Peni Candra Rini (b. 1983)
Maduswara (2020)
Arranged by Jacob Garchik (b. 1976)

Peni Candra Rini is the daughter of a master puppeteer from East Java, Indonesia, and one of few female contemporary composers, songwriters, poets, and vocalists who performs sinden, a soloist-female style of gamelan singing. Strongly committed to preserving and sharing the musical traditions of her country, Candra Rini has created many musical compositions for vocals, gamelan, and karawitan, and has collaborated with various artists worldwide, including Katsura Kan, Noriko Omura, Aki Bando, Kiyoko Yamamoto (JP), Found Sound Nation New York, Elena Moon Park (USA), Ali Tekbas (Turkey), Mehdi Nassouli (Morocco), Asma Ghanem (Palestine), and Rodrigo Parejo (Spain), among many others.

Candra Rini has collaborated with various gamelan groups from all over the world, and has performed at major festivals including Mascot SIPA Solo International Performing Arts 2016, TEDx Ubud 2019, Big Ears Festival 2019, Mapping Melbourne 2018 Multicultural Art Festival, International Gamelan Festival 2018 Surakarta, Indonesian Tong-Festival Festival 2018 in The Hague, Holland Festival 2017, WOMADelaide festival 2014 in Adelaide, Spoleto Dei Duo Mondi Festival 2013, and Lincoln Center White Light Festival 2011. Her recorded albums include Ayom (2019), Timur (2018), Agni (2017), Mahabha­rata – Kurusetra War (2016), Daughter of the Ocean (2016), Bhumi (2015), Sekar (2012), and Bramara (2010).

In 2012, Candra Rini completed an artist residency at the California Art Institute with funding from the Asian Cultural Council. During that time, she appeared as a guest artist at eight American universities and participated in master classes with vocal master Meredith Monk. In addition to this extensive work as a performer, Candra Rini is also a lecturer in the Karawitan Department and a doctoral candidate in musical arts at the Indonesian Art Institute (ISI) in Surakarta.

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About Maduswara, Peni Candra Rini writes:

“Javanese society’s consideration of what is in vogue has changed, and the decline of appreciation in the traditional arts has had a major impact on the existence of the female Javanese singer (sindhen); this has impacted both the singers and the audience. Today’s listeners of karawitan have become accustomed to the phenomena of nggantung rebab, which is found on the coasts of island Java, far from the palaces (keraton). The phenomena of nggantung rebab is when people expect karawitan concerts to offer musical pieces (gending) with hard rhythms, songs that follow a fast tempo like those found in discotheques, where visitors get drunk. The rebab is a subtle and old-fashioned instrument and is beginning to be eliminated, reflecting the move away from more delicate presentations. The impact is seen in a generation gap, where younger singers feel they do not need to study the classical vocabulary because it is rarely used.

“This discourse continues in contemporary karawitan, as found in campursari music, which performs the melodies of karawitan using MIDI instruments and electric keyboards. This is because those instruments are very practical, easy to carry, and cheaper than a gamelan set. Campursari dominated the scene in the 1990s and 2000s, pioneered by the late Manthous through CSGK (Campur Sari Gunung Kidul), and numerous commercial recordings were made and sold during that time. But many believe that campursari fails to represent the classical gamelan repertoire. Out of campursari came a generation of pesinden who were considered to have below average singing ability because the sound they produced was discordant in tone and not in accordance with the rules of Javanese gamelan. Because of this, sindhen singing campursari are not taken seriously in art schools, a serious problem considering diversity is already lacking in those schools.

“The emergence of social media has given pesindhen access to self-promotion, which the singers now readily employ. But what appears on social media often does not represent real life, and is not a true achievement or representation of the singers’ abilities. Sindhen now have the added pressure of living within a celebrity culture, adored for their beauty and ability to dance on stage, with flawless make-up and frenzied lights; their duties as singers and orators of poetry take second fiddle.

“Maduswara was arranged to encourage this generation of pesindhen in order to realize their duty as conveyors of the universal values of life; because, whether they are aware or not, these artists shape the spirit of the nation.”

Angélique Kidjo (b. 1960)
YanYanKliYan Senamido (World Premiere)
Arranged by Jacob Garchik

As a performer, Angélique Kidjo’s striking voice, stage presence, and fluency in multiple cultures and languages have won respect from her peers and expanded her following across national borders. Cal Performances’ 2021–22 artist-in-residence, she has cross-pollinated the West African traditions of her childhood in Benin with elements of American R&B, funk, and jazz, as well as influences from Europe and Latin America.

After exploring the roads of Africa’s diaspora—through Brazil, Cuba, and the United States—and offering a refreshing and electrifying take on the Talking Heads album Remain In Light (called “transformative” by the New York Times, “visionary” by NPR Music, “stunning” by Rolling Stone, and “one of the year’s most vibrant albums” by the Washington Post), the French-Beninese singer is now reflecting on an icon of the Americas, celebrated salsa singer Celia Cruz. Kidjo’s album Celia (Verve/Uni­versal Music France) divests itself of glamor to investigate the African roots of the Cuban-born woman who became the “Queen” of salsa.

