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Sunday, January 18, 2015, 7pm Hertz Hall

Kronos Quartet

David Harrington, John Sherba, violin Hank Dutt, Sunny Yang,

Brian Scott, lighting supervisor Brian Mohr, with special guest ,

PROGRAM

Kevin Volans (b. 1949) White Man Sleeps (1986)* in five movements

David T. Little (b. 1978) AGENCY (2013)*

ACT I: γένεσις I. Uluru Rising — a. Yulara/In the Dreamtime — b. Cipher I — Coordinates I — c. Cipher 2 — Negative Cartography —

II. Auscannzukus Rising — a. Constructions — b. Cipher 3 — Coordinates II — c. Cipher 4 — Complicitous List — d. Cipher 5 — No Way In

ENTR ’ACTE III. A Quiet Song of Secret Lessons (Cipher 6 [Log 324]) —

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ACT II : ἀποκάλυψις IV. Leviathan Rising and the All-Seeing Eye — a. Introduction/Early Warnings — b. Cipher 7.1 — Fact/Fiction (Beneath) — c. Cipher 8.1 — Ben, Then (Above) — d. Cipher 7.2 — Fact/Fiction (Beneath) — e. Cipher 8.2 — Ben, Then (Above) — f. Cipher 8.3 — (O)GOD(O)GOD(O) (Orwell I) — g. Cipher 9 — Coordinates III — h. Yulara/In the Dreamtime (Orwell II)

INTERMISSION

Terry Riley (b. 1935) The Cusp of Magic (2004)*

I. The Cusp of Magic II. Buddha’s Bedroom III. The Nursery IV. Royal Wedding V. Emily and Alice VI. Prayer Circle

with Wu Man , pipa

The program is subject to change.

* Written for Kronos

Cal Performances’ – season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

Kevin Volans (b. ;C>C) quartet for the Callino Quartet, and three White Man Sleeps (;CB@) books of small pieces. About White Man Sleeps , Volans writes: Kevin Volans was born in Pietermaritzburg, “, the textures, the colors of Africa South Africa. After completing a B.Mus. at the and the African landscape and the sounds of the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, birds and the insects are totally different from he went on to study in Cologne, principally Europe. And the music draws on those ele - with (later becoming ments. It’s not so much cultural as environ - his teaching assistant), , and mental. You can switch cultures, in a way, but Aloys Kontarsky. In the mid-1970s, his work you can’t deny your environmental background. became associated with the Neue Einfachheit “When Kronos asked me to do White Man (“”), the beginnings of post- Sleeps for them, I became interested in the modernism in music. issue of translatability. I have come to conclu - In 1979, following several field recording sion that the color of the instruments, or the trips to Africa, he embarked on a series of color of the sound that they produce, is as im - pieces based on African compositional tech - portant for the meaning of the music as the niques which quickly established Volans as a pitch, or they rhythms, or anything else.” distinctive voice on the European new music Kevin Volans’s White Man Sleeps was writ - circuit. During this time, he was active as a ten for the and recorded on the concert pianist and made several trips to Nonesuch CD Pieces of Africa . Ireland. His love of the country made him de - cide to settle there, and he took a post as David T. Little (b. ;CAB) -in-Residence in Belfast. In 1989 he AGENCY (<:;=) moved to Donegal, and in 1994 his request for citizenship was granted. David T. Little’s music is potent and dramatic, After moving to Ireland, Volans began a drawing as much upon his experience as a productive collaboration with the Kronos punk-metal drummer as his classical pedi - Quartet. White Man Sleeps (1986), Hunting: gree. In his work, he often undertakes politi - Gathering (1987), The Songlines (1988), and cal and existential themes, most recently No. 8, “Black Woman Rising” gaining attention for success writing for larger (2004), were all written for them. In the 1990s, forces. Little’s opera Dog Days (Peak Volans gave increasing attention to writing for Performances/Beth Morrison Projects) was dance, collaborating with Siobhan Davies, widely acclaimed; Fort Worth Opera and Los Jonathan Burrows, Shobana Jeyasingh in Angeles Opera will present Dog Days in 2015. Britain, as well as companies around the His multimedia music-theater work, Soldier world. In 1999, London’s South Bank Centre Songs , based on interviews with veterans of hosted a 50th birthday celebration of his work five wars, received its première on the inau - in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Latterly, he has gural in New York and turned his attention to writing for orchestra was later presented by the Holland Festival. and collaborating with visual artists. In 2009, Recent and/or upcoming works include for his 60th birthday celebrations, there were CHARM (Baltimore Symphony and Marin concerts in , Madrid, London (the Alsop), Hellhound (), Haunt of Wigmore Hall’s “Kevin Volans Day”), and Last Nightfall (Third Coast Percussion), the South Africa. Recent commissions include a opera JFK with Royce Vavrek (Fort Worth piano concerto (No. 3) for Barry Douglas and Opera and American Lyric Theater), a new the BBC Symphony (BBC Proms), a triple opera commissioned by the Metropolitan percussion concerto for SISU and the Opera– Theater new works Kringkastensorkestret (Oslo), a new string program, and the music-theater work Artaud

CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM NOTES in the Black Lodge with Outrider legend Anne fiction, and fantasy surrounding them. Waldman (Beth Morrison Projects). His Likewise, this work is riddled with clues and music has been heard at , the secret messages—including nine labeled ci - Park Avenue Armory, the phers, and many others not indicated—which Marathon, and elsewhere. must either be found or decoded in order to He holds degrees from Susquehanna access the meaning of the piece. In some cases, University (2001), the University of Michigan the answers to these riddles must be found in (2002), and (Ph.D., the score itself—hidden via substitution ci - 2011), where his research explored the inter - phers, redactions, translation from various spy section of music and politics. His primary codes, etc.—while in other cases the clues only teachers have included , exist in the electronic backing track and must , Paul Lansky, , be detected through audio manipulation— and Michael Daugherty. Little is co-founder time expansion, reversal, filtering, etc. These of the annual New Music Bake Sale, has hidden messages together include ideolog- served as Executive Director of MATA, and is ical texts, map coordinates, lists of ‘guilty par - currently Director of Composition at ties’ to international spy conspiracies, and Shenandoah Conservatory and Composer-in- philosophical, religious, and poetic quota - Residence with Opera Philadelphia. The tions. Other messages are audible, but unclear: founding artistic director of the often abstracted to obscure meaning, while Newspeak, his music can be heard on the New also amplifying their poetry. These messages Amsterdam and Innova labels. He is pub - together express the core meaning of lished by Boosey & Hawkes. AGENCY , but must first be deciphered before About AGENCY , Little writes: they can be understood. “a•gen•cy (ˈeɪ dʒə n si) “There are two master scores, each of which 1. an organization, company, or bureau that serves as a key for deciphering the codes provides a particular service. found in the work: one is held in the archives 2. a government bureau or administra- of the Kronos Quartet, and the other is held tive division. in the composer’s archives. There is no other 3. a means of exerting power or influence; in - key for deciphering the messages embedded strumentality. within the work.” 4. t he capacity for human beings to act inde - AGENCY was commissioned for the Kronos pendently and to make their own free choices. Quartet by the University Musical Society of the “AGENCY is a work about the presence or University of Michigan and the David absence of choice in society, explored through Harrington Research and Development Fund. the tension between faith-based indigenous cultures and modern information-based spy (b. ;C=?) agencies. Specifically focusing on the tension The Cusp of Magic (<::>) between the Aboriginal holy site Uluru in cen - tral (also known by the colonial Composer and performer Terry Riley is one name Ayers Rock) and Pine Gap, a massive of the founders of music’s Minimalist move - American spy center of top-secret function, ment. His early works, notably (1964), pi - which sits just five hours to the north, oneered a form in Western music based on AGENCY seeks to ask: to what degree are we structured interlocking repetitive patterns. autonomous agents in the world, and to what The influence of Riley’s hypnotic, multilay - degree are we acted upon by outside, un - ered, polymetric, brightly orchestrated known, and potentially more powerful agents? Eastern-flavored improvisations and compo - “Both Uluru and Pine Gap are shrouded in sitions is heard across the span of contempo - great mystery, with a fantastical mix of fact, rary and popular music.

PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

Born in Colfax, , Riley studied at Banana Humberto 2000 (2000), premièred Shasta College, State University, and toured by Riley and the Paul Dresher and the San Francisco Conservatory before Ensemble; Bruce’s Traveling Machine (2005 ) earning an M.A. in composition at UC for cello and tape, commissioned by the artist Berkeley, studying with Seymour Shifrin and Bruce Connor; The Heaven Ladder, Book 6 Robert Erickson. At Berkeley, he met La (Night Music) (2006) for piano four-hands, Monte Young; together, they worked with the commissioned by Sarah Cahill and premièred dancer Anna Halprin. During a sojourn to by Ms. Cahill and Joseph Kubera; Loops for Europe in 1962–1964, he collaborated with Ancient-Giant-Nude-Hairy Warriors Racing members of the Fluxus group, playwright Ken Down the Slopes of Battle (2006 ) for the Dewey, and trumpeter Chet Baker, and was Crash Ensemble; and the triple concerto involved in street theater and happenings. In SolTierraLuna (2007 ), co-commissioned by 1965, he moved to New York and joined La the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and Monte Young’s “Theater of Eternal Music.” the New Century Chamber Orchestra of San Nineteen sixty-seven was the year of his first Francisco. His music is published by all-night concert at the Phila delphia College Associated Music Publishers, Inc. of Art, and when he began a collaboration About The Cusp of Magic , Riley writes: with visual artist Robert Benson. One of his “The Cusp of Magic significantly fills the influential teachers was Pandit Pran Nath, a picture that my collaboration with Kronos has master of Indian classical voice; Riley ap - been portraying for nearly 25 years. My com - peared in concert with him as tampura , tabla , positions for Kronos are the most important and vocal accompanist for o ver 25 years. Riley of my notated works, each one staking out a continues to perform in concerts of his music different mood and musical structure and set - and of Indian , as well as con - ting up new challenges for both composer and ducting raga-singing seminars. performer. In this work, the different timbre In 1971, Riley joined the faculty of Mills and resonance of the Chinese pipa and the College, where he met David Harrington of Western string ensemble highlight the the Kronos Quartet. Their long association crossover regions of cultural reference, so that led to 27 work s, including the concerto The Western musical themes might be projected Sands (1990 ); the multimedia work commis - with an Eastern accent and vice versa. My sioned by NASA, Sun Rings (2003 ); and The plan was to make these regions seamless so Cusp of Magic (2004 ), with pipa . The Kronos that the listener is carried between worlds recording of his epic five-quartet cycle, without an awareness of how he or she ends Salome Dances for Peace , was selected as the up there. classical album of the year by USA Today and “The work is in six movements: ‘The Cusp was nominated for a Grammy Award. of Magic,’ ‘Buddha’s Bedroom,’ ‘The Nursery,’ Riley’s commissions include: the orchestral ‘Royal Wedding,’ ‘Emily and Alice,’ and Jade Palace (1991) for Carnegie Hall’s centen - ‘Prayer Circle.’ ‘The Cusp of Magic’ movement nial celebration, premièred there by the Saint is based on a cycle of 108 beats (considered in Louis Symphony a nd Leonard Slatkin; June to be a sacred number and one on which Buddhas (1991 ) for chorus and orchestra, prayer beads, called malas, are based). It is based on Jack Kerouac’s “Mexico City subdivided 9–7–6–5–4–3–2–3–4–5–6–6–5– Blues,” commissioned by the Koussevitsky 4–3–2–3–4–5–6–7–9 with contrasting sec - Foundation; the chamber vocal work What tions based on a cycle of 2x (12x4+6) that also the River Said (1997 ) by the Norwich Festival; results in a 108-beat cycle organizati on. With the piano piece in just intonation The Dream this complex rhythm, the first violin assumes (1999) by the Kanagawa Foundation; the con - the role of percussionist or timekeeper, creat - certo for piano and electro-acoustic band ing the rhythmic pulse with a peyote rattle or

CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM NOTES shaker and bass drum. This also gives the piece I played the original version on the pipe organ the ritualistic atmosphere that its title implies. at their wedding and used that as a basis for “‘Buddha’s Bedroom’ is also organized in the one that appears in The Cusp of Magic . rhythmic cycles, the principal one being a 20- “‘Prayer Circle’ is inspired by the Cuban beat cycle broken down into a 6+6+4+4 pat - montuno but scored in compound meters with tern. Its staggered repeated notes in all parts cho rd changes taking place in irregular pat - give the music a rhythmic polyphony. A cen - terns that propel the movement forward. The ter section features Wu Man’s haunting voice. cycles employed are in long, looping patterns “‘The Nursery’ was born from an afternoon of 17/8 and 21/8, yet the underlying harmonic spent with Kronos founder David Harrington progressions are reminiscent of those found in his home in the nursery of his infant grand - in popular music of C uba and Latin America. daughter, which was abundantly stocked with ‘Prayer Circle’ is dedicated to world peace. toys he had collected from around the world. “The Cusp of Magic is dedicated to Gary We played with these toys all afternoon and Goldschneider, whose book The Secret made recorded samples of them with my lap top Language of Relationships provided the title of which I had brought along for the occasion. this piece. Goldschneider has given the imag - Using these sampled sounds as a basis, I put to - inative name ‘the Cusp of Magic’ to the Zodiac gether a movement that features lullabies in position 27 degrees Gemini and four degrees Chinese and English that float along in the tex - Cancer taking place in the period June 19–24, tures of the layered samples which are played in which happens to include the day I was born.” a prerecorded backing track. ‘Emily and Alice’ Electronic music elements enhanced and also uses the same materials; it is a variant on mixed by David Dvorin. the techniques used in ‘The Nursery,’ but fea - Terry Riley’s The Cusp of Magic was written tures a recording of a doll singing a Russian folk and commissioned for the Kronos Quartet and melody. After I had finished these two move - Wu Man as part of a national series of works ments, I realized that, although they deal with from Meet the Composer Commissioning happy and joyous surrounding, they both end Music/USA, made possible by the National in a somewhat dark atmosphere. I feel this re - Endowment for the Arts, The F. Whitaker lates to the reality of our present times that are Fund, and the Target Foundation. Major sup - so threatened by the war posturing of my na - port was generously provided by The Wallace tion, looming like a dark cloud over our young. Alexander Gerbode Foundation, with addi - “‘Royal Wedding’ was written for the mar - tional funds from The Margaret E. Lyon Trust. riage of Michael and Marina Harrison which Kronos and Wu Man’s recording of The Cusp took place when I was working on this piece. of Magic is available on .

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS g r e b s e k a l B y a J

OR 40 YEARS , the Kronos Quartet —David elec tronic effects. Kronos then began building a FHarrington ( violin ), John Sherba ( violin ), compellingly diverse repertoire for string quartet, Hank Dutt ( viola ), and Sunny Yang ( cello )— performing and recording works by 20th-cen - has pursued a singular artistic vision, com - tury masters (Bartók, Webern, Schnittke), con - bining a spirit of fearless exploration with a temporary (, Osvaldo commitment to continually reimagining the Golijov, Aleksandra Vrebalov), legends string quartet experience. In the process, (Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Kronos has become one of the most cele - Monk), rock artists (guitar legend , brated and influential groups of our time, per - Brazilian electronica artist , and forming thousands of concerts worldwide, Icelandic indie-rock group Sigur Rós), and releasing more than 50 recordings of extraor - artists who truly defy genre (performance artist dinary breadth and creativity, collaborating , composer-sound sculptor- with many of the world’s most intriguing and inventor Trimpin, interdisci plinary composer- accomplished composers and performers, and performer ). commissioning more than 800 works and Integral to Kronos’ work is a series of long- arrangements for string quartet. In 2011, running, in-depth collaborations with many of Kronos became the only recipients of both the the world’s foremost composers. One of the and the Avery Fisher Prize, quartet’s most frequent composer-collaborators two of the most prestigious awards given to is “Father of Minimalism” Terry Riley, whose musicians. The group’s numerous awards also work with Kronos includes Salome Dances for include a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Peace (1985–1986); Sun Rings (2002 ), a multi - Music Performance (2004) and “Musicians of media, NASA-commissioned ode to the Earth the Year” (2003) from Musical America . and its people, featuring celestial sounds and Kronos’ adventurous approach dates back to images from space; and The Serquent the ensemble’s origins. In 1973 , David Harrington Risadome, premièred during Kronos’ 40th an - was inspired to form Kronos after hearing George niversary celebration at Carnegie Hall in 2014. Crumb’s Black Angels , a highly unorthodox, Kronos commissioned and recorded the thre e Vietnam War-inspired work featuring bowed string quartets of Polish composer Henryk water glasses, spoken word passages, and Górecki, with whom the group worked for

CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS more than 25 years. The quartet has also col - Aronofsky films Noah (2014 ), laborated extensively with composers such as (2006 ), and (2000 ). , recording a CD of his string quar - Additional films featuring Kronos’ music in - tets in 1995 and premièring String Quartet clude 21 Grams (2003), Heat (1995), and True No. 6 in 2013, among other projects; Stories (1986). Azerbaijan’s Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, whose works The quartet spends five months of each year are featured on the full-length 2005 release on tour, appearing in concert halls, clubs, and Mugam Sayagi ; , from Kronos’ per - festivals around the world including Lincoln formance of the Grammy-winning composition Center Out of Doors, BAM Next Wave Festival, (1989) to the September 11th– Carnegie Hall, the Barbican in London, themed WTC 9/11 (2011); and many more. WOMAD, UCLA’s Royce Hall, Amsterdam’s In addition to composers, Kronos counts nu - Concertgebouw, Shanghai Concert Hall, and merous performers from around the world the . Kronos is equally among its collaborators, including the Chinese prolific and wide-ranging on recordings. The pipa virtuoso Wu Man; Azeri master vocalist ensemble’s expansive discography on Nonesuch ; legendary “playback Records includes collections like Pieces of Africa singer” , featured on Kronos’ 2005 (1992 ), a showcase of African-born composers, Grammy-nominated CD You’ve Stolen My which simultaneously topped Billboard ’s Heart: Songs from R. D. Burman’s Bollywood ; Classical and World Music lists; 1998’s ten-disc Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq; indie rock anthology, Kronos Quartet: 25 Years ; Nuevo band The National; Mexican rockers Café (2002), a Grammy- and Latin Grammy–nom - Tacvba; sound artist and instrument builder inated celebration of Mexican culture; and the Walter Kitundu; and the Romanian gypsy band 2004 Grammy-winner, ’s Lyric Taraf de Haïdouks. Kronos has performed live Suite, featuring renowned soprano Dawn with the likes of Paul McCartney, Allen Upshaw. Other recent releases include Rainbow Ginsberg, , the Modern Jazz (, 2010 ), in collaboration Quartet, Noam Chomsky, Rokia Traoré, Tom with musicians from Afghanistan and Waits, David Barsamian, Howard Zinn, Betty Azerbaijan; and Aheym: Kronos Quartet Plays Carter, and , and has appeared on Music by (ANTI -, 2013 ). Kronos’ recordings by artists such as , two most recent releases, unveiled by Nonesuch Dan Zanes, DJ Spooky, Dave Matthews, Nelly simultaneously in 2014 in celebration of the Furtado, , and Walser. Quartet’s 40th anniversary season, are Kronos In dance, the famed choreographers Merce Explorer Series, a five-CD retrospective boxed Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Eiko set; and the single-disc A Thousand Thoughts, & Koma, and Paul Lightfoot and Sol León featuring mostly unreleased recordings from (Nederlands Dans Theater) have created pieces throughout Kronos’ career. Music publishers with Kronos’ music. Boosey & Hawkes and Kronos have released Kronos’ work has also featured prominently two editions of Kronos Collection sheet music: in a number of films, including two recent Volume 1 (2006), featuring three Kronos- Academy Award-nominated documentaries: commissioned works; and Volume 2 (2014), the AIDS-themed How to Survive a Plague featuring six Kronos-commissioned arrange - (2012 ) and Dirty Wars (2013 ), an exposé of ments by composer Osvaldo Golijov. covert warfare for which Kronos’ David In addition to its role as a performing and Harrington served as Music Supervisor. Kronos recording ensemble, the quartet is committed to also performed scores by Philip Glass for the mentoring emerging performers and com - films Mishima and Dracula (a 1999 restored posers and has led workshops, master classes, edition of the 1931 Tod Browning-Bela Lugosi and other education programs via the San classic) and by Clint Mansel l for the Darren Francisco Conservatory of Music, the California

