The Kairos Quartett
was founded in Berlin in 1996. It specializes in new music, focusing on compositions written after 1950 and on pioneering music of today. As a bridge between composer and audience the musicians work closely, whenever possible, with the composers and also reach out to the audience by offering lectures and workshops. These have included those at the Kulturbauerei in Berlin (enthusiastically received by the public, media, and composers alike) and at universities in Berlin, Zurich, Mexico City, and Bergen. The Kairos performed at the Darmstadt Summer Courses in 1996, 1998 and 2004. Its debut there led to invitations from prestigious festivals, including Ultraschall, MaerzMusik (both in Berlin), Eclat Stuttgart, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Berliner Festwochen, Wien Modern, the Salzburg Festival, Klangspuren/TransArt, Festival d’Automne in Paris and the Festival de Cervantino.
Foreign tours have taken it to Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Switzerland and the Ukraine. The ensemble has made many radio recordings in Germany as well as for the bbc, drs, orf and rai.
It has contributed to the cds with music by V. Janárčeková (ProViva) and E. Poppe (col legno). Its discography also includes a sampler containing the first cd recording of Berio’s Sincronie (alongside compositions by K. Müller, J. Estrada and G. Kurtág) for Edition Zeitklang and the String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2 by G. F. Haas (2005, awarded the German Record Critics’ Award).
The Kairos Quartett is planning to give a workshop tour in Poland in 2006.