Photograph by Zoran Orlic ©

The Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco. The mission of Kronos is to continually re-imagine the string quartet experience. Kronos fulfills its mission through commissioning, performing, presenting, recording and publishing contemporary music, and collaborating with, mentoring and encouraging other artists.

Kronos commissions about a dozen new works each season and performs more than 75 concerts a year, touring for 22 weeks to an average of 15 countries and 15 domestic states annually. Performances often include educational activities in conjunction with the San Francisco Bay Area home season and touring engagements in both rural communities as well as large urban centers. Kronos continually strives to reach, challenge, and expand audiences that rarely have the opportunity to attend performances of contemporary music. The Quartet also maintains a commitment to education by participating in concert discussions, benefit performances, classroom visits, open rehearsals, master classes, coaching sessions, and performances in schools which reach diverse groups including elementary, secondary, and university age students.

The Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association has a management office in San Francisco with a staff of ten. The administrative staff handles all of Kronos' business, such as booking, travel, promotion, production, and fund raising. The organization is funded by individuals, foundations, and government sources, including:  the National Endowment for the Arts, Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation,  the Creative Work Fund, the Multi-Arts Production Fund, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, the Fleishhacker Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, the Bernard Osher Foundation, and USArtists International, among others.

To donate to the Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association and help to commission composers and perform new work, click here.

Staff List

Board of Directors