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A CHINESE HOME
Conceived by Wu Man, David Harrington and Chen Shi-Zheng

GHOST OPERA
For String Quartet and Pipa with water, stone, paper and metal
Music, text and installation by Tan Dun

This Festival, the world-renowned Kronos Quartet takes the potential of the classical string quartet into another new territory with two exciting boundary-stretching works, A Chinese Home and Ghost Opera.

Joining the Quartet in its 40th anniversary year is the extraordinary Chinese pipa virtuoso, Wu Man.

Conceived by Wu Man, David Harrington and leading New York-based theatre director Chen Shi-Zheng, A Chinese Home is a monumental suite of sound and film for string quartet and pipa. Spanning four eras of 20^th century China - traditional, 1920s-30s westernised Shanghai, the Cultural Revolution and the Maoist period and modern China - this compelling aural travelogue is set against a richly textured, beautifully conceived film. Highly theatrical, A Chinese Home draws on metaphors of displacement and migration, rebirth and rebuilding, in its exploration of sounds and images found in Chinese music and culture.

The ethereal Ghost Opera is a reflection on spirituality and ritual through water, metal, stone and paper, incorporating Chinese, American, Tibetan, and English cultures. Bach and Shakespeare are fused with Chinese shadow puppetry and ancient folklore while Wu Man and the Kronos Quartet explore the mysteries of nature, the future and the past. Ghost Opera was composed by Tan Dun, whose prolific career includes an Academy Award-winning soundtrack to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Performed within the other-worldly walls of the mighty Civic, this will be one of the most electrifying musical events at this year's Festival.

The Kronos Quartet: David Harrington: violin, John Sherba: violin, Hank Dutt: viola and Jeffrey Zeigler: cello.

Post-concert talk: Sat 9 Mar

# In a nutshell: The world's best string quartet, crosses cultures and musical styles.

PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH

BY ARRANGEMENT WITH ARTS PROJECTS AUSTRALIA

Kronos Quartet will also tour to Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch as part of Chamber Music New Zealand's Kaleidoscopes 2013 season. Visit chambermusic.co.nz.