Kronos Quartet to commemorate World War I in music and film Oct. 8 at CU-Boulder
Program features new music by Boulder composer Yuri Boguinia and spoken words by radio journalist David Barsamian
BOULDER, Colo. — When the world-renowned Kronos Quartet takes the stage at Macky Auditorium Oct. 8, expect a bit of Boulder, a dash of ‘60s Germany and a major meditation on World War I in music and film.
“This program starts in a very fun way, then moves into an incredibly intense experience,” says violinist David Harrington, who founded the Grammy Award-winning quartet in 1973.
The second half of the concert will mark just the second American performance of “Beyond Zero: 1914-1918,” featuring composer Aleksandra Vrebelov’s powerful meditation on World War I and a new film by innovative director Bill Morrison.
The film, created specifically to accompany the piece, is made up of long-lost, century-old footage discovered in the National Archives, not just of battles, but also civilians and landscapes forever altered by the world’s first large-scale, technological war. Originally black-and-white, the images are eerily colored in soft blue, yellow and rusty hues due to natural decay and oxidation.
“One of the astonishing things about this sequence is that the film and music feel so much as one,” Harrington says. “This is one of the most poignant experiences we have ever brought to the concert hall.”
The first half of the program will feature music that moves gradually from lighter to darker themes, including two performances with Boulder connections.
The quartet will play both traditional and electronic instruments for Canadian composer Nicole Lizée’s “Death to Kosmische,” a playful homage to the East German pop of the ‘60s and ‘70s.
The second piece will be a world premier of “Speak, Time” by 22-year-old Russian-born, Juilliard-trained composer Yuri Boguinia, who was raised in Boulder.
Leading into intermission, long-time Boulder resident and investigative radio journalist David Barsamian will provide spoken words accompaniment to four musical pieces in a meditation on war, genocide and hope. Barsamian and the quartet previously joined in a similar program at Carnegie Hall with the late Howard Zinn.
Kronos Quartet
‘Beyond Zero: 1914-1918’
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8
WHERE: Macky Auditorium, University of Colorado Boulder campus
TICKETS: $14 and up
INFO: www.cupresents.org or 303-492-8008