Minami Tamaki LLP Senior Counsel and firm co-founder Dale Minami will be the special guest of a special unscripted, on-stage conversation with Peabody-winning journalist Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYC's “On the Media,” preceding a performance of the pioneering Kronos Quartet on Friday, June 21, 2024, at SFJAZZ, 201 Franklin Street in San Francisco. The event starts at 7:30 p.m.

The Kronos Quartet has been called a “vital force in the forward-moving evolution of the string quartet world, and as a group with its finger ever on the pulse of new and as-yet-materialized ideas in the string quartet world, it has somehow seemed young beyond its years.”

Dale explained how this unique event came about: “I had received an award from the Center for Justice and Accountability, an incredible human rights organization. The Kronos Quartet was featured at the event. Carmen Cheung Ka-Man, the Executive Director, who nominated me for the award, was friends with David Patterson, founder of the Quartet. She arranged a lunch with David who, with his restlessly creative mind, suggested a live Q&A onstage with me discussing the Korematsu case while his quartet played music. Not sure how this would play out but it has to be more interesting than one of my boring presentations!”

The Library of Congress recently acquired the quartet's collection and announced that Kronos' pioneering and influential 1992 album Pieces of Africa was inducted into the National Recording Registry of audio treasures.

The 2024 Kronos Festival celebrates five decades of musical innovation, collaboration, and boundary-pushing artistry. The Festival will feature a slate of world and Bay Area premieres commissioned as part of the KRONOS Five Decades season and include guest artists Wu Man (pipa virtuoso and composer), Brooke Gladstone (journalist), David Lei (community activist), Tanya Tagaq (singer/composer), Nathalie Khankan (poet), Dale Minami (civil rights lawyer), Mahsa Vahdat (singer/composer), Sam Green (filmmaker), and the San Francisco Girls Chorus conducted by Valérie Sainte-Agathe.

A highlight of this year's Festival is the farewell performances of violinist John Sherba and violist Hank Dutt, long-standing members of Kronos Quartet for more than 45 years. Their retirement marks the end of an era, making this Festival a poignant moment for both the quartet and devoted fans. The final day of the Festival features A Thousand Thoughts, a live documentary chronicling the quartet's career, written and directed by Sam Green and Joe Bini. This will be the 41st and final performance of A Thousand Thoughts, which has been seen around the world since its debut at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

This year the Festival will also feature six world premieres from Luna Composition Lab (LCL), a project founded in 2016 by composers Missy Mazzoli and Ellen Reid that provides mentorship, education, and resources for young female, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming composers ages 13-18. Kronos has partnered with LCL as their ensemble in residence this season, providing mentorship and workshop opportunities to the six 23–24 LCL Fellows as they developed their new compositions. Kronos is proud to showcase these premieres across the Festival in celebration of our next generation of musical voices.

Kronos Festival is produced by the Kronos Performing Arts Association (KPAA) and is part of the San Francisco–based 501(c)(3) nonprofit's KRONOS PRESENTS program. It is made possible by support from San Francisco Grants for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Bernard Osher Foundation.