Kronos Quartet in the Blue Room

The San Francisco-based, Grammy-winning Kronos Quartet —David Harrington, John Sherba (violins), Hank Dutt (viola) and Sunny Jungin Yang (cello)—returns to Cabrillo Festival for our annual In the Blue Room concert. For more than 40 years, this groundbreaking group has combined a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to continually reimagine the string quartet experience. In the process, Kronos has become one of the world’s most celebrated and influential ensembles, performing thousands of concerts, releasing more than 60 recordings, collaborating with many of the world’s most intriguing and accomplished composers and performers, and commissioning over 900 works and arrangements for string quartet. Tonight they present a diverse and compelling program to complement the Cabrillo Festival season. There are works by barrier busting composers from around the world including Islam Chipsy of Cairo, Yevgeniy Sharlat of Moscow, Mario Galeano Toro of Bogota, the legendary American composer Philip Glass, and Cabrillo’s 2018 composer in residence Missy Mazzoli. The pieces range in subject from a #2 pencil, to the Brooklyn Bridge, to the lynchings of the American South in Abel Meeropol’s Strange Fruit made famous by Billie Holiday, to the life and times of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, illuminated through her radio sessions with Studs Terkel and captured in music by composer Stacy Garrop.

MEETUP! Arrive downtown early to savor the sights, sounds and flavors of the Church Street Fair, including live music and dance performances, food and wine vendors and artisan booths.