The celebrated Kronos Quartet are beloved because of the five decades they have dedicated to uplifting new music. In concert, their performances soar and swoop, quivering with vitality. Their recordings, too, are compulsively listenable, but always boundary pushing.
Kronos recently entered a new chapter when two of their longtime members, violinist John Sherba and violist Hank Dutt, announced their retirement in March of 2024 after 45+ years with the quartet. Violinist Gabriela Díaz and violist Ayane Kozasa took up their mantles. Díaz is a celebrated violinist who performs with half a dozen of Boston’s contemporary ensembles. Díaz is vocal about how surviving childhood cancer has informed her commitment to music as a source of healing. Kozasa, meanwhile, is a founding member of the Aizuri Quartet. As an advocate for viola-specific repertoire, she has spent her career commissioning and celebrating new viola music.
Later this month, Kronos will showcase their sparkling array of sounds at the 10th annual Kronos Festival in San Francisco. The three-day event will run from April 25th—27th and will feature compositions from multiple continents, including world premieres by Hildur Guðnadóttir, Soo Yeon Lyuh, Aleksandra Vrebalov, and Tsering Wangmo Satho (arr. Greg Saunier).
The festival will also feature a performance of Mary Kouyoumdjian’s Bombs of Beirut, one of four works from the quartet’s recently released portrait album. WITNESS addresses the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Kouyoumdjian’s family’s experience of the Lebanese Civil War, and the murder of George Floyd. Voices are layered throughout the album over haunting, driving strings. Sometimes, memories are narrated in English; other times, we hear a single vocalist lamenting in Armenian. The connections that the album draws across time and space confront the listener with a bitter truth: the world might say ‘never again’, but it never really means it.
The Kronos Quartet’s newest members will have a bright spotlight on them amid this whirlwind spring. We caught up with Díaz and Kozasa to chat about their start with the group.
Kronos Quartet — Photo by Jan Gates
The Kronos Quartet has such a legacy of not only musical innovation, but also social justice advocacy. With this new platform, what are you most excited to speak on, learn about, and advocate for?
GD: Kronos has always sought out the brightest voices from all over the world to collaborate with the group, and I am so incredibly lucky to have my worldview broadened by being a part of this quartet and getting to know these amazing artists. All of these performers and composers know how important human connection is, they create their music with the intention to bring people together. I hope that by performing these works, we open the minds of those attending our concerts and encourage curiosity and openness.
It is amazing to have a platform like Kronos. Because of the foundation that previous members of Kronos have built, we are able to use our musical voices to bring attention to important issues of our time. Right now, the number of causes that need attention are so many. I am looking forward to seeing how Kronos can help our society by reminding our audience of the power of human connection. I am incredibly excited about our future projects involving children. Through music, we can show young kids the importance of kindness, empathy, and honesty.
AK: I’ve been particularly interested in how music can address the climate crisis and help us understand how rapid change is affecting so many parts of our world. Much of the music I’ve played in the last few months as a new Kronos member has been about environmental issues. Whether it’s a call-to-action like Tanya Tagaq’s “Sivunnittini” or a celebration of those actively fighting for climate solutions like Gabriella Smith’s work “Keep Going,” Kronos is a conduit for gathering information, listening, and making space for artists who have something to say.
At this year’s Kronos Festival, we’ll be collaborating with Hardanger fiddle player Benedicte Maurseth on a piece that evokes the Norwegian landscape. Benedicte and composer Kristine Tjøgersen created a new work for us that features 5 Hardanger instruments (3 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello) as well as sounds from animals in Norway. The piece immerses us in a magical world that inspires us to consider how crucial it is to preserve this natural beauty.
Gabriela, you are both a renowned performer and a faculty member at Wellesley University. How has teaching shaped your approach to performance?
I have been on faculty at Wellesley College for over a decade, and absolutely adore the students there. In many cases, my students will be going on to bright careers in worlds other than music, but their dedication to music is so strong that they keep it in their lives during their college years and beyond. I love seeing students learn new skills and techniques and experience new kinds of music. It is so inspiring to watch them tackle these challenges and progress week by week. I certainly feel like a student again with Kronos, I’m learning so much with every single project!
