Kronos Festival 2021: Program No. 3 (on-demand)
Free (Free)
Abel Meeropol — Strange Fruit
Zachary James Watkins — Peace Be Till
Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté — Kalime
David Harrington — A Body in Fukushima
Vladimir Martynov — The Beatitudes
Jacob Garchik — Selected works
David Harrington, violin
John Sherba, violin
Hank Dutt, viola
Sunny Yang, cello
World premieres by Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté and Eiko Otake (45 minutes)
Program #3 closes KRONOS FESTIVAL with a focus on the Black American struggle for civil rights. In John Coltrane’s searing Alabama, arranged by Jacob Garchik, Kronos is joined by San Francisco Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin. Abel Meeropol’s Strange Fruit, made famous by Billie Holiday, is heard in another Jacob Garchik arrangement. The recorded voice of civil rights leader Dr. Clarence B. Jones is featured in an excerpt from Zachary James Watkins’ Peace Be Till. The third of Diabaté’s world premieres, Kalime, is a buoyant triple-meter song with a melancholy tinge. Also on the program: A Body in Fukushima, with music by David Harrington, in which legendary movement artist Eiko Otake (of Eiko and Koma) dances on the beach in Fukushima, Japan, near the site of the nuclear plant disaster of 2011. Closing the festival on an uplifting note is Vladimir Martynov’s radiant The Beatitudes.
The broadcast will take place at 7pm Pacific.
Watch the broadcast here:
Link to donate: https://kronosquartet.org/donate/