Kidjo’s star-studded album DJIN DJIN won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Album in 2008, and her album OYO was nominated for the same award in 2011. In 2014, Kidjo’s first book, a memoir titled Spirit Rising: My Life, My Music (Harper Collins) and her twelfth album, EVE (Savoy/429 Records), were released to critical acclaim. EVE later went on to win the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album in 2015, and her historic, orchestral album Sings with the Orchestre Philhar­mo­nique du Luxembourg (Savoy/429 Records) won a Grammy for Best World Music Album in 2016. Kidjo has gone on to perform this genre-bending work with a list of international symphony orchestras that includes the Bruck­ner Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Philharmonie de Paris. Her collaboration with Philip Glass, IFÉ: Three Yorùbá Songs, made its US debut to a sold-out concert with the San Francisco Symphony in June 2015. In 2019, Kidjo helped Philip Glass premiere his Symphony No. 12, Lodger, a symphonic re-imagining of the David Bowie album of the same name, at a sold-out performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In addition to performing this orchestral concert, Kidjo continues to tour globally, performing the high-energy concert she’s become famous for with her four-piece band.

Kidjo also travels the world advocating on behalf of children in her capacity as a UNICEF and OXFAM Goodwill Ambassador. At the G7 Summit in 2019, President Macron of France named her as the spokesperson for the AFAWA initiative (Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa) to help close the financing gap for women entrepreneurs on that continent. She has also created her own charitable foundation, Batonga, dedicated to supporting the education of young girls in Africa.

More information about Kidjo’s YanYan­KliYan Senamido will be available soon at 50ftf.kronosquartet.org.

Terry Riley (b. 1935)
This Assortment of Atoms – One Time Only! (2020)
III. This Assortment of Atoms – One Time Only!

Terry Riley first came to prominence in 1964 when he subverted the world of tightly organized atonal composition then in fashion. With the groundbreaking In C—a work built upon steady pulse throughout; short, simple repeated melodic motives; and static harmonies—Riley achieved an elegant and non-nostalgic return to tonality. In demonstrating the hypnotic allure of complex musical patterns made of basic means, he produced the seminal work of Minimalism.

Riley’s facility for complex pattern-making is the product of his virtuosity as a keyboard improviser. He quit formal composition following In C in order to concentrate on improvisation, and in the late 1960s and early ’70s he became known for weaving dazzlingly intricate skeins of music from improvisations on organ and synthesizer. At this time, Riley also devoted himself to studying North Indian vocal techniques under the legendary Pandit Pran Nath, and a new element entered his music: long-limbed melody. From his work in Indian music, moreover, he became interested in the subtle distinctions of tuning that would be hard to achieve with a traditional classical ensemble.

Riley began notating music again in 1979 when both he and the Kronos Quartet were on the faculty at Mills College in Oakland. By collaborating with Kronos, he discovered that his various musical passions could be integrated, not as pastiche, but as different sides of similar musical impulses that still maintained something of the oral performing traditions of India and jazz. Riley’s first quartets were inspired by his keyboard improvisations, but his knowledge of string quartets became more sophisticated through his work with Kronos, combining rigorous compositional ideas with a more performance-oriented approach.

This three-decade-long relationship has yielded 27 works for string quartet, including a concerto for string quartet, The Sands, which was the Salzburg Festival’s first-ever new music commission; Sun Rings, a multimedia piece for choir, visuals, and space sounds, commissioned by NASA; and The Cusp of Magic, for string quartet and pipa. Kronos’ album Cadenza on the Night Plain, a collection of music by Riley, was selected by both Time and Newsweek as one of the 10 Best Classical Albums of the Year in 1988. The epic five-quartet cycle Salome Dances for Peace was selected as the #1 Classical Album of the Year by USA Today and was nominated for a Grammy in 1989.

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About This Assortment of Atoms – One Time Only!, Terry Riley writes:

“This Assortment of Atoms – One Time Only! is the first work that I set out to compose since relocating to Japan in February 2019. It is in three movements: ‘Lunch in Chinatown,’ ‘A Gentle Rain,’ and ‘This Assortment of Atoms – One Time Only!’ The third movement that you hear tonight consists of a series of repeating phrases that give the performers the choice to shape the flow of the performance.”

Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980)
Enthusiasm Strategies (2019)

Recently deemed “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York” (New York Times) and “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” (Time Out New York), Missy Mazzoli has had her music performed globally by the Kronos Quartet, eighth blackbird, violinist Jennifer Koh, LA Opera, New York City Opera, the Minnesota Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, and many others. From 2012–15, she was the composer-in-residence with Opera Philadelphia, Gotham Chamber Opera, and Music Theatre-Group, and in 2011–12, she was composer-in-residence with the Albany Symphony.

