Congress acquires Kronos

The Library of Congress has taken possession of the archive of the Kronos Quartet.

It makes sense. Kronos has premiered more new music than any other US ensemble in the past half century – much of it by American composers.

“Kronos Quartet’s impact on contemporary music is hard to overstate,” said Susan H. Vita, chief of the Library’s Music Division. “It is ideal for the quartet’s legacy as cutting-edge multidisciplinary artists and commissioners of living composers to be preserved here at the Library of Congress, an institution which itself plays a role in the creation of new music and which has long been a preeminent international destination for the living string quartet tradition.”

Pictured: Kronos’ breakthrough work from 1970