Performer Biographies

Since 1973, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet—David Harrington (violin), Gabriela Díaz (violin), Ayane Kozasa (viola), and Paul Wiancko (cello)—has challenged and reimagined what a string quartet can be. Founded at a time when the form was largely centered on long-established, Western European traditions, Kronos has been at the forefront of revolutionizing the string quartet into a living art form. Today, with new voices and renewed vision, Kronos continues to forge the sound of the people and issues of our time. Kronos stands among the most celebrated and influential ensembles. The group has performed thousands of concerts across six continents, released more than 70 boundary-pushing recordings, and collaborated with a remarkable range of composers and artists. Kronos has commissioned over 1,100 works and arrangements for string quartet — including the recently completed Fifty for the Future, a free online library of 50 new works from leading living composers that serves as a vivid expression of Kronos’ belief in open access and the continual reinvention of the string quartet repertoire.

Kronos' contributions have been recognized with more than 40 awards, including three Grammy Awards, the Polar Music Prize, the Avery Fisher Prize, and the Edison Klassiek Oeuvre Prize. In 2024, the Library of Congress acquired the Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association Archive, a comprehensive collection of manuscripts, instruments, costumes, video and audio recordings, photographs, and more spanning five decades. Now housed permanently in the Library’s Music Division, the archive stands as a vital testament to Kronos’ impact on contemporary music and cultural history. That same year, their 1992 album Pieces of Africa was named one of twenty-five recordings to be inducted into the National Recording Registry, recognizing its enduring cultural and historical significance.

Kronos has also collaborated extensively with Philip Glass—recording an album of his string quartets in 1995 and premiering String Quartet No. 6 (2013) and No. 7 (2014); with Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, whose music is featured on their 2005 release Mugam Sayagi; and with Steve Reich, whose string quartets Different Trains (1989), Triple Quartet (2001), and WTC 9/11 (2011) were written for and recorded by the ensemble.

Kronos’ work has featured prominently in a number of films, including A Thousand Thoughts, a unique multimedia piece that blends live music by Kronos and narration by Sam Green with archival footage and filmed interviews to create a “live documentary” that tells the story of Kronos’ expansive career. Written and directed by Green and Joe Bini, the work premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018 and has since toured around the world. Most recently, the Quartet performed on the soundtrack for Users (2021) and is both seen and heard in the documentary Zappa (2020). Kronos’ music has been featured in two Academy Award–nominated documentaries: Dirty Wars (2013)—for which Kronos’ David Harrington served as Music Supervisor—and How to Survive a Plague (2012). Kronos has also recorded complete film scores by Jacob Garchik for Guy Maddin’s The Green Fog (2017); Clint Mansell for Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain (2006) and Requiem for a Dream (2000); and Philip Glass for Dracula (1999)—a restored edition of the 1931 Bela Lugosi classic.

Composer and pianist Timo Andres was born in Palo Alto, grew up in rural Connecticut and lives in Brooklyn, NY. 2023–24 highlights included a solo recital debut for Carnegie Hall, new commissions for the Moab Music Festival and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, a tour with the Calder Quartet including performances at San Francisco Performances and Chamber Music Albuquerque, and the world premiere of a piano concerto for Aaron Diehl at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by John Adams.

Andres’s orchestrations and arrangements for Justin Peck’s production of Sufjan Stevens’s Illinoise were premiered in a sold-out Summer 2023 run at The Fisher Center at Bard before moving onto Chicago, New York and elsewhere. Notable works include Everything Happens So Much for the Boston Symphony; Strong Language for the Takács Quartet, commissioned by Carnegie Hall and the Shriver Hall Concert Series; Steady Hand, a two-piano concerto commissioned by the Britten Sinfonia premiered at the Barbican by Andres and David Kaplan; and The Blind Banister, a concerto for Jonathan Biss, which was a 2016 Pulitzer Prize Finalist.

As a pianist, Timo Andres has appeared with the LA Phil, North Carolina Symphony, the Albany Symphony, the New World Symphony, the Metropolis Ensemble, among others. He has performed solo recitals for Lincoln Center, and Wigmore Hall.Collaborators include Becca Stevens, Jeffrey Kahane, Gabriel Kahane, Brad Mehldau, Nadia Sirota, and Philip Glass, who selected Andres as the recipient of the City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protégé Prize. He was nominated for a Grammy award for his performances on 2021’s The Arching Path, an album of music by Christopher Cerrone.

Andres’s collaborations with Sufjan Stevens also include his May 2023 recording with Conor Hanick of Stevens’s latest album, Reflections; arrangements of ballets for New York City Ballet, and a solo piano album, The Decalogue. A Nonesuch Records artist, Timo Andres has multiple solo albums on the label and is featured as composer and pianist on the May 2020 release I Still Play, an album celebrating Robert Hurwitz. A Yale School of Music graduate, he is a Yamaha/Bösendorfer Artist and is on the composition faculty at the Mannes School of Music at the New School.