on the music scene for an incredible 50 years. But still with the same grace and, above all, with an insatiable desire to constantly discover new musical horizons.
Music columnists classify the Kronos Quartet in the box "contemporary music" at first, but those who go below the surface do not forget to mention the jazz influences that leave an unmistakable imprint on the quartet's music. The concert at the JazzFestBrno festival, to which the band will go for the first time as part of the celebration of 50 years of existence, proves that the music of the Kronos Quartet has much more in common with jazz than it might seem at first glance.
The basis of Kronos Quartet's work is long-term cooperation with many world-famous composers, especially minimalists. One of them is Terry Riley, the collaboration with Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass, Kevin Volans and Steve Reich, whose composition Different Trains, recorded by the Kronos Quartet, won a Grammy Award was also significant. Over 600 compositions were created for him during the ensemble's existence. "I'm looking for music that is a certain expression of feeling. When I talk to songwriters, I talk to them on that level. I don't want them to write just another song in a row. I long for the most amazing piece of music," says the group's founder, violinist David Harrington. The strings of the Kronos Quartet are also heard in cult films and series such as Requiem for a Dream, Great Beauty or the Young Pope.