The Town Hall is honored to present a landmark collaboration between The Kronos Quartet, which has a five-decade relationship with Town Hall, and the Ghost Train Orchestra, who will be making their Town Hall debut in this tribute to the legendary Moondog.
Moondog, aka Louis Hardin, was one of the 20th century’s most imaginative composers. He lived in NYC from the late 40s up until 1972, during which time he could be found costumed in Viking attire, busking on 6th Avenue and 52nd Street, selling records and performing poetry. Blinded as a teenager, he wrote hundreds of beautiful songs, madrigals and symphoniques in Braille which inspired minimalist composers such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich, who deemed Moondog “the godfather of minimalism.”
With their new record Songs and Symphoniques, Kronos Quartet (now in their 5th decade) and NYC's Ghost Train Orchestra reimagined the work of Moondog into a large-scale production, inviting many special guest vocalists to take a variety of approaches to Moondog’s music. Ghost Train Orchestra and Kronos Quartet present their Album Release Show at The Town Hall.
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For 50 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet—David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Paul Wiancko (cello)—has reimagined what the string quartet experience can be. One of the most celebrated and influential groups of our era, Kronos has given thousands of concerts worldwide, released more than 70 recordings, and collaborated with many of the world’s most accomplished composers and performers across many genres. Through its nonprofit organization, Kronos Performing Arts Association (KPAA), Kronos has commissioned more than 1,000 works and arrangements for quartet. Kronos has received more than 40 awards, including the Polar Music, Avery Fisher, and Edison Klassiek Oeuvre Prizes.
Integral to Kronos’ work is a series of long-running commissioning collaborations with hundreds of composers worldwide, including Terry Riley, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Tanya Tagaq, Philip Glass, inti figgis-vizueta, Fodé Lassana Diabaté, and Steve Reich. In its most ambitious commissioning effort to date, KPAA has recently completed Kronos Fifty for the Future. Through this initiative, Kronos has commissioned—and distributed online for free—50 new string quartet works written by composers from around the world.
In recordings, Kronos has collaborated with artists including Wu Man, Zakir Hussain, Asha Bhosle, Mahsa Vahdat, and Nine Inch Nails. Kronos has performed live with the likes of Paul McCartney, Allen Ginsberg, Rokia Traoré, David Bowie, Rhiannon Giddens, Caetano Veloso, and The National, among many others.
The quartet tours for several months each year, appearing in celebrated venues, including Carnegie Hall (New York), Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), the Barbican (London), the Muziekgebouw (Amsterdam), Shanghai Concert Hall, Suntory Hall (Tokyo), and the Sydney Opera House.
Kronos’ expansive discography on Nonesuch includes three Grammy-winning albums—Terry Riley’s Sun Rings (2019), Landfall with Laurie Anderson (2018), and Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite (2003)—along with dozens of other acclaimed releases. Kronos’ most recent recording is Mỹ Lai (2022), an opera by Jonathan Berger and Harriet Scott Chessman. Kronos’ work has also featured prominently in many films, including the “live documentary” A Thousand Thoughts, written and directed by Sam Green and Joe Bini, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018.
Based in San Francisco, the nonprofit KPAA staff manages all aspects of Kronos’ work, including commissioning, concert tours and local performances, recordings, education programs, and an annual Kronos Festival in San Francisco.
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Ghost Train Orchestra is a large ensemble based in Brooklyn and founded by Brian Carpenter in 2006. The group is known for their unique re-imaginings of under-appreciated and often obscure composers. They have recorded and performed extensively in NYC and beyond. They have released five albums, each one critically acclaimed for its originality and vision.