Mazzoli’s 2016 opera Breaking the Waves, based on the film by Lars von Trier and created in collaboration with librettist Royce Vavrek, was commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and Beth Morrison Projects. It premiered in Sep­tember of 2016 and was called “one of the best 21st-century American operas yet” by Opera News, “powerful… dark and daring” by the New York Times, and “savage, heartbreaking and thoroughly original” by the Wall Street Journal. In February 2012, Beth Morrison Projects presented Song from the Uproar, Maz­zoli’s first multimedia chamber opera, which had a sold-out run at the venerable New York venue The Kitchen. The Wall Street Journal called this work “both powerful and new,” and the New York Times claimed that “in the electric surge of Mazzoli’s score you felt the joy, risk and limitless potential of free spirits unbound.”

Recent months have included the premiere of Mazzoli’s third opera, Proving Up, at Washington National Opera; the premiere of Vespers for a New Dark Age, an extended work for her ensemble Victoire and Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, commissioned by Carnegie Hall; and new works performed by pianist Emanuel Ax, the BBC Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Detroit Sym­phony. Upcoming commissions include new works for Opera Philadelphia, the National Ballet of Canada, Opera Omaha, and New York’s Miller Theatre.

Mazzoli is the recipient of a Fulbright Grant, a 2015 music grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and four ASCAP Young Composer Awards. Along with composer Ellen Reid, Mazzoli recently founded Luna Lab, a mentorship program for young female composers, in collaboration with the Kaufman Music Center in New York. Mazzoli teaches composition at the Mannes School of Music (The New School), and her works are published by G. Schirmer.

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About Enthusiasm Strategies, Mazzoli writes:

“I think of music itself, particularly the music made by the Kronos Quartet, as a strategy for mustering enthusiasm and joy. It’s a way of setting the world in order, a method of carving up time in way that, seemingly by magic, changes our frame of mind, energizes us, and gives us courage and reassurance. In this piece, I tried to combine techniques that were both scary and familiar to me; a cascade of natural harmonics collapses into an ecstatic chorale, which then evaporates into silence. Enthusiasm Strategies was composed for the Kronos Quartet as part of their amazing and important educational initiative Fifty for the Future. I’m honored to contribute to this project and thrilled to be part of the incredible legacy of this quartet.”

Mahsa Vahdat (b. 1973)
The Sun Rises (2016)
Arranged by Sahba Aminikia (b. 1981)

About The Sun Rises, Sahba Aminikia writes:

“Mahsa Vahdat is one of the most iconic female singers of contemporary, post-revolutionary Iran. She and her sister Marjan Vahdat have toured around the globe and have held numerous concerts throughout Asia, Europe, North America, and Africa, while maintaining their roles as strong advocates of freedom of expression.

“Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, women have been banned from singing in public, and especially in front of male audiences. Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat’s appearance on a scene from the controversial movie about Tehran’s underground music scene, No One Knows About Persian Cats (2009), while singing without Hijab on a rooftop in Tehran, presented a monumental image of freedom to the young women of my country for decades to come.

“I am honored that I was able to bring the forces of Mahsa Vahdat and Kronos Quartet together and was able to help with this historic collaboration. This piece embodies three of Vahdat’s songs from two of her solo albums, Traces of an Old Vineyard and A Capella – The Sun Will Rise.”

Mahsa Vahdat (b. 1973)
“Vaya, Vaya” (2020)
Arranged by Atabak Elyasi (b. 1964)

About “Vaya, Vaya,” Mahsa Vahdat writes:

“‘Vaya, vaya’ is a deep expression of Love to a beloved, constantly transforming into a homeland. Since the pandemic arrived in California in March 2020, for more than one year, the most visited place for me has been a place in Berkeley where a rose garden is situated. I walked there almost every day at the time of sunset, the moment when the sun turns its glow to my motherland, where my breath is interwoven with its soil, the moment when darkness and light embrace each other and when the intense red, dark blue, and golden rays in the clouds create a unique image, while passion, rebellion, glow, hope, and sorrow entwine.

“With my deep longing and desire for my motherland, these words and music came to me like a wonder. This zone in Berkeley is one of my ‘dear zones’ in life. Wherever I roam in the world, this place will always remain in my heart.”

“Vaya, Vaya,” music by Mahsa Vahdat and Atabak Elyasi, was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies at Stanford Uni­versity, with additional support from the Kronos Performing Arts Association.

Mahsa Vahdat (b. 1973)
“Placeless” (arr. Sahba Aminikia)
“I Was Dead” (arr. Atabak Elyasi)

These songs are a product of an ongoing partnership between Kronos Quartet and Mahsa Vahdat, which began as a collaboration for the 2017 Kronos Festival, and eventually grew into the full-length album, Placeless, released in 2019. Vahdat composes most of her songs herself, often using poems by classical Persian poets like Hafez and Rumi or contemporary ones like Fourogh Farokhzad and Mohammad Ibrahim Jafari. Her husband, Atabak Elyasi, who is a composer and also plays the Persian setar (a string instrument), often takes part in the arranging of her music.

—Erik Hillestad