Kronos Quartet, fresh off their multi-concert run at the Sydney Festival last week that included performances with pipa virtuoso Wu Man and with composer Philip Glass, which the Sydney Morning Herald called "rewarding and singular," is slated to be featured in a mini-festival of their own: Kronos in Glasgow.

From May 12 through 15, Glasgow’s Concert Halls will welcome Kronos Quartet and some very special guest collaborators, hand-picked by Kronos, for a world exclusive international program of events taking place across the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, City Halls, and Old Fruitmarket, and a one-off show at Hamilton Mausoleum.

The festival opens on Thursday, May 12, with Listening with David Harrington, in which the Kronos artistic director and violinist shares some of his latest musical discoveries and discusses them.

On Friday, May 13, Kronos in Glasgow launches with a taste of the weekend to come, as Kronos Quartet is joined by some special guests for an exclusive event staged in Glasgow's Hamilton Mausoleum. This Roman-style domed structure’s high stone vault gives the building one the longest lasting echoes in any man-made structure in the world. The musicians will perform a series of short sets, exploring the astonishing acoustic and reverb time of the venue.

Later that night, Kronos Quartet will be joined by the National Youth Choir of Scotland for Kronos in Glasgow’s opening concert with a program of four Scottish premieres, including Steve Reich’s brand-new work WTC 9/11, which he wrote for the Quartet. The piece has been written for three string quartets (two recorded and one live) and features a collection of recorded voices speaking about 9/11, taken from interviews after the event and from archival recordings from the day itself. Also featuring on the program are Terry Riley’s Another Secret eQuation, Michael Gordon’s Exalted, and Jon Rose’s Music from 4 Fences, for which Kronos swap their strings for a specially constructed barbed wire fence. The performance will be accompanied by visual design by Willie Williams, U2’s long-time tour set designer.

On Saturday, May 14, Kronos leads a triple bill of musics from across the globe at the Old Fruitmarket, also featuring Finnish musician Ritva Koistinen, one of the leading players of the kantele, a zither-like string instrument; Azerbaijan's Alim Qasimov Ensemble; and Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq, with whom Kronos will perform Derek Charke's Tundra Songs.

Kronos Quartet have chosen the Baltimore-based experimental electronic duo Matmos, a.k.a. M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel, to bring Saturday to a close with a late night show in the Old Fruitmarket.

On Sunday, May 15, Kronos Quartet will return to the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall for an hour of family fun featuring instrument making, performance, and participation, in which Dr. Craig Woodson will teach the audience how to make their very own Drumpet (a cross between a drum and a trumpet) before leading everyone in a mass participation performance alongside the Quartet. Before and after the performance, there will be a number of additional activities for kids.

Bringing the weekend to a close, Kronos will be joined by Wu Man for a performance of Terry Riley’s The Cusp of Magic, a piece the artists recorded for a 2008 Nonesuch recording.

"We are absolutely thrilled to be bringing Kronos Quartet to Glasgow this May," says Svend Brown, Artistic Director of Glasgow’s Concert Halls. "Over the weekend, we’ll hear brand new music from leading composers such as Steve Reich, as well as seminal pieces which have never before been performed in Scotland. Kronos Quartet challenge the boundaries of the string quartet repertoire, and with its focus on collaboration across an array of musical genres, the Kronos in Glasgow weekend not only embraces the Quartet’s ethos but is the perfect way to bring our 2010/2011 season to a close."

For more information and tickets to Kronos in Glasgow, visit glasgowconcerthalls.com. For more on Kronos Quartet's upcoming performance schedule, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour. To peruse the Kronos Nonesuch catalog, visit the Nonesuch Store.