Sahba Aminikia's KAVUKI, arranged for Kronos and Iranian tenor Shahram Nazeri, premiered June 16 in KRONOS FESTIVAL Program #2. KAVUKI also features beautiful hand-drawn artwork by Kevork Mourad and digital animation by Vafa Aminikia. #KronosFestival

KRONOS FESTIVAL Program #2 features 4 world premieres, by Sahba Aminikia, Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté (of Trio Da Kali), Van-Anh Vo, and Kayla Pellom. Plus, 'God-music' from George Crumb's iconic Black Angels, Vladimir Martynov's The Beatitudes, and works by Aleksandra Vrebalov, Frank Zappa, Charlton Singleton, and others! full program notes: https://kronosquartet.org/kronos-festival-program-2-notes/ ----- Presented by KRONOS FESTIVAL, a program of Kronos Performing Arts Association. https://kronosquartet.org/kronos-festival-2021 Help us share KRONOS FESTIVAL worldwide and free of charge – please donate now. Thank you! https://kronosquartet.org/donate ----- KRONOS FESTIVAL (June 11 – 18) expands Kronos' annual San Francisco festival into the virtual sphere with eight exciting online presentations, including fourteen world premieres. All programs will remain available online free of charge through August 31. KRONOS FESTIVAL is made possible by generous support from the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and San Francisco Grants for the Arts. Additional support is provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Bernard Osher Foundation.

Digital Program Book: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xfl9h3cz1gjhcfm/June%20Program.pdf?dl=0 Support the MPO at mnphil.org William Grant Still (arr. Lesnick): “I Ride an Old Paint” from Miniatures Danielle Boor, flute Diane Benjamin, oboe Misen Luu, clarinet Teresa Manzella, horn Brian Hadley, bassoon Paul Bonneau: Caprice en Forme de Valse Brian Hadley, bassoon Amy Beach: Pastorale for Wind Quintet Danielle Boor, flute Diane Benjamin, oboe Misen Luu, clarinet Teresa Manzella, horn Brian Hadley, bassoon Missy Mazzoli: Kinski Paganini Catherine Himmerich, violin Jonathan Russell: In the Fir Trees: Fireflies Isabel Arenivar and Rebecca Eilers, violins Blake Scheib, viola Marinos Glitsos, cello Sahba Aminikia: House of Circus with video by Pinar Demiral and featuring the "Circus Heroes" of the Sirkhane Social Circus School Steve Cronk, flute Diane Benjamin, oboe Misen Luu, clarinet Brian Hadley, bassoon Tim Dwight, horn Buffy Larson and Gordon Meyers, trumpets Brian McCullough, trombone Dean Shea, tuba Sarah Johnson, percussion Catherine Himmerich and Joe Dolson, violins Lucas Moen, viola Kristin Snow, cello Jason Anderson, bass Brian Dowdy, conductor

Nasrin’s Dream is inspired by the voices of the people from all around the world, every one of them appearing like drops of rain: once these drops turn into rain, no power in the world will be able to resist them. Nasrin Sotoudeh is an Iranian human rights lawyer who was wrongfully sentenced to 38 years of prison and 148 lashes for defending women's right to choose their own attire. This piece was created in August 2020, during her 46-day hunger strike to protest the conditions of political prisoners in Iran during the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2020, #NasrinSotoudeh was awarded the Eleanor Roosevelt Prize for her career-long dedication to the advancement of universal human rights. Today, NASRIN, a documentary about her life’s work, was released on all streaming platforms: http://www.nasrinfilm.com #freeNasrin Nasrin’s Dream, with music by Sahba Aminikia and visuals by Pınar Demiral, 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.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Artistic Director Chorus School Level II Monica Covitt, director With special guests Kronos Quartet, The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and the Sirkhane Circus School

Kronos Quartet and friends premiere "Salam Aleykom" (2020) from home. As part of the Pohoda in the Air online festival, Kronos Quartet premiered an expanded performance of Sahba Aminikia's re-imagination of Hassan Kassai’s theme "Salam Aleykom," which Kronos originally released as a work for quartet. In an expression of the humanitarian promise of these words that mean "peace and health be upon you," 44 musicians, artists, and even jugglers from 13 different countries join Kronos for this performance. Each video in the composite was individually recorded by each artist and edited together by Sahba Aminikia. Thank you all of the artists! Sahba Aminikia, keytar (Iran/USA) Kinan Azmeh, clarinet (Syria) William Barton, didgeridoo (Australia) Layale Chaker, violin (Lebanon/France) Marco Persis Coppola, duhol (Italy/USA) Atabak Elyasi, setar (Iran) Her Yerde Sanat Derneği / Sirkhane Social Circus School, jugglers (Turkish/Syrian border) Pinar Demiral, co-founder (Turkey/USA) The Living Earth Show (USA) Soo Yeon Lyuh, haegeum (South Korea/USA) Sahba Motallebi, tar (Iran/USA) Ben Opie, oboe (Australia) Ceren Oran, dance (Turkey/Germany) San Francisco Girls Chorus, vocals (USA) Valérie Sainte-Agathe, artistic director (France/USA) Ziya Tabassian, tombak and daf (Iran/Canada) Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat, vocals (Iran) Vân-ÁnhVõ, đàn bầu and percussion (Vietnam/USA) Wu Man, pipa (China/USA) Watch the original quartet version of "Salam Aleykom" and learn more about the piece: https://kronosquartet.org/salam-aleykom-for-peace-and-health-for-all-of-humanity/