On Saturday Feb. 20, the Kronos Quartet performed at Sonoma State University’s Green Music Center. The group has been to the university many times and this performance was just as extraordinary as the rest.

The show was a great success, because of Covid-19 the show had to be on zoom but that did not stop the band. They adapted to their surroundings and still made it a great performance. Kronos Quartet played multiple sets of different genres and an informative number in mystery and wonder out of space. 

Kronos Quartet has been playing in venues for over 40 years with some of the original members moving on but new comers like Violinist John Sherba, Hank Dutt on the viola, Sunny Yang on the cello with original member David Harrington on the violin. The quartet changes over time as well as starting in Seattle Washington and moving to San Francisco. Over the decades, they have transformed their music into sights and sounds that they enjoy.

“I went to the concert virtually and had a great time.  At first it was interesting to listen and watch a concert virtually but as time went on the group did a great job.  Their music was fun and diverse,” said Valentine Medina, a sophomore business major.

Kronos Quartet takes pride in playing music that is very diverse.  The groups genres go from pre-classical early music, Mexican folk music, movie soundtracks, to adaptations of Jimi Hendrix, The Animals, and Bob Dylan.  In 2018, the group even played music from countries that President Trump had banned in part of the travel ban.  In protest of this the group played the music as not a political statement but more of a learning tool.  The group described it as, “provides an irrefutable response to those seeking to divide and demonize peoples.”

Jaimare Limbrick, a sophomore at Sonoma described his time at the concert as, “The concert was a lot of fun.  I really liked all the music that was played and how informative the mystery and wonder of outer space.  That was something that I was not expecting to happen and I thought was a great aspect to the show.”

Over the years Kronos has become extremely successful and influential around the world.  The group has released over 60 recordings, performed at thousands of concert venues, and have received awards.  The New York Times described the group as, “The Kronos Quartet has broken the boundaries of what string quartets do.” The quartet has won awards like a Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Chamber Music Performance, Grammy in 2018 for Best Small Ensemble Performance, a WOMEX award and many others.  

On the Quartet’s website Jim Hickson of WOMEX 18 said, “They treat all music with the same passionate fervour and deep respect that other string ensembles would usually reserve for classical music. And that really is all music. It doesn’t matter if they’re sitting down to play Hildegard von Bingen or Harry Partch, Geeshie Wiley or Alim Qasimov, Konono Nº1 or DJ Spooky; Kronos’ music spans a thousand years and six continents… One of the most important factors about the Kronos Quartet is that they are many more than four. Their extended family numbers in the hundreds. Collaboration has opened up soundscapes that would otherwise be inaccessible for a humble string quartet.”