Kronos Quartet Honors Executive Director Janet Cowperthwaite's 40th Anniversary

The Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association (KPAA) is pleased to announce the occasion of KPAA Executive Director and Kronos Manager Janet Cowperthwaite's 40th Anniversary. Cowperthwaite will be honored on April 7, the opening night of Kronos Festival, with the world premiere of Janety, a joyful work by Malian Griot singer Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté commissioned by the organization for the occasion.

A member of renowned ensemble Trio Da Kali, Diabaté's work is inspired by the tegere tulon-a tradition of handclapping songs and dances created spontaneously by girls in country villages of southern Mali. Janety features a guest group of young musicians, and pays tribute to Kronos' steadfast leader and advocate.

Over the past four decades Cowperthwaite has played a leading role in Kronos' extraordinary accomplishments, and emerged as a pioneer in the music community. She has worked with Kronos to offer a nationwide model for contemporary music organizations looking to broaden their audiences and distribution. In addition to directing the group's tremendous growth and success, she has helped broaden the landscape of chamber music on both an artistic and organizational level.

When Cowperthwaite joined Kronos in 1981, she was a senior at San Francisco State University studying journalism and communications. KPAA, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, was run out of a small office, with two desks, a single phone, and a budget of approximately $100,000. The administrative duties prior to her arrival were split amongst the members of the quartet. Under Cowperthwaite's leadership KPAA has grown into a multi-faceted organization with an annual budget of $2.5 million.

During her tenure Cowperthwaite has arranged thousands of concert tours in the US, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Iceland, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. Under her watchful eye Kronos has commissioned over 1,000 works and arrangements and produced over 60 recordings, including soundtracks for such films as Requiem for a Dream and How to Survive a Plague, and received several Grammy Awards in addition to more than 40 other awards. Cowperthwaite has produced all of Kronos' multimedia works, including Sun Rings, Beyond Zero, Visual Music, and My Lai. Cowperthwaite has overseen Kronos' collaborations with dozens of artists from all corners of the music world, including Tom Waits, Dawn Upshaw, Paul McCartney, Laurie Anderson, Tanya Tagaq, Mahsa Vahdat, and Wu Man.

Cowperthwaite has designed and developed several influential and meaningful KPAA programs, including Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire, an unprecedented string quartet commissioning, performance, education, and legacy project launched in 2015. During her tenure, she has mentored countless young artists and ensembles. Cowperthwaite deftly guided Kronos through the pandemic, transitioning the ensemble to online programs and a virtual Kronos Festival in 2021.

"Kronos is the luckiest group of musicians in the world to have Janet as our leader," said Kronos Quartet founder David Harrington. "No quartet has ever had a finer manager or a greater, more tireless advocate. Her honesty and straight talking approach has made it possible for me to be the musician I am - and Kronos the group it is. There have been cataclysmic events in our lives and in the world during these 40 years. Janet has always found a way forward for us individually and as a group. I trust her judgment, I value her friendship and I count on the wisdom of her leadership. The entire music field has benefitted from her singular vision for what music can be in our society."

"Janet has fueled one of the most powerful creative legacies of our lifetime and has done so with focus, integrity, and vision," said Jenny Bilfield, President & CEO of Washington Performing Arts. "She created and sustained a business model where risk and challenge are not only integral to the mission but also metabolized structurally and institutionally. This is Janet's genius, and why she is so deeply beloved and respected."

"Janet is the industry standard for arts management," said composer Michael Abels. "Over her career she has created and maintained a safe, nurturing, and thoughtfully structured environment that enables artists to take risks, experiment, and excel. Her brilliant organizational and communication skills are a fundamental component of what has kept Kronos at the forefront of concert and chamber music for decades."

In 2015 Cowperthwaite was named one of Musical America's 30 Influencers of the Year, an award honoring "The Influencers" of the music community. She has been on panels and given workshops for many organizations, including Chamber Music America, National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, Western Arts Alliance, South Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Western States Arts Federation, Arts Midwest, and Mid America Arts Alliance.

Cowperthwaite has served on numerous boards, including the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA), the American Music Center and Performing Arts Services. She also chaired two annual conferences and served in key strategic planning roles for APAP.

Further information about Kronos Festival is available here.