Kronos Quartet

SUN RINGS

Jubilee Auditorium - January 10

Presented by: One Yellow Rabbit & The Festival Chorus of Calgary

From San Francisco & Calgary

KronosHouston, we have a concert: Tune in and space out to the authentic Music of the Spheres.

The keening of the solar wind. Bird-like chirps of electrons trapped in earth’s magnetic field. Lightning bolts arcing across Jupiter’s atmosphere. All of these create the space noises known as “whistlers” that have, for the past four decades, been collected and studied by Iowa scientist Don Gurnett. They are the inspiration—and the sonic backbone—for minimalist pioneer Terry Riley’s latest composition for the legendary San Francisco quartet.

Founded in 1973, Kronos has assembled a body of work unparalleled in its range of expression; they were thus a natural choice when NASA went looking to commission music to accompany Gurnett’s cosmic soundtrack. (Since the 1960s, the space agency has gifted artists as diverse as Robert Rauschenberg and Norman Rockwell.) Although temporarily derailed by the events of September 11, Riley ultimately returned to the project inspired by poet Alice Walker’s 9-11 mantra, “one earth, one people, one love.” The result is an 85-minute multimedia space odyssey, complete with visual design by Willie Williams, the genius behind the arena spectacles of pop artists like U2, REM and David Bowie.

For this Canadian premiere, the 80-strong Festival Chorus of Calgary rounds out the extraterrestrial soundscape. “Like cosmic speech whistled through some great celestial mouth with starry gap teeth.” -Los Angeles Times

Jan 10 • Jubilee Auditorium

Sun Rings

Composed by Terry Riley
Performed by Kronos Quartet with The Festival Chorus of Calgary

KRONOS QUARTET
David Harrington, violin
John Sherba, violin
Hank Dutt, viola
Jennifer Culp, cello

Henry Kolenko, Artistic Producer
Willie Williams, Visual Design
Larry Neff, Lighting Design
Mark Grey, Sound Design
David Dvorin, Recorded Sound Transformation
Mark Logue, Associate Video Director
Don Gurnett, Project Advisor
Janet Cowperthwaite, Producer
Laird Rodet, Project Development
Kronos Performing Arts Association, Production Management
Henry Kolenko, Canadian Representation for Kronos

Sounds sourced courtesy of Dr. Donald A. Gurnett, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa

Voice "One Earth, One People, One Love": Alice Walker

Video sequences created at Punk Films, London, by Willie Williams, Mark Logue & Marina Fiorato
Additional editing: Tim Zgraggen, San Francisco

Imagery sourced courtesy of NASA; Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Jon
Lomberg; Dr. Donald A. Gurnett; Punk Films, London; Willie Williams, Dave D. Sentman & Daniel L. Osborne of the Geophysical InstituteUniversity of Alaksa; Alan Title, Lockheed (TRACE is a NASA Goddard Small Explored Mission (SMEX). The TRACE science instrument was developed by the Stanford-Lockheed Institute for Space Research); David Keleel; US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; US Fish & Wildlife Service.

Stage set construction: John Lobel, Light & Sound Design
Video projector supplied by Van Jarvis, Creative Technology
The Kronos Quartet records exclusively for Nonesuch Records.

Visit the Kronos Quartet web site

Visit the Festival Chorus web site

Event advertising images and campaign by Ty Semaka.
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