Kronos Quartet and Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi are among the artists who will perform free for Carnegie Hall's first-ever online festival, Voices of Hope, taking place April 16–30. The two-week festival examines the life-affirming power of music and the arts during times of crisis through more than 100 events, including programming presented by Carnegie Hall and more than 40 cultural and academic institutions across New York City and beyond.

Kronos Quartet's program, on Saturday, April 24, at 8pm ET, includes selections by Terry Riley; an excerpt from Mary Kouyoumdjian’s Silent Cranes, depicting the voices of those lost in the Armenian Genocide of 1915; and a selection from Zachary James Watkins’s Peace Be Till, featuring the recorded voice of Clarence B. Jones, speechwriter and personal counsel to Martin Luther King Jr.

Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi's performance, premiering the following Wednesday, April 28, at 8pm ET, features songs from their new album, They're Calling Me Home, out April 9 on Nonesuch. The album was recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown in Ireland. The two expats found themselves drawn to and comforted by the music of their native and adoptive countries of America, Italy, and Ireland, which they recorded at a spare studio on a working farm outside of Dublin. The result is a twelve-song album that speaks to the longing for the comfort of home as well as the metaphorical call "home" of death.

Also among the festival events is a performance by composer/pianist Frederic Rzewski of his work The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, 36 variations on Sergio Ortega’s "¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!," captured at the Miami International Piano Festival in 2007 and streaming from Monday, April 26, at 3pm ET. Rzewski performs the piece on Rzewski Plays Rzewski: Piano Works, 1975-1999, the 2002 box set celebrating 25 years of his solo-piano compositions.

“With our Voices of Hope festival, we have set out to create a special journey, inviting audiences to explore the inspiring role that artists have played in some of the darkest chapters of our shared history—capturing stories or a moment in time and expressing hope, courage, and resistance,” said Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall’s Executive and Artistic Director. “The festival also reflects on the world today, and how, during the global pandemic, we continue to turn to the arts and artists to provide us with the inspiration and resilience we so desperately need.”

Originally scheduled to feature live, in-person performances from March through May 2021, Voices of Hope was re-envisioned as an online festival after Carnegie Hall was forced to close its doors for an extended period due to COVID-19. Since April 2020, the Hall has partnered with artists to produce a range of new original streamed programming to stay connected with audiences as the Hall works toward welcoming audiences back for live music-making in fall 2021.

All Voices of Hope programming presented by Carnegie Hall along with most festival partner events will be offered for free. Carnegie Hall programming will stream on carnegiehall.org/voicesofhope as well as on the Hall’s Facebook and YouTube pages, and will be available for on-demand viewing through May 31, 2021.