Alexandra du Bois

Alexandra du Bois

Behind Rainbows
2019 Duration: 6:40
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Program Notes

Behind Rainbows
(2019)

Alexandra du Bois
(b. 1981)

Composed for
50 For The Future:
The Kronos Learning
Repertoire

Artist Statement

“Grief is like a kaleidoscope. Behind rainbows are stories of shadows and downpours of sorts, even death. Colors always emerge. Light both follows and precedes one. Perception of sound is not unlike color. Grief is like a kaleidoscope; it is always changing. Like joy, a rainbow, a memory, of what passed before its color. Behind Rainbows was written, in part, while Composer-in-Residence at Harrison House Music, Arts, & Ecology, Joshua Tree, California, The Hermitage, Manasota Key, Florida, and Avaloch Farm Music Institute, Boscawen, New Hampshire.”

Alexandra du Bois

Composer Interview

Alexandra du Bois discusses her musical background, her composition process, her relationship with Kronos, and more.

David Harrington - du Bois
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I hope this repertoire can encompass the widest sense of human experience, which does include loss, sadness, loneliness, despair... Behind Rainbows reflects a universal slice of this experience. Though we can try as much as we can, we can't protect each other from these things. But one of the great things about music is that it opens its arms to all of it.

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David Harrington

Artistic Director, Kronos Quartet

Artist’s Bio

Alexandra du Bois

USA
duBois_Headshot_c Nick Ruechel

The music of composer and violinist Alexandra du Bois (Ph.D. Stony Brook University; M.M. The Juilliard School; B.M. Indiana University Jacobs School of Music) has been performed in concert halls throughout five continents—her travels connecting her tangibly to the countries that inform and inspire her work. Described as “an intense, luminous American composer,” (Los Angeles Times) and “a painter who knows exactly where her picture will be hung” (New York Times), du Bois writes multi-discipline works often propelled by issues of indifference and inequality throughout the United States and the world.

Born in Virginia Beach, Virginia and a Northeast coast resident for most of her life, Alexandra du Bois (b. 1981) found her voice through the violin, beginning lessons at the age of two years old. After moving to rural Virginia, she began hearing music in the natural world around her. It was this intimate connection to the natural world and the sea that inspired her to begin writing and underscores her work to this day. Her work has been described as “offering an extraordinary interface between traditional and avant-garde” (New Zealand Herald), “an impressively sustained essay in musical melancholy,” (The Guardian London), and “a stunning piece that explores the landscape of war and conflict” (BBC).

Recent commissions include The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Riot Ensemble London, Institut Curie Paris, and Kronos Quartet—who commissioned her first, third, fifth, and seventh quartets. Alexandra du Bois has previously been composer-in-residence at Dartmouth College, Carnegie Hall with Weill Institute, Harrison House, The Hermitage, Mammoth Lakes Music Festival, and with Southwest Chamber Music throughout Vietnam and Los Angeles. She is a member of BMI and Composition Faculty and Chair of the Composition & Theory Department at the Longy School of Music of Bard College and lives on traditional and unceded home of the Western Abenaki People, Vermont.

Learn more about Alexandra >>

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Grief isn't a constant, it keeps moving. And I think that's what Alexandra is exploring here—the different sounds and colors one can find to paint the many stages of grief. There's a journey to be found in this piece. It's really quite beautiful.

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Hank Dutt

Violist, Kronos Quartet
Hank Dutt - du Bois
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Grief isn't a constant, it keeps moving. And I think that's what Alexandra is exploring here—the different sounds and colors one can find to paint the many stages of grief. There's a journey to be found in this piece. It's really quite beautiful.

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Hank Dutt

Violist, Kronos Quartet
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Kronos Quartet

World Premiere

September 17, 2019

Wortham Center

Diana Wortham Theatre /

Asheville, North Carolina

More Info

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