Kronos Quartet discography | |
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Studio albums | 44 |
Soundtrack albums | 5 |
Compilation albums | 2 |
Video albums | 3 |
Contributions | 29 |
The discography of the Kronos Quartet includes 43 studio albums, two compilations, five soundtracks, and 29 contributions to other artists' records. The Kronos Quartet plays classical, pop, rock, jazz, folk, world and contemporary classical music (often written especially for them by for instance Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Alexandra Vrebalov) and was founded in 1973 by violinist David Harrington. Since 1978, they have been based in San Francisco, California. Since 1985, the quartet's music has been released on Nonesuch Records.
Early recordings by the quartet contain contemporary classical music and adaptations of more popular music, such as jazz and rock and roll. Since the 1980s, and especially with the release of Cadenza on the Night Plain, written as a collaboration between composer Terry Riley and the quartet, much of the quartet's repertoire and album releases contain music written especially for them, by composers such as Terry Riley, Kevin Volans, Henryk Górecki, and Ástor Piazzolla. Their music "covers a who's who of 20th century-composers", as one critic noted in 1998. [1]
Kronos has recorded five soundtracks including the 1998 score by Philip Glass for the scoreless (except for Tchaikovsky title music) 1931 sound movie Dracula , and has contributed to the soundtracks of five other movies, including Heat and 21 Grams . Outside the genre of classical music, Kronos has collaborated with a great number of other artists, especially pop artists, such as Joan Armatrading, Dave Matthews Band, Andy Summers, Nelly Furtado, and Nine Inch Nails.
The quartet has achieved considerable commercial and critical success and by 1998 (the year of the quartet's 25th anniversary) had sold more than 1.5 million albums. [2] Many of Kronos' albums have ranked on various Billboard charts; [3] the 1992 album Pieces of Africa reached #1 in the Top World Albums chart. [4] The quartet won a Grammy for the 2003 album Lyric Suite.
Year | Album details | Notes |
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1979 | Music of Dane Rudhyar
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1982 | In Formation |
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1985 | Monk Suite: Kronos Quartet Plays Music of Thelonious Monk
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1985 | Terry Riley: Cadenza on the Night Plain
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1986 | Music of Bill Evans
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1986 | Kronos Quartet
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1987 | White Man Sleeps
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1988 | Winter Was Hard
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1989 | Steve Reich: Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint
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1989 | Kronos Quartet Plays Terry Riley: Salome Dances for Peace
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1990 | Black Angels
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1991 | Witold Lutosławski: String Quartet
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1991 | Kevin Volans: Hunting:Gathering
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1991 | Five Tango Sensations
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1991 | Henryk Mikolaj Górecki: Already It Is Dusk/"Lerchenmusik"
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1991 | Music of Claude Ballif
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1992 | Pieces of Africa
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1993 | Short Stories
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1993 | Henryk Górecki: String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2
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1993 | At the Grave of Richard Wagner
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1993 | Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet
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1993 | Bob Ostertag: All the Rage
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1994 | Night Prayers
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1995 | Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass
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1996 | Howl, USA
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1997 | Osvaldo Golijov: The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind
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1997 | Tan Dun: Ghost Opera
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1997 | Early Music (Lachrymæ Antiquæ)
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1998 | Kronos Quartet Performs Alfred Schnittke: The Complete String Quartets
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1998 | John Adams: John's Book of Alleged Dances
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2000 | Caravan
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2001 | Terry Riley: Requiem for Adam
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2001 | Steve Reich: Triple Quartet
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2002 | Nuevo
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2003 | Pēteris Vasks: String Quartet No. 4
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2003 | Alban Berg: Lyric Suite
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2003 | Harry Partch: U.S. Highball
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2005 | Mugam Sayagi: Music of Franghiz Ali-Zadeh
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2005 | You've Stolen My Heart: Songs From R.D. Burman's Bollywood with Asha Bhosle
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2007 | Henryk Górecki: String Quartet No. 3 ('...songs are sung')
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2007 | Kronos Quartet Plays Sigur Rós
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2008 | Terry Riley: The Cusp of Magic
| *Written for the quartet, with Wu Man (pipa). [63] Reached #3 in Billboard's "Top Classical Albums" and stayed on the chart for 10 weeks. [64] |
2008 | Kronos plays Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen |
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2009 | Floodplain
| Music written or arranged for the quartet, "from cultures based in areas surrounded by water and prone to catastrophic flooding." [65] Includes long piece by Serbian composer Aleksandra Vrebalov. |
2010 | Rainbow: Music of Central Asia Vol. 8
| With Alim and Fargana Qasimov (tracks 2–6) and Homayun Sakhi (track 1) |
2011 | Uniko
| Features Kronos Quartet, Finnish accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen and Samuli Kosminen (live electronics). [66] Seven-part suite for string quartet, accordion and live electronics composed by Pohjonen and Kosminen. |
2012 | Music of Vladimir Martynov
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2013 | Under 30 Project: 1–4
| Part of the Kronos' "Under 30 Project", presenting the first four commissions by: Alexandra du Bois (USA), Felipe Pérez Santiago (Mexico), Dan Visconti (USA), and Aviya Kopelman (Israel). |
2013 | Aheym – Music by Bryce Dessner
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2015 | Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector: Music of Terry Riley
