On Saturday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, Kronos Quartet gives the world premiere of its latest large-scale project: “Three Bones,” a multimedia theatrical experience that explores the histories of Indigenous, Gullah-Geechee and Chinese American communities in the United States. More than three years in the making, Three Bones is a characteristically ambitious blend of live performance, video, visual art, recordings and environmental sound. Featured in Carnegie Hall’s United in Sound: America at 250 festival, the three-act presentation will then travel to Campbell Hall at University of California, Santa Barbara on Saturday, May 2, at 6 p.m. for its West Coast premiere, with further performances to come.
Three Bones celebrates the transmission and amplification of cultural histories through sound, as captured in vintage recordings and brought to life via performance. It features a multimedia triptych in three panels. The Kronos Quartet — David Harrington (violin), Gabriela Díaz (violin), Ayane Kozasa (viola) and Paul Wiancko (cello) — are joined by special guests Laura Ortman (Apache violin, amplified violin, voice), Quentin Baxter (percussion) and Wu Man (pipa).
Throughout its 52-year history, Kronos has pioneered the integration of visual and theatrical elements into the concert experience, as in A Thousand Thoughts (2018), which told Kronos’ story through documentary film, live narration, and performance. That spirit of exploration infuses Three Bones, enhancing the storytelling in all three panels through visual media.
Each segment features backing video by XUAN, a new media artist working at the intersection of music, visual art and technology. Projected visuals by Cherokee/Choctaw sculptor Jeffrey Gibson and San Francisco-based fiber artist Wendy Chien accompany the first and third panels respectively.
Learn more at https://kronosquartet.org.
Tickets are available at carnegiehall.org and uscb.edu.