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS

State Summer School for the Arts, Carnegie ancient musical traditions. Her adventurous Hall’s Weill Institute, The Barbican in London, spirit and virtuosity have led to collaborations and other institutions in the U.S. and overseas. across artistic disciplines allowing Wu Man to Kronos has recently undertaken extended edu - reach wider audiences as she works to break cational residencies at Cal Performances, the through cultural and musical borders. Wu Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the Man’s efforts were recognized when she was University of Maryland, the Special Music named Musical America ’s 2013 Instrumentalist School at the Kaufman Music Center in New of the Year, the first time this prestigious award York City, and the Malta Arts Festival. has been bestowed on a player of a non- With a staff of ten based in San Francisco, Western instrument. the nonprofit Kronos Performing Arts Having been brought up in the Pudong Association (KPAA) manages all aspects of School of pipa playing, one of the most pres - Kronos’ work, including the commissioning of tigious classical styles of Imperial China, Wu new works, concert tours, concert presenta - Man is now recognized as an outstanding ex - tions in the San Francisco Bay Area, education ponent of the traditional repertoire as well as programs, and more. One of KPAA’s most ex - a leading interpreter of contemporary pipa citing initiatives is the Kronos: Under 30 Project , music by today’s most prominent composers, a unique commissioning and residency pro - such as , Philip Glass, the late Lou gram for composers under age 30 that has now Harrison, Terry Riley, Bright , and Chen added five new works to the Kronos repertoire. Yi. She has been featured on PBS NewsHour By cultivating creative rela tionships with with Jim Lehrer , and in 2011 she was the first emerging and established artists from around Chinese musician featured on NPR’s Tiny the world, Kronos and KPAA reap the benefit Desk Concert series. She was awarded the of decades of wisdom while maintaining a Bunting Fellowship at Harvard University in fresh approach to music-making. 1998, and was the first Chinese traditional musician to receive the United States Artist Fellowship in 2008. She is also the first artist from China to perform at the White House. Highlights of the 2013–2014 season in - cluded a performance with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for the world première of ’s Concerto for Pipa and Orchestra. Wu Man then performed the U.S. première of the concerto with the Santa Rosa Symphony, and went on to perform the piece with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Louisiana Recognized as the world’s premier pipa Philharmonic, and the San Diego Symphony. virtuoso and leading ambassador of Chinese She performed ’s Pipa Concerto music, Grammy Award-nominated musician with the Hartford Symphony and Tan Dun’s Wu Man has carved out a career as a soloist, Pipa Concerto with the Fresno Philharmonic educator, and composer giving her lute-like and the Illinois Symphony. Wu Man was a fea - instrument—which has a history of over 2,000 tured artist at Cal Performances, where she years in China—a new role in both traditional performed with the Kronos Quartet and gave and contemporary music. Through numerous a recital. She was featured again with concert tours, Wu Man has premièred Kronos at Carnegie Hall for the quartet’s 40th hundreds of new works for the pipa , while Anniversary Celebration concert, where she spearheading multimedia projects to both performed the New York première of Orion: preserve and create awareness of China’s China , a piece she co-wrote with Philip Glass.

