For more than 40 years, San Francisco's Kronos Quartet has combined a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to continually reimagining the string quartet experience. As one of the world's most celebrated and influential ensembles, Kronos has performed thousands of concerts, released more than 50 recordings, collaborated with many of the world's most intriguing and accomplished composers and performers, and commissioned more than 900 works and arrangements for string quartet. A Grammy winner, Kronos is also the only recipient of both the Polar Music Prize and the Avery Fisher Prize.

Since 1973, Kronos has built a compellingly eclectic repertoire for string quartet, performing and recording works by 20th-century masters (Bartók, Schnittke); contemporary composers (John Adams, Aleksandra Vrebalov); jazz legends (Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk); rock artists (guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, Brazilian electronica artist Amon Tobin); and many others.

Integral to Kronos' work is a series of long-running, in-depth collaborations with many of the world's foremost composers, including "Father of Minimalism" Terry Riley and the NASA-commissioned Sun Rings (2002); Philip Glass, including an all-Glass CD in 1995 and the premiere of String Quartet No. 6 in 2013; Azerbaijan's Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, featured on the 2005 CD Mugam Sayagi; Steve Reich, including Kronos' recording of the Grammy-winning composition Different Trains (1989) and WTC 9/11 (2011); and many more.

Kronos has collaborated regularly with performing artists from around the world, including Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man, performance artist Laurie Anderson, Azeri vocalist Alim Qasimov, legendary Bollywood "playback singer" Asha Bhosle, and Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq. Kronos has also performed and/or recorded with the likes of Paul McCartney, Allen Ginsberg, Zakir Hussain, Rokia Traoré, Rhiannon Giddens, Tom Waits, Howard Zinn, Betty Carter, and rock bands The National and Sigur Rós. In dance, famed choreographers Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, and Eiko & Koma have created pieces with Kronos' music.

Kronos' work has been featured prominently in film, including two recent Academy Award-nominated documentaries: the AIDS-themed How to Survive a Plague (2012) and Dirty Wars (2013), an exposé of covert warfare. Kronos also recorded full scores by Philip Glass (Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and Dracula) and Clint Mansell (Noah, The Fountain, and Requiem for a Dream).

The quartet tours extensively each year, appearing in the world's most prestigious concert halls, clubs, and festivals. Kronos is equally prolific and wide-ranging on recordings, including the releases Pieces of Africa (1992), a showcase of African-born composers that simultaneously topped Billboard's Classical and World Music lists; Nuevo (2002), a Grammy- and Latin Grammy-nominated celebration of Mexican culture; and the 2004 Grammy-winner, Alban Berg's Lyric Suite. In 2014, a five-CD retrospective boxed set titled Kronos Explorer Series was released, in addition to A Thousand Thoughts, featuring mostly unreleased recordings from throughout Kronos' career. The following year, a boxed set of Terry Riley's music written for and performed by Kronos became available.

With a staff of 12 based in San Francisco, the nonprofit Kronos Performing Arts Association (KPAA) manages all aspects of Kronos' work, including the commissioning of new works, concert tours and home-season performances, education programs, and its new presenting program KRONOS PRESENTS.