instrumentation: string quartet + backing track (voices, field recordings, and strings)
duration: 35 minutes
commissioned by/for Kronos Quartet
premiere: January 27, 2024 by Kronos Quartet at Bing Concert Hall presented by Stanford Live - Stanford, California

Program Note

I wrote Keep Going for Kronos Quartet in celebration of their 50th anniversary season. The piece features recordings of people I interviewed who are working on climate solutions in a wide range of fields, including ecosystem restoration (something I’m personally involved in), renewable energy, regenerative farming, bicycle infrastructure, policy, composting, architecture, medicine, plastic pollution, environmental justice, education, and more. I wanted this piece to provide listeners an emotional experience most aren’t used to associating with the climate crisis: joy, fun, even humor. It can feel so easy to slip into despair at the magnitude of everything we’re facing. (As I write this, I have spent days inside, unable to breathe the toxic air from nearby wildfires, a phenomenon that has now become familiar around the globe.) In response, I wanted this piece to celebrate the individuals and communities all around us who refuse to give up, dedicating their lives to climate solutions in incredibly joyful ways that we all can and all need to be a part of.

The first movement, also titled Keep Going, begins at home in Seattle, where I currently live and where Kronos Quartet was founded in 1973. The voices in this movement are people with whom I have personally worked on ecosystem restorations. The rest of the piece expands outward in scope to feature people working in other fields around the world. The second movement, Isabel, provides a collage-like overview of the work of nearly everyone I interviewed, featuring in particular regenerative farmer/solar shepherd Judy St. Leger and regenerative ocean farmer Bren Smith. Movement 3, Water, features Aziba Ekio, a Nigerian poet, and Namra Khalid, a cartographer in Karachi, Pakistan, mapping natural water systems to mitigate the devastating flooding caused by the climate crisis and infrastructural mayhem. The fourth movement, Driftwood Jam, is a planting demo, given by Anna Gilmore, a restoration ecology student leading one of the projects I volunteered on in Seattle. I wrote this movement inspired by David Harrington, who, after hearing this interview, actually used the information to plant a plant!

I don’t think I’ve ever smiled or laughed so hard while writing a piece of music, starting from our first Zoom workshop, when David showed up with a big bag of natural objects he had scavenged for Kronos to use to play their instruments. With astounding creativity, they made the most strangely beautiful music with every object they picked up, from pinecones, to driftwood, rocks, and seeds—you will hear all of these in the piece. Working on the fifth and final movement, What I love the most, which features people talking about what they love about their climate work, was an especially joyful experience, consistently making me smile every time I sat down to work on it.

This piece is in no way meant to be a comprehensive overview of what people are doing to combat the climate crisis, but rather a celebration of the people devoting themselves to climate solutions and an invitation to join. My hope is that you will see yourself in each of these voices and find your own path in the climate movement in ways that bring you joy, connection, hope, and purpose.

Many thanks to everyone who spoke with me for this project. I feel incredibly grateful for the opportunity this piece gave me to connect with and learn from people whose work I deeply admire and am inspired by. Learn more about each of their work here.

—Gabriella Smith

Upcoming Performances

Jan.12.2024: Keep Going (movement 1) | Kronos Quartet Five Decades Tour | Cité de la Musique - Paris, France (more info)

Jan.27.2024: Keep Going (Full World Premeire) | Bing Concert Hall / Standford Live - Stanford, California (more info)

Past Performances

Nov.3.2023: Keep Going (movement 1) | Kronos Quartet 50th Anniversary Celebration | Carnegie Hall - New York (more info)

Oct.21.2023: Keep Going (movement 1) | Kronos Quartet 50th Anniversary Celebration | Barbican Hall - London, UK (more info)

Oct.17.2023: Keep Going (movement 1) | Kronos Quartet Five Decades Tour | Blauwe Zaal, De Singel - Antwerp, Belgium (more info)

Oct.15.2023: Keep Going (movement 1) | Kronos Quartet Five Decades Tour | NOSPR - Katowice, Poland (more info)

Oct.11.2023: Keep Going (movement 1) | Kronos Quartet Five Decades Tour | Schrott Center for the Arts - Indianapolis, Indiana (more info)

Oct.10.2023: Keep Going (movement 1) | Kronos Quartet Five Decades Tour | Memorial Hall - Cincinnati, Ohio (more info)

Sep.24.2023: Keep Going (movement 1) | Kronos Quartet Five Decades Tour | Gualala Arts Center - Gualala, California (more info)

Sep.7.2023: Keep Going (movement 1) | Kronos Quartet Five Decades Tour | Teatro Colsubsidio - Bogotá, Colombia (more info)