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Mead Witter School of Music Guest Artist Series
Hank Dutt, viola
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The longtime violist of the Kronos Quartet, Hank Dutt has been a major figure in expanding the role of chamber music of the 20th and 21st centuries. With Kronos, he was part of a major commissioning project, with many works written to showcase Dutt in particular.
Dutt graduated from Indiana University, where he studied with violists David Dawson, and Georges Janzer, earning his BM and MM degrees. Mentors at the university included János Starker and Josef Gingold, and among his collaborators at school was future Kronos Quartet cellist Joan Jeanrenaud.
In 1977, Dutt joined the Kronos Quartet. With over 40 albums to its credit and having performed worldwide, the Kronos Quartet has been called “probably the most famous ‘new music’ group in the world” and been praised in philosophical studies of music for the inclusiveness of its repertoire.
Kronos has performed live with the poet Allen Ginsberg, Astor Piazzolla, The National, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Paul McCartney and Björk, and has recorded with Nelly Furtado, Rokia Traoré, Joan Armatrading, Brazilian electronica artist Amon Tobin, Texas yodeler Don Walser, Faith No More, Tiger Lillies. It has worked with many minimalist composers, including John Adams, Arvo Pärt, George Crumb, Henryk Górecki, Steve Reich, John Luther Adams, Roberto Paci Dalò, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Peter Sculthorpe and Kevin Volans; collaborators hail from a diversity of countries—Kaija Saariaho from Finland, Pēteris Vasks from Latvia, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh from Azerbaijan, Homayun Sakhi from Afghanistan, Hamza El Din from Egypt, Victoria Vita Polevá from Ukraine and Fernando Otero, Astor Piazzolla, and Osvaldo Golijov from Argentina. Many of Kronos’s string-quartet arrangements were published in 2007.
The 2023-2024 season marked the 50th anniversary of the Kronos Quartet, which featured celebratory concerts, premieres, and events at Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium. Culminating this season was the Kronos Quartet “50 for the Future” project of a free library of 50 new works for string quartet.
In July 2024, Dutt retired from the Kronos Quartet and was succeeded by Ayane Kozasa. In October 2024, Hank was one of four featured violists performing and coaching for the Nobuko Imai Celebration in Cincinnati.
