How Kronos became the world’s most innovative string quartet

FOR DECADES string-quartet recitals conjured an image of men in tailcoats demurely playing staid classical works in a concert hall. But the Kronos Quartet took to the stage in San Francisco on June 20th—for the first of four concerts celebrating their 50th anniversary—in rose-embroidered satin and brick-red linen. As for the music, it was resolutely contemporary, and included a virtuosic piece by Aleksandra Vrebalov, a Serbian-American, as well as one called “Kiss Yo’ Ass Goodbye”, a reworking of a song by Sun Ra, an American composer.