The Sonic Trails season includes a collaboration between world-renowned Kronos Quartet and its series of global commissions, 50 for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. Original compositions from select women composers will weave together to transport you worldwide through an intricate musical legacy of tradition and innovation. The experience focuses optimism, beauty and discovery to compose a global story of interconnectedness.

Available daily from dawn until dusk until December 3rd.

Download the FREE Artpark Sonic Trails app now

Due to the amount of music contained within the experience we recommend downloading this app before you arrive at Artpark.

To enjoy your experience of Kronos Quartet, please begin at the main parking lot when arriving from South Fourth Street.

Click for park map

The Buffalo News’ Jeff Miers had this to say after experiencing Sonic Trails: 

“In a flash, I felt the power of the land and the presence of those who had passed through it. Not in some Hallmark Channel, neatly wrapped-with-a-bow manner. But through a strong and deep mini-epiphany that was both exhilarating and profoundly sad.”

Click here to see all Sonic Trails experiences available this year.

About Kronos Quartet ...

For over 45 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet – David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Sunny Yang (cello) – 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 accomplished composers and performers, and commissioning over 1,000 works and arrangements for string quartet. Kronos has received over 40 awards, including the prestigious Polar Music Prize, Avery Fisher Prize, and Edison Klassiek Oeuvreprijs for career achievement.

Integral to Kronos’ work is a series of long-running collaborations with many of the world’s foremost composers, includingFranghiz Ali-Zadeh, Philip Glass, Nicole Lizée, Vladimir Martynov, Steve Reich, Aleksandra Vrebalov. Additional collaborators have included Sam Amidon, Asha Bhosle, Noam Chomsky, Rhiannon Giddens, Sam Green, Zakir Hussain, múm, Trevor Paglen, Van Dyke Parks, San Francisco Girls Chorus, Tanya Tagaq, Trio Da Kali, Mahsa Vahdat, Tom Waits, Wu Man, Howard Zinn.

On tour for five months per year, Kronos appears in the world’s most prestigious concert halls, clubs, and festivals. Kronos is equally prolific and wide-ranging on recordings, including three Grammy-winning albums – Sun Rings (2019), composed by Terry Riley for string quartet, chorus and pre-recorded spacescapes, Landfall with Laurie Anderson (2018), and Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite featuring Dawn Upshaw (2003) – all released by longtime label Nonesuch Records. Among Kronos’ recent releases are Ladilikan (World Circuit Records) with Trio Da Kali, an ensemble of Malian griot musicians assembled by Aga Khan Music Initiative; Michael Gordon: Clouded Yellow (Cantaloupe), and Placeless (Kirkelig Kulturverksted) with Iranian vocalists Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat.

The nonprofit Kronos Performing Arts Association manages all aspects of Kronos’ work, including the commissioning of new works, concert tours and home season performances, education programs, and the annual Kronos Festival. In 2015, Kronos launched 50 for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire, an education and legacy project that is commissioning—and distributing online for free—50 new works for string quartet composed by 25 women and 25 men.