| Originally released as part of the 2015 compilation "One Earth, One People, One Love: Kronos Plays Terry Riley". |
2015 | Tundra Songs
| Music by Derek Charke. Featuring Tanya Tagaq and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory. |
2016 | Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: Green Ground | Includes:
(Also features Theatre of Voices) |
2016 | Alexandra Vrebalov: the Sea Ranch Songs
| Video and animation by Andrew Lyndon, on bonus DVD. |
2017 | Folk Songs
| Featuring Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Rhiannon Giddens, and Natalie Merchant. Originally performed for Nonesuch Records 50th anniversary in 2014. |
2017 | Ladilikan
| With Trio Da Kali. |
2018 | Landfall
| With Laurie Anderson. Winner of the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance. |
2018 | Clouded Yellow
| Compositions by Michael Gordon |
2019 | Sun Rings
| Compositions by Terry Riley |
2019 | Long Time Passing
| Kronos Quartet and Friends Celebrate Pete Seeger |
2022 | Mỹ Lai
| composed by Jonathan Berger (music) and Harriet Scott Chessman (libretto) for Kronos Quartet |
2023 | Songs and Symphoniques: The Music of Moondog
| Compositions by Moondog by Ghost Train Orchestra and Kronos Quartet |
2024 | Outer Spaceways Incorporated [67]
| Compositions by Sun Ra |
Year | Album details | Notes |
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1995 | Released: 1985–1995 |
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1998 | Kronos Quartet: 25 Years
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2014 | Kronos Explorer Series
| 5-CD box of five previously released albums from five different parts of the world: Pieces of Africa, Night Prayers, Caravan, Nuevo, and Floodplain. Includes interview with David Harrington by author Jonathan Cott. |
2014 | A Thousand Thoughts
| Featuring Asha Bhosle, Zakir Hussain, Tony MacMahon, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Astor Piazzolla, Homayun Sakhi, Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ, Don Walser, Wu Man. |
2015 | One Earth, One People, One Love: Kronos Plays Terry Riley
| 5-CD box of four albums in honor of American composer Terry Riley's 80th birthday. Includes three albums previously released by Nonesuch and a new record, "Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector". |
Year | Video details | Notes |
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2000 | In Accord
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2002 | Kronos on Stage
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2007 | Polish Quartets (Kwartety polskie)
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Year | Soundtrack details | Notes |
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1985 | Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters |
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1999 | Dracula
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2000 | Requiem for a Dream
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2006 | The Fountain
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2009 | 2081
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2014 | Noah: Music from the Motion Picture |
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2015 | Beyond Zero: 1914–1918 |
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Year | Album details | Notes |
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1984 | Dahl, Ivey, Kingman
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1985 | John Anthony Lennon/Sheila Silver
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1986 | Philip Glass, Songs from Liquid Days
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1987 | John Zorn, Spillane |
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1990 | Rubáiyát: Elektra's 40th Anniversary
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1993 | Chance Operation: The John Cage Tribute
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1995 | In C: 25th Anniversary Concert
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1995 | Joan Armatrading, What's Inside
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1995 | Heat
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1996 | David Grisman Quintet, DGQ-20
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1998 | Dave Matthews Band, Before These Crowded Streets
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1999 | Jay Cloidt, Kole Kat Krush
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1999 | Café Tacuba, Reves/Yosoy
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2000 | Andy Summers, Peggy's Blue Skylight
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2001 | Osvaldo Golijov, [70] The Man Who Cried
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2001 | Ingram Marshall, Kingdom Come
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2002 | Big Bad Love (soundtrack)
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2003 | Wesla Whitfield, September Songs: The Music of Wilder, Weill and Warren
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2003 | Tiger Lillies, The Gorey End
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2003 | Bird Up: The Charlie Parker Remix Project
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2003 | Nelly Furtado, Folklore
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2003 | The Company (soundtrack)
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2003 | Gustavo Santaolalla, [75] 21 Grams (soundtrack)
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2004 | Rokia Traoré, Bowmboï
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2006 | Dan Zanes, Catch that Train
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2006 | Matmos, The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast
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2007 | Healing the Divide: A Concert for Peace and Reconciliation
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2007 | Osvaldo Golijov, Oceana
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2007 | Nine Inch Nails, Year Zero Remixed
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2008 | Philip Glass, Glass Box: A Nonesuch Retrospective
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2008 | Kronos Quartet, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Kronos plays Holmgreen
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2009 | Dark Was the Night
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2011 | Hazmat Modine, Cicada
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2012 | Michael Hearst, Songs for Unusual Creatures
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2014 | The Great Beauty
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2016 | Darmstadt Aural Documents · Box 3 · Ensembles
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2017 | Michael Salvatori, Destiny 2 Original Soundtrack
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Stephen Michael Reich is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich describes this concept in his essay, "Music as a Gradual Process", by stating, "I am interested in perceptible processes. I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music." For example, his early works experiment with phase shifting, in which one or more repeated phrases plays slower or faster than the others, causing it to go "out of phase." This creates new musical patterns in a perceptible flow.