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She gave a solo recital at Wigmore Hall in work together being the multimedia work A London and toured with the Chinese Home , directed by Chen Shi-Zheng. Ensemble, serving as part of the ensemble’s Wu Man’s discography includes over 40 al - leadership team. In summer 2013, Wu Man bums, including Traditions and Transfor - was granted a fellowship from the San Diego mations: Sounds of the Silk Road Chicago , Foundation’s Creative Catalyst fund to embark which features her Grammy Award-nomi - on a new project in which she united Chinese nated performance of Lou Harrison’s Pipa and Latin American musicians for a concert Concerto with the Chicago Symphony at the Carlsbad Music Festival in 2014 . Orchestra . In May 2012, Wu Man released her Wu Man has performed as soloist with 2013 Independent Music Award –nomi nated many of the world’s major orchestras, includ - CD/DVD Borderlands , the final installment of ing the Austrian ORF Radio Symphony the acclaimed ten-volume Music of Central Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Asia ethnographic series produced by the Aga Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Khan Trust for Culture and the Smithsonian Philharmonic, Moscow Soloists, Nashville Institution Center for Folklife and Culture Symphony, German NDR and RSO Radio Heritage that traces the history of the pipa in Symphony Orchestras, New Music Group, China. Wu Man has recorded for various la - , Symphony bels, including recordings of Tan Dun’s Ghost Orchestra and the Chamber Opera and Terry Riley’s The Cusp of Magic Orchestra. Her touring has taken her to the with the Kronos Quartet on Nonesuch, a solo major music halls of the world, including recording, Wu Man: Pipa from a Distance for Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Naxos, and two recordings with the Silk Road the Great Hall in Moscow, the Kennedy Ensemble and Yo-Yo Ma for Sony Classical. Center, Lincoln Center, Opera Bastille, the Recent recordings include: Off the Map with Royal Albert and Royal Festival halls in the Silk Road Ensemble on World Village; her London, and the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris. solo album Immeasurable Light on Traditional She has performed at many international fes - Crossroads; and the Grammy-nominated tivals, including WOMAD, Bang on a Can, recording of Tan Dun’s Pipa Concerto with Festival d’Automne in Paris, Henry Wood’s and the Moscow Soloists on BBC Promenade, Hong Kong Arts, La Jolla Onyx Classics. Wu Man has also released a Summerfest, Le Festival de Radio France, CD of world music entitled Wu Man and Lincoln Center, Luminato, BAM NextWave, Friends on the Traditional Crossroads label Ravinia, Silk Road, Sydney, Tanglewood, Wien that blends Chinese, Ukrainian, Ugandan, and Modern and Mozart in Vienna, and Appalachian music, and she is featured on a Yatsugatake Kogen in Japan. recording of Orion with the Philip Glass Wu Man continually collaborates with Ensemble for the Orange Mountain label. In some o f the most distinguished musicians and 2005, Nonesuch released an homage to the conductors performing today, such as Yuri composer of classic Bollywood songs, Rahul Bashmet, , Christoph Dev Burman, featuring the Kronos Quartet, Eschenbach, Gunther Herbig, Cho-liang Lin, Wu Man, singer Asha Bhosle, and tabla player Yo-Yo Ma, David Robertson, Esa-Pekka Zakir Hussain, called You’ve Stolen My Heart , Salonen, and David Zinman. She is a princi - which was nominated for a Grammy for Best pal member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project Contemporary World Music Album. and performs regularly throughout the United Born in , China, Wu Man stud - States, Europe, and Asia with Mr. Ma as part of ied with Lin Shicheng, Kuang Yuzhong, Chen the project’s ensemble. Since 1993, Wu Man Zemin, and at the Central has also regularly performed and recorded Conservatory of Music in , where she with the Kronos Quartet, their most recent became the first recipient of a master’s degree

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS in pipa . Accepted into the conservatory at age in 1979, when she saw and the 13 , Wu Man’s audition was covered by na - Boston Symphony Orchestra performing in tional newspapers and she was hailed as a Beijing. In 1980 she participated in an open child prodigy, becoming a nationally recog - master class with violinist , and in nized role model for young pipa players. She 1985 she made her first visit to the United subsequently received first prize in the First States as a member of the China Youth Arts National Music Performance Competition, Troupe. Wu Man moved to the United States among many other awards, and she partici - in 1990 and currently resides with her husband pated in many premières of works by a new and son in California. For more information generation of Chinese composers. Wu Man’s on Wu Man, please visit www.wumanpipa.org first exposure to Western classical music came or her artist page on Facebook.

Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association Janet Cowperthwaite, Managing Director Laird Rodet, Associate Director Sidney Chen, Artistic Administrator Mason Dille, Development Associate Scott Fraser, Sound Designer Christina Johnson, Communications and New Media Manager Nikolás McConnie-Saad, Office Manager Kären Nagy, Interim Strategic Initiatives Director Hannah Neff, Production Associate Lucinda Toy, Business Operations Manager

Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association P. O. Box 225340 San Francisco, CA 94122-5340 www.kronosquartet.org www.facebook.com/kronosquartet www.myspace.com/kronosquartet Twitter: @kronosquartet #kronos

e Kronos Quartet records for Nonesuch Records.

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