KRONOSQUARTET

David Harrington violin • John Sherba violin

Hank Dutt viola • Jeffrey Zeigler cello

Laurence Neff lighting designer • Scott Fraser sound designer • Calvin Ll. Jones technical associate

Z Space @ Artaud — San Francisco, California

Featuring the West Coast premiere of JON ROSE’s MUSIC FROM 4 FENCES

Plus music by TERRY RILEY and…

DAMON ALBARN, JG THIRLWELL and ALEXANDRA DU BOIS on Wednesday, February 24, 2010
(Please join Kronos in the lobby for a drink after the concert!)

JOHN ZORN and FELIPE PEREZ SANTIAGO on Thursday, February 25, 2010
CLINT MANSELL and DAN VISCONTI on Friday, February 26, 2010
BRYCE DESSNER and AVIYA KOPELMAN on Saturday, February 27, 2010

Kronos dedicates these concerts to the memory of Howard Zinn (1922–2010).

kronosquartet.org • facebook.com/kronosquartet • myspace.com/kronosquartet • @kronosquartet #kronos

MUSIC FROM 4 FENCES
Music and fence design by Jon Rose
Visual design by Willie Williams
Lighting design by Laurence Neff
Sound design by Calvin Ll. Jones
For over 35 years, Jon Rose has been at the sharp end of
experimental, new and improvised music. Central to that
practice has been “The Relative Violin” project, a unique
output, rich in content, realizing almost everything on, with and
about the violin—and string music in general. Most celebrated
is the worldwide Fence project; least known are the relative
violins created specifically for and in Australia.
Rose has worked with many of the mavericks of
contemporary music such as John Cage, Derek Bailey, John
Zorn, Otomo Yoshihide, Alvin Curran, Jim Denley, Barry Guy,
Frances Marie Uitti and Fred Frith. In the area of interactive
electronics, his work is considered exemplary, having
pioneered the use of the MIDI bow in the “Hyperstring” project.
Other interactive multimedia projects have featured badminton
and netball games, a giant ball, kites, kayak and a Front End
Hoe Excavator. For more information, visit jonroseweb.com.
When I started to play concerts on fences in 1983, I saw
fences purely in terms of sonic material. Indeed, that was the
conceit: Australia was not covered with millions of miles of
fences—it was criss-crossed with a network of string
instruments waiting to be bowed.
However, the metaphorical significance of fence music
soon became evident. As symbol and tool of division,
conquest, ownership, hegemony and paranoia, you cannot
find a better exemplar of “the species problem.” As the earth’s
resources collapse under our imposed weight, new fences are
required, and old ones need to be reinforced.
To find music in such inherently ugly and unlikely artifacts
can be a powerful experience. Fence music often encap-
sulates the vastness of border country; it is the music of
distance. The fence also challenges our perceptions of what a
musical instrument can be.
For some years now, I have been looking to expand the
project and convince other string players to get involved.
Playing a fence is risky business. Apart from the possibility that
a border guard might try to shorten your life, classically trained
musicians are not usually game enough to exchange a tried-
and-tested violin for the unreliable response of fence wire or
even barbed wire. If you think about it, there is only one group
in the world whose members would be willing to put
themselves on the line for a project utilizing industrial strength
wire. When David Harrington said that he wanted Kronos
involved, I was delighted.
Making fence music happen for the Kronos Quartet
presented some interesting practical problems that I previously
never had to contend with. Normally, my partner Hollis Taylor
and I play fences in situ or build a fence in a public space
where it is installed for several weeks. The Kronos fence would
have to function on a concert stage (no drilling of holes), be
self-supporting, be erected and dismantled for one night only,
and, in a world of increasingly expensive air travel, be as light
as possible. It would, however, still have to contain the sonic
essence of an outback or border fence. The solution is a
modular one: Music from 4 Fences with each member of
Kronos playing his own personal fence.
A fence comes with its own innate theatre: everyone
knows what a fence is and what it is for—ordinarily not for
concert music! Music from 4 Fences takes advantage of the
