KRONOS NODS TO CANADA
Eclectic string quartet’s performance includes special pieces by Lizée and Tagaq
When the Kronos Quartet plays Dominion-Chalmers United Church next Wednesday, just four days after Canada Day, the renowned San Francisco-based string ensemble will be sure to feature some Canadian content on its typically eclectic, globe-trotting program.
After its adaptation of an Indian raga and before its version of The Who’s Baba O’Riley, Kronos will play specially commissioned pieces by Polaris Music Prize-winning Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq and the young Montreal composer, sound artist and keyboardist Nicole Lizée.
“We’re very happy that we get to play in Ottawa this summer to help celebrate 150 years of your incredible country. And we’re delighted that we have two of our favourite composers that we’re playing there,” says Kronos violinist and founder David Harrington.
“Is a nod to Canada? Definitely. But we’re also nodding to the Republic of (the) Congo, Poland, the U.K., the U.S . ... There are a lot of nods in our concerts.”
Wednesday’s concert, one of scores of shows under the Music and Beyond festival’s banner, is just the third performance in Ottawa by Kronos in almost two decades. The quartet, which was formed in 1973 with a mandate to reimagine the kinds of music that a string quartet could play, last performed in Ottawa in 2005. In addition to Harrington, the quartet’s personal includes violinist John Sherba, violist Hank Dutt and cellist Sunny Yang.
The inclusion of the Tagaq and Lizée pieces in Ottawa is more than a pitch to an audience’s national pride. The compositions by the Canadians figure prominently in Kronos’s repertoire. The quartet performed them last summer in Esterházy Palace in Austria, “where Haydn invented the string quartet,” Harrington says.
He says that almost 15 years ago, he first heard a track by Tagaq, while he was flying home from Europe. “I just could not believe what I was hearing,” he says. "I must have listened to Tanya’s track about 30 times, and by the time I got off that flight, I knew we would work together if it was humanly possible.
“When I heard Tanya, I realized she had taken this form somewhere else and that no one had ever taken it. For me she was an incredibly individual and vital and amazing artist.”
In Ottawa, Kronos will play Tagaq’s piece Sivunittinni, which means “the future ones,” and which involved the quartet’s arranger Jacob Garchik transferring as best as possible the sounds of Tagaq’s throat singing to Kronos’s instruments.
“Kronos has gifted me the opportunity to take the sounds that live in my body and translate them into the body of instruments,” Tagaq has said. “This means so much because the world changes very quickly, and documenting allows future musicians to glean inspiration from our output.”
“I want everybody to know about Tanya’s voice and her form of singing,” Harrington says. “It feels like she has a string quartet inside of her.”
Lizée appeared on Harrington’s radar about a dozen years ago, when an Irish interviewer mentioned the Montrealer to him.
“We’ve been working with Nicole Lizée ever since,” Harrington says, adding that Kronos has played Lizée’s pieces at South American, Asian, European and African concerts. Lizée also composed a piece for Kronos and orchestra that was premiered with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in March.
In Ottawa, Kronos will play Lizée’s Another Living Soul, which, like Sivunittinni, was commissioned by the quartet as part of its Fifty for the Future project.
Begun in 2015, the project, which Harrington says involves a budget of about $2 million including grants, sponsorships and partnerships, involves the commissioning of 50 new works for string quartet, from 25 male and 25 female composers around the world.
Rather than simply gather repertoire for itself, Kronos is making the scores, parts and recordings of the works available for free online to assist with the musical development of student and emerging professional string quartets.
“I’m always looking for music that feels worthy to play at any point, and so I’m looking for 50 new pieces that feel right for Kronos, right now, today,” Harrington says. “Additionally, I’m hoping to be able to pass this body of work to future generations of groups, who are interested in entering the kind of realm of activity that Kronos does and has been involved with.”
Harrington is quick to stress the maverick expansiveness of the project.
“Not only do we need 50 totally different approaches to composition, I’m hoping there will also be different forms of musical notation, sound production, cultural information from different corners of the world.”
When it’s pointed out that Kronos’s longstanding ethos of curiosity about the world and inclusiveness seems at odds with current “America First” policy and thinking, Harrington does not hesitate from becoming political.
“I think we are in a very, very dangerous situation right now, and it’s up to musicians and audiences and music lovers to try and create a counterbalance to alarmist fear and small-mindedness and meanness, actually, and nastiness,” Harrington says.
“To me, the making of music and everything involved in the world of music is the perfect counterbalance to things that are going in the United States right now.”
In addition to the newly commissioned music, the Ottawa concert will also feature Terry Riley’s Good Medicine, a piece by the veteran U.S. minimalist composer whose music Kronos has been playing since the 1980s.
Harrington is glad to present pieces both brand new and old.
“The kinds of programs that we can make now, I’ve hoped for since 1973,” he says. “I really do feel like the texture and the fabric and the scope of the work that we can present to music-lovers has never been as vast as it is right now. It’s a wonderful time for Kronos and I think great time to be a listener of our work as well.” phum@postmedia.com twitter.com/peterhum
MUSIC AND BEYOND
When: July 4 to 17 Where: churches and various venues in the Ottawa area Info/tickets: musicandbeyond.ca
SARAH CHANG
When: July 4, 7:30 p.m. Where: Dominion-Chalmers United Church
The 36-year-old American violinist, a former child prodigy, makes her Ottawa debut. She will play works by Brahms, Celia Franck and Ravel, accompanied by pianist Julio Elizalde. The festival’s opening-night gala will also include a drink courtesy of the Embassy of Korea and food by The Swan at Carp. There will also be a post-concert meet-andgreet with Chang.
AURYN QUARTET
When: July 5, 2 p.m. Where: Southminster United Church When: July 6, 7:30 p.m. Where: Dominion-Chalmers United Church When: July 7, 7:30 p.m. Where: St. Matthew’s Anglican Church When: July 8, 2 p.m. Where: Studio Theatre Perth The celebrated German string quartet, whose members have developed a remarkable rapport after playing together for more than 35 years, turns its attention to four programs that draw heavily on works by the great German and Austrian composers.
PIANO LEGENDS
When: July 7, noon Where: Irving Greenberg Theatre, Great Canadian Theatre Company
Troy Scharf of Steinway Piano Gallery Ottawa presents a fascinating, high-tech survey of the piano playing of greats such as Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vladimir Horowitz, Van Cliburn, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and more. A Steinway & Sons Spirio high-resolution player piano programmed to replicate the playing of the greats will be demonstrated in sync with films of the pianists playing the pieces programmed into the Spirio.
GARRICK OHLSSON
When: July 8, 7:30 p.m. Where: Dominion-Chalmers United Church The American pianist, 69, is renowned as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of Chopin. In Ottawa, he will perform works by Brahms, Scriabin and Schubert.
ANDRÉ-PHILIPPE GAGNON
When: Saturday, July 15, 7:30 p.m. Where: Trillium Ballroom, Shaw Centre The veteran master impressionist headlines a fundraiser for Music and Beyond’s educational projects and young peoples’ programming.