OPUS:25
The Kairos Quartet celebrates its 25th anniversary
June 25, 2021 PARCAE | "Turns of Fate“ Promenade concert with sound installations
September 3, 2021 ALL TIME FAVORITES | "Household Gods“ Concert & Talk
Located in the Spreehalle / Berlin Oberschöneweide which is part of an industrial site dating back to the late 19th century the Kairos Quartet presents two concerts in cooperation with NUR Baute GmbH and YMUSIC. They are funded by Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin Foundation. Further concerts will take place in the Land Brandenburg, supported by the ministry for culture (MWFK) and our local partner venues.
Both PARCAE | "Turns of Fate“ und ALL TIME FAVORITES | "Household Gods“ are inspired by Greek mythological figures. The Kairos Quartet, itself named after such an entity, therefore favoures demi-gods and the three heroines of the Parcae and approaches the Myth with the idea of open access along the lines of Roland Barthes, as an area between tradition and signifier which can convey its own perspective of the real. The Kairos Quartet aims to build bridges and create worlds in between by performing in conjunction with sound installations, promenades, concert moderation, and talks. Thereby we open a rare access to the ivory tower of contemporary art music. While we look back to our beginning the repertory we present also vistas into the future by choosing a new venue, working with the percussionist Olaf Tzschoppe, and premiering a quintet by Oliver Schneller.
Limitations on our movements and social contacts continue to apply in the presence of the pandemic. In many ways it feels like an time out of times as habits are uprooted. Similar situation have happened before even though not in our lifetime during epidemics, siege and war. For us as musicians this touches upon a fundamental topic: We are in the business of creating time out of times. As musicians we are consigned spaces in society which tend toward the static.
Now, our 25th anniversary season coincides with a situation which has more or less grounded us, hardly being able to travel and reducing direkt contact with our audiences to (social) media. Our community spaces and refuges which used to house our music were closed but the music has not evaporated. This comeback of two concerts at Spreehalle Berlin and five concerts in Brandenburg brings back the music and reflects as well as respects the new conditions of performing in public.
We are indebted to the sound designer Andre Bartetzki (Berlin) who will create sound installations for Parcae and the video artist Sascha Hahn (Hanover). Oliver Schneller made us the present of Hilbert Space for string quartet, percussion, and tape.
Supported by the DKB-Foundation Berlin