unique set of images available from the wire and metal fence
posts being played live on stage. Barbed wire is iconic and
overwhelming in its host of received associations. Invented in
the 1860s, barbed wire is as old as the music of Brahms.
Further images for the composition derive from archetypal
border fences that entwine and entangle our world—a
smorgasbord of political and imperial screw-ups.
Playing music on fences will not get rid of them or the
causes for their existence. The fence, after all, is considered a
practical success story. The future of fences is assured, as
new technology is harnessed. Witness the new “invisible
fences” that deliver a sharp shock to hapless human or cow.
Currently there are many debates about the origins of
music: What is it for? Does it still have a function? Those who
hear Music from 4 Fences will never look at a fence in quite
the same way again.
—JON ROSE
When I first heard a recording of Jon Rose bowing the barbed-
wire rabbit fences of Australia six years ago, I could not believe
my ears. The variety of sounds and range of musical color that
a bass bow can get out of a barbed wire fence, combined with
the intensity and expressiveness of those sounds, led me to
conclude that Jon had uncovered a new and widely
prevalent musical instrument. I determined that Kronos
needed to learn to play this instrument, and that we had to
bring it into our concerts.
The idea that musicians can turn objects of confine-
ment, detainment and violence into musical instruments
has inspired me since I first heard the fence music of Jon
Rose. Through our concerts, Kronos attempts to make
statements about our world. That we are surrounded by
fences seems to be an essential part of the time we live in.
There might be a way to transform the nature of fences, by
bowing them. We will try.
—DAVID HARRINGTON
Produced by Janet Cowperthwaite
Production management by Kronos Performing Arts
Association
Music from 4 Fences was commissioned for the Kronos
Quartet by the Sydney Opera House, Purdue Convocations—
Purdue University, Australia Council for the Arts, and the David
Harrington Research and Development Fund.
Special thanks to Hollis Taylor, Ian Scobie & Arts Projects
Australia, Van Jarvis & Creative Technology, Todd Wetzel &
Purdue Convocations, and Tony Bond.
TERRY RILEY
Terry Riley (b. 1935) 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, simple repeated melodic
motives, and static harmonies (and premiered at the former
San Francisco Tape Music Center at 321 Divisadero)—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 the
so-called "minimal" school.
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.
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 long and fruitful association has so far
produced approximately two dozen works for string quartet.
KRONOS: UNDER 30 PROJECT
The Kronos: Under 30 Project is a program through which
musicians under 30 years of age are selected to create music
for the Kronos Quartet. The program was conceived by
Kronos in 2003 to mark the 30th anniversary of the founding of
the ensemble. It was started out of Kronos’ desire to support
the creation of new work by young artists, and to help Kronos
cultivate stronger connections with young musicians in order
to develop lasting artistic relationships with the next creative
generation.
In each round of the Kronos: Under 30 Project, musicians
are asked to submit a variety of works, regardless of instru-
mentation, to introduce Kronos to the music that some of the
youngest members of the musical community are creating.
The quartet reviews all materials personally, and then chooses
to collaborate with a composer with whom they feel a strong
artistic commitment. A new work is then created expressly for
the Kronos Quartet.
The works on this series by Alexandra du Bois (String
Quartet: Oculus pro Oculo Totum Orbem Terrae Caecat (“an
eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”), 2/24), Felipe
Perez Santiago (CampoSanto, 2/25), Dan Visconti (Love
Bleeds Radiant, 2/26) and Aviya Kopelman (Widows & Lovers,
2/27) were commissioned through the Under 30 Project.
Kronos has performed these works collectively over a hundred
times in 22 countries. The call for scores for the fifth
installment of the Under 30 Project will be in 2011/12.
KRONOS QUARTET
