Ravinia 2024 Issue 1

KRONOS QUARTET For 50 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet has reimagined what the string quartet expe- rience can be . One of the most celebrated and influential groups of our era, Kronos has given thousands of concerts worldwide and released more than 70 recordings. Through its nonprofit organization, Kronos Performing Arts Associa- tion (KPAA), Kronos has commissioned more than 1,100 works and arrangements for quartet. Kronos has received more than 40 awards, in- cluding the Polar Music, Avery Fisher, and Edi- son Klassiek Oeuvre Prizes. Integral to Kronos’s work is a series of long-running commission- ing collaborations with hundreds of composers worldwide, including Terry Riley, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Tanya Tagaq, Philip Glass, inti fig- gis-vizueta, Fodé Lassana Diabaté, and Steve Re- ich. In its most ambitious commissioning effort to date, KPAA has recently completed Kronos Fifty for the Future. Through this initiative, Kro- nos has commissioned—and distributed online for free—50 new string quartet works written by composers from around the world. In record- ings, Kronos has collaborated with such artists as Wu Man, Zakir Hussain, Asha Bhosle, Mah- sa Vahdat, and Nine Inch Nails, while concert partners have included Paul McCartney, Allen Ginsberg, Rokia Traoré, David Bowie, Rhian- non Giddens, Caetano Veloso, and The Nation- al, among many others. The quartet tours for several months each year, appearing at Carnegie Hall, Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Barbican, the Muziekgebouw, Shanghai Concert Hall, Suntory Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and many more celebrated venues. Kronos’s expansive discogra- phy on Nonesuch includes three Grammy-win- ning albums—Terry Riley’s Sun Rings (2019), Landfall with Laurie Anderson (2018), and Al- ban Berg’s Lyric Suite (2003)—along with dozens of other acclaimed releases. The most recent is Songs and Symphoniques: The Music of Moondog (2023), a collaboration between Kronos and the Ghost Train Orchestra. Kronos’s work has also featured prominently in many films, including the “live documentary” A Thousand Thoughts, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018. Kronos Quartet first appeared at Ravin- ia in 1987, and tonight marks its eighth season at the festival. PAVILION 8:00 PM FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 2024 HAUSER † † Ravinia debut HAUSER Since the moment he decided to create a new mu- sical experience out of the long and established traditions of classical, pop, and rock music, Haus- er has been playing arena concerts all over the world and rewriting music business conventions. His iconic rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”—the vehicle that made his duo 2Cel- los an internet sensation—has cemented Hauser as one of the world’s most important 21st-centu- ry instrumentalists, fueled by a repertoire base as varied as Lady Gaga is from Tchaikovsky, or Shakira is from Shostakovich. Hauser is a study in contrasts; equally at home and comfortable with classical music as he is with pop music. As part of the quintessential 2Cellos, Hauser has toured the world, from the Royal Albert Hall and the Sydney Opera House to New York’s Madison Square Gar- den, selling more than one million tickets to their live shows. His virtuosic and soulful playing style has been recognized with no fewer than 21 first prizes amongst the world’s most prestigious national and international music competitions. Hauser’s musical flexibility has led to a wide range of collaborations with many artistic legends, including Andrea Bocelli, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, George Michael, and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler. Further, his YouTube series “Alone Together”—launched during the 2020 pandemic, featuring musical portraits of his home country, Croatia—drew in a wider audience still and landed his very first solo album, Hauser: Classic , at number one on the Billboard chart. A frequent guest on television’s top-rated morning and evening programs worldwide, Hauser and 2Cellos per- formed at the 2018 UEFA Champions League Final and, appeared with Lang Lang on CCTV for their New Year’s Eve Gala. Notably, 2Cellos was also the first instrumental act to ever perform on Glee as a special guest during the Michael Jackson tribute episode. It landed the 2Cellos’ self-titled debut album in the Billboard Top 100 and “Smooth Criminal” a number-10 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 Digital Songs Chart. Hauser is making his Ravinia debut. RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 69