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50 For The Future 50 For The Future

KRONOS presents a free library of fifty contemporary works designed to guide string quartets in developing and honing the skills required for the performance of 21st-century repertoire.

Glass Cover Art

Quartet Satz

Philip Glass

USA

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Solemn, measured and inexorable as the tides, the sweeping piece distills the rhythmic and emotional currents that have woven Glass’s music into our consciousness."

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Candra Rini Cover Art

Maduswara

Peni Candra Rini

Indonesia

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Maduswara was written to encourage this generation of pesindhen to realize their duty as the conveyor of the universal values of life because, whether they are aware or not, these artists shape the spirit of the nation.”

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Threadgill Cover Art

Sixfivetwo

Henry Threadgill

USA

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Everything is about exploration. We get to where we are because of exploration. That's why improvisation is so important… We won't improve anything unless we have an improvisational approach to life.”

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What's great about 50 for the Future is that, not only are the scores easily available, but we also put up our own recordings so you can hear how it might sound, we interview the composers; if there's an extended technique, we or the composer will demonstrate how it's done. If I had had this resource when I was 18, the scores I nervously put back on the shelf would have been on my music stand, and I would have been playing them."

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John Sherba

Violinist, Kronos Quartet
John Sherba - General (Short)

Featured Technique

Kala Ramnath's Amrit

Composer Kala Ramnath demonstrates key techniques in "Amrit," her piece for Kronos' Fifty for the Future.

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What would happen if we could, through our years of working with hundreds of composers from many places, make a body of incredibly interesting, fun music that could serve the next generation as a launching pad to a world of discovery?”

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David Harrington

Artistic Director, Kronos Quartet
David Harrington - What Would Happen?