The Kronos Quartet featured on RTÉ Radio 1 The Art Show 9 July 09. You can listen again by visiting the Arts Show web page.
The Kronos Quartet will also feature on the JK Ensemble on 10 July 2009. Details here.
The Kronos Quartet with Wu Man also feature as highlight of the week in the Irish Times 10 July 2009.
Classical – Kronos quartet Michael Dervan Fri, Jul 10, 2009
An Táin Theatre, Dundalk, Co Louth Mon 8pm €20 01-8721122.
New music’s most fashionable string quartet is back in Ireland this week. The iconic Kronos Quartet play gigs in Dundalk and Galway, with completely different programmes each evening.
Monday’s Dundalk programme brings performances of Chinese composer Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera and Californian Terry Riley’s The Cusp of Magic . Fans with good memories will remember that the group’s planned performance of the latter in Cork (when the city was European Capital of Culture in 2005) had to be cancelled due to illness.
Ghost Opera is the most important work by China’s most successful composer yet to be performed in Ireland – Tan Dun provided music for the Beijing Olympics, and won an Oscar for his score for Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon . Both pieces in the Dundalk concert feature Chinese pipa-player Wu Man. © 2009 The Irish Times
Belfast Telegraph Classical Music 10/07/09 By Rathcol Friday, 10 July 2009
Wu Man
The “opera” theme which I’ve noted throughout June continues into July in an unusual and surprising way.
Under the enterprising artistic direction of Eamonn Quinn, Louth Contemporary Music Society will present The Kronos String Quartet with special guest Wu Man (pictured) in the Irish premiere of Tan Dun’s “Ghost Opera” at An Tain Theatre, Dundalk on Sunday, July 13, at 8pm.
This new work is written for quartet and the hauntingly beautiful traditional Chinese instrument called the “pipa”. Ghost Opera has been described as “a five-movement theatrical work that mirrors an ancient Chinese funeral custom in which the performer engages in a dialogue between his past and future. Ghost Opera is wonderfully atmospheric.” (The Times).
The Kronos String Quartet has become one of the most celebrated and influential ensembles of our time, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 45 recordings of extraordinary breadth and commissioning more than 600 new works and arrangements for string quartet.
Another opportunity not to be missed from Mr Quinn and his visionary society.
phammond13@hotmail.com
