The Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers (1978–1999) had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola and Joan Jeanrenaud on cello. Jennifer Culp is the quartet's current cellist.

Kronos specializes in new music and has a long history of commissioning new works. They have worked with many minimalist composers including Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Terry Riley and Kevin Volans. Their work covers a very broad range of musical genres: Mexican folk, experimental, pre-classical early music, movie soundtracks (Requiem for a Dream), jazz and tango. Kronos has even recorded adaptations of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze", Television's "Marquee Moon", and Raymond Scott's "Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals".

Awards

• Schock Prize for Musical Arts (1999)

Selected albums

• Pieces of Africa (music by seven African composers)
• Short Stories
• Black Angels (including George Crumb's Black Angels)
• Five Tango Sensations (with Astor Piazzolla)
• Nuevo (music of Mexican composers)
• Caravan (together with the gypsy group Taraf de Haidouks)

External links

• Official website