Terrence Mitchell "Terry" Riley is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his work became notable for its innovative use of repetition, tape music techniques, improvisation, and delay systems. His best known works are the 1964 composition In C and the 1969 album A Rainbow in Curved Air, both considered landmarks of minimalism and important influences on experimental music, rock, and contemporary electronic music. Subsequent works such as Shri Camel (1980) explored just intonation.
The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classical music. More than 1,000 works have been written for it.
Osvaldo Noé Golijov is an Argentine composer of classical music and music professor, known for his vocal and orchestral work.
Nonesuch Records is an American record company and label owned by Warner Music Group, distributed by Warner Records, and based in New York City. Founded by Jac Holzman in 1964 as a budget classical label, Nonesuch has developed into a label that records critically acclaimed music from a wide range of genres. Robert Hurwitz was president of the company from 1984 to 2017.
Wu Man is a Chinese pipa player and composer. Trained in Pudong-style pipa performance at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, she is known for playing in a broad range of musical styles and introducing the pipa and its Chinese heritage into Western genres. She has performed and recorded extensively with Kronos Quartet and Silk Road Ensemble, and has premiered works by Philip Glass, Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, Bright Sheng, Tan Dun, Zhao Jiping, and Zhou Long, among many others. She has recorded and appeared on over 40 albums, five of which have been nominated for Grammy Awards. In 2013, she was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America, becoming the first performer of a non-Western instrument to receive this award. She also received The United States Artists Award in 2008.
Tracy Silverman is an American violinist, composer, and producer.
David Krakauer is an American clarinetist who performs klezmer, jazz, classical music, and avant-garde improvisation.
Fernando Otero is a Grammy-award-winning Argentine pianist, vocalist, and composer.
The Fountain: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack album to the 2006 film The Fountain directed by Darren Aronofsky. Released on November 27, 2006, through Nonesuch Records, the album is a collaboration between contemporary classical composer and frequent Aronofsky collaborator Clint Mansell, classical string quartet the Kronos Quartet, and post-rock band Mogwai. The score received mixed reviews from critics and was nominated for several awards.
Terry Riley: Requiem for Adam is a studio album by the Kronos Quartet. The music was composed by Terry Riley, commissioned by the quartet; the album is a requiem for Adam Harrington, the son of Kronos co-founder David Harrington.
Terry Riley: Cadenza on the Night Plain is a studio album by the Kronos Quartet, the first album-length recording of a collaboration between the quartet and American composer Terry Riley.
Five Tango Sensations is a suite of works (Asleep—Loving—Anxiety—Despertar—Fear) for bandoneón and string quartet written in 1989 by Argentine composer Ástor Piazzolla. It was premiered in New York that year and recorded immediately afterwards by the Kronos Quartet and the composer, who played the bandoneón. The record was one of a set of three internationally tinged albums released simultaneously, the Argentine music of this album being accompanied by the music of South-African composer Kevin Volans on Kevin Volans: Hunting:Gathering and the music of Polish composer Witold Lutosławski on Witold Lutosławski: String Quartet.
Floodplain is a studio album by the Kronos Quartet released in 2009. All twelve compositions were written or arranged for the quartet.
Music of Bill Evans is a studio album by the Kronos Quartet, containing compositions written by or associated with Bill Evans and arranged by Tom Darter. Several tracks feature important jazz players who had recorded with Evans: Jim Hall on guitar and Eddie Gómez on bass.
Piano and String Quartet is a composition by American avant-garde composer Morton Feldman. It was commissioned by the Kronos Quartet and pianist Aki Takahashi, who premiered the piece at the 7th annual New Music America Festival in Los Angeles and released a studio recording in 1993.
Terry Riley: The Cusp of Magic is a studio album by the Kronos Quartet and Wu Man, an album-length recording of a collaboration between the quartet and American composer Terry Riley.
Early Music is a studio album by the Kronos Quartet, containing 21 compositions, many of which were written, arranged, or transcribed for the quartet. The subtitle is from Dowland's Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares of 1604.
Dracula is a soundtrack performed by the Kronos Quartet, with music composed by Philip Glass, for the 1931 film Dracula.
WTC 9/11 is a composition by Steve Reich for string quartet written in 2009–2010 which premiered on March 19, 2011 at Duke University. The piece was written for the Kronos Quartet, who performed the premiere, and was co-commissioned by Barbican Centre, Carnegie Hall, Duke University, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, Chamber Music America and the National Endowment for the Arts. The piece is approximately fifteen minutes long, and draws inspiration from the events of September 11, 2001. In 2019, writers of The Guardian ranked it the 17th greatest work of art music since 2000.
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