Friday, October 9, 1998
Kronos Quartet brings Grammy winning sound to UCLA
MUSIC: Harmonious group’s playing emanates with diverse
repertoire
By Stacy Sare
Daily Bruin Contributor
When violinist David Harrington opened the morning newspaper
yesterday, he was struck by a picture of a young Albanian boy.
"I was just thinking, I wonder if there’s any music in this
child’s life," Harrington says. "When you think about the kind of
devastation that happens in war, in any kind of really violent
human situation, music usually does not exist in that setting."
Harrington believes that there are a lot of civilized qualities
that are necessary for music to exist. "Musicians rely on there
being places of peace so that people can listen to music."
The Kronos Quartet, a San Francisco-based Grammy Award-winning
string quartet, will celebrate with a 25th-anniversary performance
in Royce Hall this Sunday.
The quartet features founder Harrington (violin), John Sherba
(violin), Hank Dutt (viola) and Joan Jeanrenaud (cello) and will be
joined by guest pianist Margaret Kampmeier for the Royce Hall
performance. The quartet’s history with UCLA goes back to the early
1980s. Janet Cowperthwaite, the managing director of Kronos, says
that it’s a pleasure to be able to appear in Royce Hall as part of
their anniversary tour.
"We’ve considered UCLA our L.A. home. We really appreciate the
support of both the students and all the people at UCLA for
allowing us the opportunity to perform there so many times,"
Cowperthwaite says. "It’s really a special occasion for us, and we
look forward to it."
Harrington explains that many people don’t know that UCLA is one
of the music capitals. "It’s an amazing place for artistic events,"
says Harrington. "Acoustically, Royce Hall is one of the really
special places in the country."
Kronos’s relationship with the university isn’t limited to
performance concerts. The quartet is also associated with UCLA’s
department of ethnomusicology. Harrington shared the diversified
experience he had at UCLA in the spring of 1995 when they played
with a Gamelon orchestra, a Ugandan drummer, a group from China and
a Middle Eastern music group.
"We were (at UCLA) for a whole week," Harrington says. "We did
concerts and all kinds of rehearsals with musicians from various
parts of the world. It was a fantastic experience."
Harrington discussed the rare opportunity that he had at UCLA
that other string musicians don’t get to take part in. "In one
concert, we’ve been touching areas of the world that the string
quartet had never really experienced. It was a terrific week."
He says his relationship with UCLA has played an instrumental
role in developing innovation in the quartet’s music.
"We’ve tried out all kinds of new things there, and for us to
have a concert there, we’re really celebrating doing this kind of
thing," Harrington explains. "It’s very special for us to come back
there . We feel we have an audience there that is really interested
in our music."
Harrington’s love for music is nothing new. He began playing the
violin when he was 9 years old. By age 12, the young musician
started his first quartet playing compositions by Beethoven and
Mozart, among others.
He explains why he believes music is a "clean and pure
substance."
"Music by it’s nature is one of the most environmentally pure
human substances there is," Harrington says. "Because music
evaporates, it dissolves into thin air.
"It resides in the memory of people who have heard it. In that
sense, there’s no baggage or garbage left over from music."
It’s difficult to fit Kronos’ sound into a musical category.
Cowperthwaite admits that she always had a hard time describing the
music or putting a label on it because it’s very wide-reaching.
"It’s been influenced by all kinds of different things – from
classical music to pop music to world music to jazz," Cowperthwaite
says.
"All those influences come into the music that Kronos plays,"
she continues. "But it wouldn’t necessarily be appropriate to
classify the music in any one of those ways."
On Sunday, the ensemble will perform specially arranged works by
Carlos Paredas, Phillip Glass and Harry Partch, among other musical
compositions. The final piece of the repertoire features Kronos’s
own version of Russian folk composer, Igor Stravinsky’s "Rite of
Spring."
Harrington and the members of the Kronos Quartet are excited to
play the composition because it’s the first time the group has
performed it.
The diversity and unpredictable feel of Stravinsky’s piece seems
an appropriate match for a style that the group calls, "lean, mean
and very direct."
"That’s the kind of music I want: music that’s really direct,"
Harrington says. "There’s no mistaking where it’s coming from and
where it’s going. Mellow is just fine for someone else. However,
some of the music we play is incredibly gentle, and there’s a
sweetness to it."
CONCERT: The Kronos Quartet performs at Royce Hall on Oct. 11.
For more information, call CTO at (310) 825-2101.The Kronos Quartet
will be playing this Sunday at Royce Hall
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