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As a part of its important initiative to support the future of the string quartet, the globally-renowned Kronos Quartet will perform the first public performance of GAMMIFIED by American composer Tod Machover, through the expansive 50 for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire commissioning and education project in partnership with Carnegie Hall and others. Utilizing cutting-edge research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, where Machover holds the position of Muriel R. Cooper Professor of Music and Media, the piece for string quartet and electronics features Gamma frequencies, which have begun to show highly promising results for resynching the brain and promoting mental wellbeing. Machover, alongside graduate students Alexandra Rieger, Nikhil Singh and Ben Bloomberg in Machover’s Opera of the Futuregroup, will discuss this technology and its potential implications for mental health with the Kronos Quartet. Additionally, the composer and quartet will address Kronos's five-year 50 for the Future project and its aspirations of creating a free library of 50 works – 25 by women and 25 by men – designed to guide young amateur and early-career professional string quartets in developing and honing the skills required for the performance of 21st-century repertoire.
Monday, April 29th
1:00-2:30 pm
MIT Media Lab
6th Floor Multi-Purpose Room (E14-674)
Admission free; no tickets required
VIEW LIVE ON YOUTUBE or MIT MEDIA LAB’s WEBSITE
Streaming begins five minutes prior to 1pm
Composer-inventor Tod Machover is Muriel R. Cooper Professor of Music and Media at the MIT Media Lab, where he directs the Opera of the Future Group. His music covers an unusually wide range, from acoustic to electronic, physical to robotic, expressive to therapeutic, and from intimate solo works to symphonies for/with entire cities. Machover’s most recent opera, Schoenberg in Hollywood, premiered with Boston Lyric Opera in November 2018, travels to the Vienna Volksoper in the 2019/2020 season. He is currently working on new City Symphonies for Chennai (India), for Boston’s HUBweek, and on a Symphony for the Koreas to connect South and North Korea in new ways. He is also starting work on his next opera.
For 45 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet – David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Sunny Yang (cello) – has combined a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to continually reimagine the string quartet experience. In the process, Kronos has become one of the world’s most celebrated and influential ensembles, performing thousands of concerts, releasing more than 60 recordings, collaborating with an eclectic mix of composers and performers, and commissioning over 1000 works and arrangements for string quartet. The group has won over 40 awards, including two Grammys, the prestigious Polar Music and Avery Fisher Prizes, and the WOMEX (World Music Expo) Artist Award. The nonprofit Kronos Performing Arts Association manages all aspects of Kronos’ work, including the commissioning of new works, concert tours and home season performances, education programs, the annual Kronos Festival, and 50 for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. Visit kronosquartet.org to learn more and to explore the 25 works, including downloadable scores and parts, recordings, instructional videos, composer interviews and other learning materials, that are currently available from Kronos' 50 for the Future.