Violinist David Harrington, founder of new music pioneers Kronos Quartet, says a book his daughter gave him several years ago ignited his interest in the history of Chinese Americans and led him to curate a concert exploring their role on American culture.
“It was the story of Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and in 1895 he wanted to visit his extended family in China,” Harrington says. “He was not allowed back into the country, and even though he had a birth certificate and passport they claimed he was not American. So he sued the government and won. And I thought, wow, this happened right here in San Francisco, and I realized I wanted to do something.”
The two-part concert program “Beyond the Golden Gate” launched in June 2024 at the Kronos Festival in San Francisco; it concludes Oct. 11 in a Cal Performances’ presentation in Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall that includes world premieres by Victoria Shen (“The Same Rules Do Not Apply in the Outer Orbit”), Dai Wei (“Through the Paper Gate”) and Lei Liang (“Oceanic Migrants”).
The concert features special guest Wu Man, a virtuoso on the pipa, a pear-shaped, four-stringed traditional Chinese instrument; and San Francisco community activist David Lei, who narrates.
Shen, a San Francisco sound artist, experimental music performer and instrument maker, explores the relationship between sound and the human body in her piece.
“She’s put together some new kinds of violin, viola and cello bows that can be used not only to play the strings of the instruments we normally use, but also act as record needles,” Harrington explains. “We will be playing recordings that Kronos has made in the past with these bows she has created. It’s fun and fascinating.”
The roots of Dai’s commissioned “Though the Paper Gate,” a title that’s a metaphor for the often-uncertain threshold of immigration, date back 30 years when Harrington visited San Francisco’s Chinatown and heard recordings of Chinese opera made with early 20th century Thomas Edison cylinders.
Harrington says he told Wu, a longtime collaborator, he hoped to figure out a way to bring those recordings into Kronos concerts. Dai’s piece indeed incorporates some of those recordings and Wu joins the ensemble for the piece’s upcoming performance.
Liang, a Chinese-born American composer, used hydrophones over several years to record the sounds of deep-sea singing among humpback whales that set the tone for his commissioned work.
“In a certain way, you could say his piece is about the future, even though these sounds might seem ancient,” Harrington says. “But the fact that we are now able to hear things human beings have never heard before, and the foremost person recording these kinds of sounds is an immigrant from China I find to be very beautiful and meaningful.”
This week’s concert also includes Nicole Lizée’s “Death to Kosmische”; “Ya Taali’een ‘ala el-Jabal” arranged by Jonathan Berger; Angéica Negrón’s “Marejada”; Philip Glass’ “Orion: China”; Dai’s “Through the Narrow Gate”; “Long-ge” arranged by Jack Body; “Namu Amida” arranged by Wu and the Kronos Quartet; and Wu’s “Two Chinese Paintings.”
“The music spans history and geography, including ‘Orion: China,’ which was originally composed for the 2004 Athens Cultural Olympiad and evokes China’s voice within a global dialogue,” Wu says. “‘Through the Narrow Gate’ reflects on the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, weaving in haunting echoes from 1902 Cantonese opera cylinders. And ‘Oceanic Migrants,’ written for open orchestration, combines East and West into a colorful fusion, features fixed media, and is a sonic journey of migration and transformation.”
Wu, a Kronos Quartet collaborator since 1992, introduced the ensemble to Lei, who has worked with local arts nonprofits including the Chinese Performing Arts Foundation, the Asian Art Museum, the Chinese American Community Fund, Chung Ngai Dance Troupe, Academy of Chinese Performing Arts, World Arts West–San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and the Center for Asian American Media.
“Bringing David into the realm of Kronos has been really beautiful and important,” Harrington says of Lei. “I think ‘Beyond the Golden Gate’ celebrates our relationship with David as well as Wu Man.”
The 1995 premiere of Tan Dun’s “Ghost Opera” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music is among many pieces the quartet has performed with Wu, who says of the upcoming concert: “Traditional Chinese works will ground the program in ancient sounds while opening space for reflection, memory and forward-looking connection. It honors the Chinese American experience and its role in shaping civil and immigrant rights in the U.S.”
The program also includes Wu’s 2015 piece “Two Chinese Paintings,” arranged by Danny Clay; she says it’s a suite in two movements that offers “musical portraits” of traditional Chinese culture.
Visual effects in “Beyond the Golden Gate” are Wendy Chen’s knot-making and Gary Baker’s film projections.
Kronos Quartet’s first part of “Beyond the Golden Gate” last year marked the farewell of longtime violinist John Sherba and violist Hank Dutt. The current lineup, with cellist Paul Wiancko, violinist Gabriela Diaz and violist Ayane Kozasa, marks the first time half of the quartet’s members are women.
“Gabriela and Ayane are our new inner voices, and they are lighting up our work and lives,” Harrington says. “The composers we work with are incredibly happy, and Paul and I are just being lifted up every day.”
Cal Performances presents the Kronos Quartet in “Beyond the Golden Gate” at 8 p.m. Oct. 11 in Zellerbach Hall, near Bancroft Way and Dana Street on the University of California, Berkeley campus. Tickets are $53 to $92 at (510) 842-9988 or calpeformances.org.
Kronos Quartet appears in “Nonesuch & Nonetheless” at 7:30 p.m. Oct 18 the Green Music Center, 1801 East Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park. Tickets are $31–$91 at gmc.sonoma.edu.
San Francisco Performances presents Kronos Quartet and pianist Timo Andres at 8 p.m. Oct. 31 at Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. Tickets are $65-$95 at sfperformances.org.
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