My students remind me every week how vitally important music is to our emotional well-being, how much the practice of practicing our instruments enriches our lives and souls. Even when so much is asked of them academically, they need to have music in their lives every week because music can take us to new and beautiful worlds and open our ears and hearts.
It is so important for performing musicians to keep this in the front of our minds- what we are doing is extremely powerful, it’s not about playing perfectly or performing in fancy venues, we are making music with the purpose to connect and communicate.
Ayane, the Aizuri Quartet was an integral part of your musical life for more than a decade. What lessons will you carry forward from Aizuri as a member of the Kronos Quartet?
When I started Aizuri, I wanted to build a quartet ethos like some of the legendary quartets I admired, and one of them was definitely Kronos. Never in a million years did I think I would get to join this quartet! I admired Kronos for their 1000% commitment to their craft and their constant search for new music and meaningful collaborations. From the outside, it seemed like they were game for anything and everything. The first time I saw Kronos was when they were featured on Sesame Street. I was just a kid, but that episode was burned into my memory so much so that during the pandemic, I started a kids show with Aizuri called AizuriKids. Now that I’m back at the origin of that inspiration, I’m really looking forward to pouring my energy into creating Kronos projects for the youth. I still have a dream to someday talk with puppets and play music on a TV show!
Kronos Festival 2025 will feature compositions from so many varied corners of the world. How do you approach playing works from cultures or traditions you may not have previously been familiar with?
GD: So much of the music that we’ve been playing this season is brand new to me- every day feels like a fun new adventure in learning how musicians from other parts of the world communicate through music!
One of the things that has always been important to Kronos is to support composers whose life experiences have influenced their music directly. The compositions are completely authentic and true to the person who wrote them. In many cases, the composers’ lives are very different from my own. I do my best to get to know the music through the person who wrote it.
As an example, we have just been rehearsing with Peni Candra Rini, an astonishing singer from Indonesia. I have never met or played her music before, but after 5 seconds of hearing her sing, you can feel the deep emotions that she is expressing through her music. She can demonstrate exactly how she would like something to sound, and even though we have not been studying her traditions our whole lives, we can find our common musical roots of sonic communication through our instruments. All we want as performers is to represent these amazing musicians in the most true and honest way we can.
AK: Every new piece begins by working closely with the composer and learning about their musical language and intentions. We’re very lucky that for many of these works we get to perform alongside the composer as well. The collaborative element of this is priceless–being invited into other people’s lives through their music is one of the great honors of being in the Kronos Quartet.
I have had some incredible mentors and viola teachers who have shaped me into the musician I am. Now I get to continue learning and absorbing music by established artists rooted in different cultures and traditions from my own. I feel lucky to be given these opportunities to learn and ignite that spark of discovery and curiosity.
We live in turbulent political times today, at home and abroad. Kronos’ latest album, WITNESS, was recorded prior to your time with the group, but you will be performing Bombs of Beirut at Kronos Festival. How do your lived experiences and your engagement with current world events inform your interpretation of Mary Kouyoumdjian’s work?
GD: The first time the four of us read through Mary’s piece was extremely moving for me. Mary’s piece highlights the human experience of living through wartime, bringing her loved ones’ stories to life through their words and her own powerful music. I couldn’t help but think of my own father, who was a child during the Spanish Civil War, fled to Chile, and later fled Chile during the difficult political climate there. His stories of living though wartime have absolutely shaped how I see the world. The horrors of war and the dangers of power are terrifying, but alongside those awful aspects of humanity there were always people looking to help in whatever way they could.
I am grateful that Mary has shared her stories through Bombs of Beirut. It is so important that these stories of human survival be recorded and shared. I certainly hope that by sharing our stories, we can learn from them. The most important thing we can do for each other is listen.
AK: Atrocities like those that Mary Kouyoumdjian’s music addresses are continuing to happen all over the world. I’m grateful that this music exists for many reasons, and although it is gut-wrenching to perform, it is necessary to share music and stories like Mary’s in order to spread empathy and normalize the act of taking a stand against violence and persecution.
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