Friday, October 30, 2020

Stanford Live Featuring Kronos Film

Kronos Quartet members (David Harrington, John Sherba, Hank Dutt, and Sunny Yang) on the stage of the Bing Concert Hall (screen shot of the YouTube Web page discussed in this article)

Earlier this month a film was made of Testimony, a full-length concert by the Kronos Quartet, which took place in the Bing Concert Hall on the Stanford University Campus. The program was planned as a musical reflection on the immediate impact of this moment in our nation’s history. The selections began with a performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” inspired by the performance of the national anthem given by Jimi Hendrix as one of the high points of the 1969 Woodstock music festival. Other selections included Rhiannon Giddens’ “At the Purchaser’s Option,”  Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” Joan Baez’ “The President Sang Amazing Grace,” given a vocal rendition by Meklit Hadero, and other compositions. Each musical offering will be paired with spoken word poetry by the young Bay Area poets Anouk Yeh, Cecelia “CeCe” Jordan, Jarvis Subia, Zouhair Mussa, and Darnell “DeeSoul” Carson.

The entire film, which is a little more than 40 minutes in duration, has been uploaded by Stanford Live Presents to a YouTube Web page. It will be available for viewing free of charge until 11:59 p.m. on Monday, November 2. After that, viewing will be available to all Stanford students and to Stanford Live members donating at least $100. However, the performance of “The President Sang Amazing Grace” will still be available for viewing at no charge at an alternative YouTube Web page.


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