Friday, April 25 2025

Kronos Festival - Good Medicine Night 1

Kronos Quartet with special guests Soo Yeon Lyuh & Vân-Ánh Võ.

Terry Riley: Good Medicine from Salome Dances for Peace

Hildur Guõnadóttir: Folk Faer Andlit (World premiere)

Peni Candra Rini (arr. Jacob Garchik & Andy McGraw): Segara Gunung

IV. Hujan

Traditional (arr. Jacob Garchik): A Shout

Soo Yeon Lyuh: Sumbisori (World premiere)
featuring Soo Yeon Lyuh

Aleksandra Vrebalov: Cardinal Directions (World premiere)
featuring Vân-Ánh Võ

Gabriella Smith: Keep Going

I. Keep Going
II. Isabel
III. Water
IV. Driftwood Jam
V. What I love the most

Kronos Festival 2025 opens with Terry Riley’s Good Medicine from Salome Dances for Peace, an epic, two-hour-long string quartet. This movement serves as the last selection of the ballet, which tells the story of Salome using her alluring powers to create peace in the world. This important piece was described by Riley as “not. . . just a concert piece but a piece that could be played as a rite.” Following this will be the first world premiere of the evening, Hildur Guðnadóttir’s Folk Faer Andlit, written in response to the mistreatment of refugees in Iceland. This new arrangement of her 2020 release transforms the evocative plainchant sound of the original into haunting, interwoven melodies. Also on the program is the world premiere of Soo Yeon Lyuh’s Sumbisori, which brings the virtuosity of her haegeum playing to the story of a singular, ancient and disappearing way of life on Jeju Island, and Cardinal Directions by Aleksandra Vrebalov, which will mark 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War and feature master Vietnamese instrumentalist Vân-Ánh Võ alongside Kronos. Peni Candra Rini’s timely and elemental Segara Gunung: IV. Hujan, Gabriella Smith’s uplifting Keep Going, and A Shout, a traditional arrangement by Jacob Garchik, will complete the program.

Location: Miner Auditorium

Saturday, April 26 2025

7:30pm - Kronos Festival - Good Medicine Night 2

Kronos Quartet performs with special guests Ariel Aberg-Riger & Benedicte Maurseth.

Sun Ra (arr. Jacob Garchik): Outer Spaceways, Inc.

Viet Cuong: Next Week’s Trees

Inti Figgis-Vizueta: clay songs (West Coast premiere)

Nina Simone (arr. Jacob Garchik): For All We Know

Traditional (arr. Jonathan Berger): Ya Taali’een ‘ala el-Jabal (inspired by Rim Banna)

Ariel Aberg-Riger & Hamza El Din: Swimming with Rachel Carson - Escalay (real. Tohru Ueda)
featuring Ariel Aberg-Riger

Benedicte Maurseth & Kristine Tjøgersen: Elja (West Coast premiere)
featuring Benedicte Maurseth

Program #2 of Kronos Festival showcases two West Coast premieres: inti figgis-vizueta’s Clay Songs, a work inspired by Pre-Columbian sounding objects and the interplay of past and present voices, and Benedicte Maurseth & Kristine Tjøgersen’s Elja, a Hardanger quintet where Kronos, playing new instruments built for them by luthier, Ottar Kaasa, will be joined by Maurseth, also on Hardanger fiddle. Sun Ra’s cosmic Outer Spaceways Incorporated, arranged by Jacob Garchik, will open this program, followed by Viet Cuong’s contemplative Next Week’s Trees. The program continues with Garchik’s arrangement of Nina Simone’s imaginative take on For All We Know, Jonathan Berger’s arrangement of Ya Taali’een ‘ala el-Jabal (inspired by Rim Banna) and Hamza El Din’s reflective Escalay, for which visual storyteller Ariel Aberg-Riger will join Kronos.

Location: Miner Auditorium

Kronos Labs - Free

3:00 PM - Spotlight: Laura Ortman

Laura Ortman discusses the newly reimagined version of Scended Sparks, premiering at Kronos Festival, and the inspirations behind her music. A fearless experimenter working with Apache violin, megaphones, field recordings, and more, Ortman continuously pushes artistic boundaries across mediums. A member of the White Mountain Apache tribe, she also founded the Coast Orchestra in 2008, an all-Native American ensemble that performed a live soundtrack to In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914), the first silent feature film to star an all-Native American cast.

Location: Joe Henderson Lab

5:00 PM - Spotlight: Gabriella Smith

Composer Gabriella Smith shares insights into Keep Going, her work for Kronos Quartet that weaves music with the voices of climate innovators from around the world. She will explore the inspirations behind her music — including ecosystem restoration, songbird research, and natural soundscapes — and how they shape her approach to composition and climate action. Known for her joyful, environmentally-conscious works, Smith invites listeners to engage with the climate movement through creativity, connection, and hope.

Location: Joe Henderson Lab

Sunday, April 27 2025

2:00 PM: Kronos Festival – Good Medicine Finale

Program #3 closes Kronos Festival with two captivating premieres that will feature the composers themselves alongside Kronos. Vocalist and composer Tsering Wangmo Satho, joined by the San Francisco Girls Chorus under the direction of Valérie Sainte-Agathe, will present the world premiere of Satho’s new work, which explores the dynamic storytelling inherent to Tibetan opera songs. Multi-instrumentalist and composer Laura Ortman will join Kronos for the world premiere of a new version of her work, Scended Sparks. Drawing on her White Mountain Apache heritage, Ortman’s voice and words intertwine with her classical and Apache violins to evoke vivid landscapes, blending the sounds of nature with dynamic storytelling. The program also includes Nicole Lize?e’s haunting and experimental Death to Kosmische, Mary Kouyoumdjian’s unflinching Bombs of Beirut — available now on WITNESS, her and Kronos’ recent album — and Zachary James Watkins’s resonant Peace Be Till.

Location: Miner Auditorium

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Date: April 25-27, 2025

Location: SFJazz Center - 201 Franklin Street San Francisco, CA 94102

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