For more than 30 years, San Francisco's Kronos Quartet has
pursued a singular artistic vision, combining a spirit of fearless
exploration with a commitment to expanding the range and
context of the string quartet. In the process, Kronos has
become one of the most celebrated and influential ensembles
of our time, performing thousands of concerts worldwide,
releasing more than 45 recordings of extraordinary breadth
and creativity, collaborating with many of the world’s most
eclectic composers and performers, and commissioning more
than 650 new works and arrangements for string quartet.
Kronos’ work has also garnered numerous awards, including a
Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance (2004) and
“Musicians of the Year” (2003) from Musical America.
Since 1973, Kronos has built a compellingly eclectic
repertoire for string quartet, performing and recording works
by 20th-century masters (Bartók, Shostakovich, Webern),
contemporary composers (Aleksandra Vrebalov, John Adams,
Alfred Schnittke), jazz legends (Ornette Coleman, Charles
Mingus, Thelonious Monk), and artists from even farther afield
(rock guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, Azeri vocalist Alim Qasimov,
avant-garde saxophonist John Zorn).
Integral to Kronos' work is a series of long-running, in-
depth collaborations with many of the world's foremost
composers. Kronos has worked extensively with composers
such as "Father of Minimalism" Terry Riley, whose work with
Kronos includes Salome Dances for Peace, the multimedia
production Sun Rings, and 2005's The Cusp of Magic; Philip
Glass, recording his complete string quartets and scores to
films like Mishima and Dracula; Azerbaijan’s Franghiz Ali-
Zadeh, featured on the 2005 release Mugam Sayagi; Steve
Reich, whose Kronos-recorded Different Trains earned a
Grammy; Argentina's Osvaldo Golijov, whose work with
Kronos includes both compositions and arrangements for
albums like Kronos Caravan and Nuevo; and many more.
In addition to composers, Kronos counts numerous
artists from around the world among its regular collaborators,
including Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man; the legendary
Bollywood "playback singer" Asha Bhosle; Inuit throat singer
Tanya Tagaq; Mexican rockers Café Tacuba; the Romanian
gypsy band Taraf de Haïdouks; and American soprano Dawn
Upshaw. Kronos has performed live with icons Allen Ginsberg,
Modern Jazz Quartet, Tom Waits, David Barsamian, Howard
Zinn, Betty Carter and David Bowie, and has appeared on
recordings by such diverse talents as Nine Inch Nails, Amon
Tobin, Dan Zanes, DJ Spooky, Dave Matthews, Nelly Furtado,
Rokia Traoré, Joan Armatrading and Don Walser.
The quartet spends five months of each year on tour,
appearing in concert halls, clubs and festivals around the
world including BAM Next Wave Festival, Carnegie Hall, the
Barbican, WOMAD, UCLA's Royce Hall, Amsterdam's
Concertgebouw, Shanghai Concert Hall and the Sydney
Opera House. Kronos is equally prolific and wide-ranging on
disc. The ensemble's discography on Nonesuch Records
includes collections such as Pieces of Africa (1992), a
showcase of African-born composers, which simultaneously
topped Billboard's Classical and World Music lists; 1998's ten-
disc anthology, Kronos Quartet: 25 Years; Nuevo (2002), a
Grammy- and Latin Grammy-nominated celebration of
Mexican culture; and the 2003 Grammy-winner, Alban Berg's
Lyric Suite.
KRONOS PERFORMING ARTS ASSOCIATION Jean Schwarzkopf • Sharon Shepherd and Laird Rodet • John and
As a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, the Mizue Sherba • Colin Smith • Curtis Smith and Susan Threlkeld •
Karen and Thomas Smith • Mare Joy Smith and Karl Berry • Dr. Scott
Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association has
C. and Alice So • Catharine and Jeffrey Soros • Dr. Robert and Naomi
commissioned more than 650 new works and arrangements Stamper • Karl and Connie Sterne • Priscilla Stoyanof and David
for string quartet and recorded more than 50 CDs. Music Roche • Carolyn Talcott • Carolyn Tawasha and Randall Kay • Steve
publishers Boosey & Hawkes and Kronos have released sheet Thompson • Alta Tingle • Ola Torstensson • Paul Weir • Barbara
music for three signature works, all commissioned for Kronos, Whipperman • Alice Wingwall and Donlyn Lyndon • Terri Wong •
