- BRUCE TOM
- LIKE A SÉANCE Degenerate Art Ensemble—that’s Haruko Nishimura pictured—weirdly reimagine Joan of Arc with Kronos Quartet.
This concert is once-in-a-lifetime fairy-tale stuff, man. Kronos Quartet, based in San Francisco since 1978, is the best, most adventurous, most famous string quartet in the world. They play old music with new energy, and they’ve also supported an entire generation of composers by commissioning 750-plus pieces. They’ve collaborated with poets and painters and jazz players, gypsy musicians and opera singers and yodelers, baroquers and Bollywooders. They have a rule: They never play the same program twice. To show for themselves, they have approximately one trillion recordings, the respect of the entire universe, and things like Grammys.
Few people realize that their first concert was not in San Francisco, but in Seattle. It took place in November of 1973, exactly 40 years ago. This weekend, they come back to celebrate, while, of course, making something entirely unprecedented happen: Their performance on Saturday culminates with a dance/vocal/quartet/video production cocreated with Seattle’s Degenerate Art Ensemble, led by dancer Haruko Nishimura and composer Joshua Kohl.
“David [Harrington, Kronos founder/violinist] said when he watched our video, that if he had known us in 1973, we would be doing a show together in 1973,” Kohl says, and at that point, Kohl could die happy.
The 40 Anniversary Celebration, featuring Kronos Quartet and Degenerate Art Ensemble, is tonight at the Neptune Theatre.
