Kronos Quartet and Kronos Performing Arts Association (KPAA) have announced Kronos Festival, Kronos’ eight-annual music festival, to take place at SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco, June 22–24, 2023.

This year, Kronos Festival celebrates the diverse array of works created for Kronos Fifty for the Future, a commissioning, performance, education, and legacy project. Featuring pieces by Rhiannon Giddens, Philip Glass, Zakir Hussain, Angélique Kidjo, Terry Riley, Wu Man, and more, the festival is hosted by Kronos Quartet in multiple performances over three days; the group is joined by fellow quartets Aizuri Quartet, Attacca Quartet, and Friction Quartet plus special guests Rafiq Bhatia (guitar), Soo Yeon Lyuh (haegeum), sound artist and instrument-maker Victoria Shen, and student ensembles from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

First announced in 2015, KPAA’s Kronos Fifty for the Future has commissioned and published a collection of 50 new works for string quartet, creating an unprecedented resource for musicians around the world. Completed in 2022, the full Kronos Fifty for the Future library represents an ear-opening variety of stylistic and cultural perspectives. Through these pieces, players can develop skills that are fundamental to 21st-century repertoire while discovering a wealth of new compositional voices and ideas. Scores and parts, recordings, and supplemental materials for each work are available online for free. To date, these materials have been downloaded more than 30,000 times by visitors from 100+ countries and territories worldwide, reflecting the global reach of Kronos' audience as well as the demand for a more expansive string quartet repertoire.

Kronos Festival 2023 kicks off on Thursday, June 22, with Kronos Quartet joined by special guests Aizuri Quartet, Friction Quartet, and Soo Yeon Lyuh. The rich cultural diversity of the Kronos Fifty for the Future repertoire is on full display on opening night, with works by composers representing Benin, Colombia, India, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, and the United States.

Kronos Quartet begins the evening with Beninese singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo’s YanYanKliYan Senamido #2 and Guillermo Galindo's interactive Remote Control. Korean-born composer and haegeum virtuoso Soo Yeon Lyuh joins Kronos for her own work Yessori.

San Francisco’s own Friction Quartet takes the stage to perform Mario Galeano Toro's Tolo Midi, a piece influenced by the rhythmic and melodic universe of Cumbia, a musical style born in the Colombian Caribbean. The ensemble also performs Pulitzer Prize–winner Henry Threadgill’s Sixfivetwo and Merlijn Twaalfhoven's Play. The program concludes with New York’s Aizuri Quartet performing At the Purchaser's Option, Rhiannon Giddens' powerful and haunting piece that draws on the experiences of enslaved women (which Giddens performs on her own album Freedom Highway); Amrit, a work by Indian violinist, singer, and composer Kala Ramnath; and pencil sketch, a piece by Yevgeniy Sharlat. Kronos cellist Paul Wiancko joins Aizuri Quartet to perform his own composition Only Ever Us.

On Friday, June 23, Kronos is joined by special guests Friction Quartet, Rafiq Bhatia, and Victoria Shen for more from the Kronos Fifty for the Future repertoire, expanding the compositional canvas with several longer-form works. Friction Quartet opens the concert with a mix of works including Trey Spruance's Séraphîta, a three-movement work based on the novel of the same name by Honoré de Balzac; Barry Guy's what is the word, which draws on the poetry of Samuel Beckett; and Lu Yun's Temples in Taiwan, inspired by a trip the composer took to Longshan Temple. Sound artist, experimental music performer, and instrument-maker Victoria Shen collaborates with Kronos to reimagine works from Kronos Fifty for the Future, offering a unique perspective on the ensemble’s repertoire.

The Friday night program continues with Kronos Quartet performing Little Black Book by the electronic composer Jlin; Nicole Lizée's Another Living Soul, a work the composer describes as “stop motion animation for string quartet”; Canadian Inuit composer and throat singer Tanya Tagaq's Sivunittinni; Aleksandra Vrebalov's My Desert, My Rose; and the third movement of Terry Riley's This Assortment of Atoms — One Time Only!. Guest guitarist and composer Rafiq Bhatia of the Academy Award–nominated experimental band Son Lux joins Kronos for his work Glimmers.

On Saturday evening, June 24, for the conclusion of Kronos Festival 2023, Kronos Quartet is joined by special guests Attacca Quartet and Friction Quartet. The final program completes the survey of the Kronos Fifty for the Future repertoire with works by composers from India, Indonesia, Mali, Poland, Switzerland, and the United States. The Friction Quartet opens the evening with Hilathi, a meditative work by Aleksander Kościów, and Pulsation, a work by Filipina American composer, percussionist, and sound artist Susie Ibarra.

Attacca Quartet—which won Grammy Awards for its two Nonesuch albums with Caroline Shaw, Orange (2019) and Evergreen (2022)—performs Sky Macklay's Vertebrae; Angélica Negrón's Marejada, inspired by the soundscapes of Puerto Rico; and tabla master Zakir Hussain's Pallavi. Attacca also performs Charlton Singleton's Testimony, a work written from the Prayer Band experience, and from specific rhythms in African American churches and communities—the ‘Gullah Clap’ and the ‘Half Clap.’ Kronos Quartet takes the stage for Indonesian Gamelan composer and vocalist Peni Candra Rini’s Maduswara; composer, guitarist, and mathematician Stephan Thelen’s Circular Lines; and Malian griot singer Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté’s Tegere Tulon: V. Janety. The evening concludes with Philip Glass' Quartet Satz, performed by all the ensembles.

Earlier that Saturday, Kronos Quartet presents its popular Family Show and leads a musical world tour for kids and families. The program will sample short works from the globe-spanning Kronos Fifty for the Future repertoire, with “tour stops” in the composers’ home nations of Canada, China, Iran, Ireland, Mali, and back in the USA. The program also includes a Q&A with Kronos Quartet.

That afternoon and evening before the concert hold two free Kronos Labs. The San Francisco Conservatory of Music Wind Quartet and other student ensembles perform compositions from the Kronos Fifty for the Future repertoire at 2pm. The 5pm lab offers an inside look at the Kronos Fifty for the Future project with a panel discussion featuring Kronos founder and violinist David Harrington and musicians/composers Rafiq Bhatia, Soo Yeon Lyuh, and Paul Wiancko.

For all the details on Kronos Festival 2023 and tickets, visit kronosquartet.org.