in the Kronos Collection, a performing edition edited by the Bagley and Virginia Wright • Dick Yamagami • Ron Yerxa and Annette
group. In addition to mentoring young composers, the quartet Ballester • Fumiko and David Zeigler • Jeff Zeigler and Paola Prestini
is also committed to working with emerging professional
INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT
performers, and next month will lead a Professional Training
Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia • Amphion Foundation • Asia
Workshop with three string quartets as part of the Weill Music Cultural Council • Bank of America • Chamber Music America
Institute at Carnegie Hall. Commissioning Program • Columbia Foundation • The Aaron Copland
Kronos relies on financial contributions from individuals, Fund for Music, Inc • French American Fund for Contemporary
foundations, corporations and government agencies in order Music • Grammy Foundation • Hellman Family Foundation • The
to commission composers and perform new work at home William and Flora Hewlett Foundation • The James Irvine Foundation •
and around the world. Many new works are currently in LEF Foundation • The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation • Meyer Sound •
progress! Please consider a gift, no matter how small or large, The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation • The Bernard Osher
Foundation • Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation • Thendara Foundation •
to support their completion. 100% of your donation supports
Tides Foundation
the commissioning of new work by the Kronos Performing Arts
Association. For information about contributions or commis- GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
sioning, please contact Laird Rodet, Associate Director, at Fund for U.S. Artists at International Festivals & Exhibitions • Grants for
laird@kronosarts.com, or visit kronosquartet.org/give. the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund • National Endowment for the
Arts/Artistic Excellence • National Endowment for the Arts/American
DONOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Masterpieces • NEA/American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009
The Kronos Performing Arts Association is grateful for recent
generous support from our contributors, which has made Kronos' San Francisco Home Season is sponsored in part by:
these programs possible. Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund • The Bernard
Osher Foundation • National Endowment for the Arts
INDIVIDUALS
Bob Allen and Pat Mcinteer • Jacquelynn Baas and Rob Elder • Tina
Beebe and Buzz Yudell • Melanie Beene • Susan Bedsole • Harriet
Benson • Howard and Gail Berman • Dr. Robert Bhisitkul and Sara
MacPherson • Martha and David Bills • Judithe Bizot • Lisa and Mike
Bromberg • Gretchen Brosius • Caitlin and Nathan Brostrom •
Christine Bullin • Gregory Burrell • Ted and Constance Captanian •
Guymon Casady • Steve Cassidy and Rebecca Powlan • Wally and Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association
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Cornwell • Janet Cowperthwaite and Paul Kilduff • Joanne and San Francisco, CA 94122-5340 USA
Jeremy Cowperthwaite • Dr. Michael Cowperthwaite • Chris Daily and
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Janet Cowperthwaite managing director • Laird Rodet associate
Dorfman and The Ralph I. Dorfman Family Fund • Jane Dutcher •
director • Sidney Chen artistic administrator • Scott Fraser sound
Hank Dutt and Greg Dubinsky • Karie Epstein • Stuart Epstein • Lois
designer • Christina Johnson communications manager • Calvin Ll.
and Roland Feller • Christine Fiedler and Tom O’Connor • Alan
Jones production associate • Asheton Lemay intern • Nikolás
Fleming and Kate Eilertsen • Curtis Freilich and Mireille Soria • Tom
McConnie-Saad administrative assistant • Laurence Neff production
and Kitty Friel • Anthony Ganz • Jonathan D. Gerrish • Jeanne
director • Lucinda Toy business operations manager • Julie Yip
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Gordon • Kay Sprinkel Grace • Tony Gulisano • Anna Halprin • Ann
Hamilton • Mary Edna Harrell • David and Regan Harrington • Hazel
and David Harrington • Debbie and Creig Hoyt • Robert Hurwitz • Kim A SERIES OF TUBES
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