Kronos Quartet has added four dates to its tour schedule next week at San Francisco's Z Space @ Artaud, with a different program each night, each featuring Jon Rose's Music from 4 Fences, along with a work by Terry Riley, pieces by composers from the Kronos: Under 30 Project, and works by Damon Albarn, John Zorn, Bryce Dessner, and Clint Mansell.

Kronos Quartet performs at the McAninch Arts Center outside Chicago tonight. On the program are pieces from the group's latest release, Floodplain, including Aleksandra Vrebalov's ... hold me, neighbor, in this storm ..., which the Seattle Weekly recently called a "compelling, emotionally far-ranging tone poem." The A.V. Club Chicago spoke with Kronos's David Harrington about introducing audiences to new sounds. "The things that we do," he says, "are, hopefully, the beginnings of explorations for other people."

The Boston Herald's list of the Top Ten classical albums of the year is out, and four of the ten are from Nonesuch: Kronos Quartet's Floodplain, John Adams's Doctor Atomic Symphony, Alarm Will Sound's a/rhythmia, and Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica's recording of Mozart's Complete Violin Concertos. The Herald had named The Low Anthem's Oh My God, Charlie Darwin and Wilco's Wilco (the album) among the year's best in pop/rock.

Kronos Quartet's latest Nonesuch release, Floodplain, has been named one of the Ten Best Albums of 2009 by Songlines. "There are few musicians on earth that encompass a range of music like Kronos," says Songlines, praising its "mastery of classical string playing" and "engagement with traditional sounds and contemporary geo-politics." The group reunites with its former cellist, Joan Jeanrenaud, in concert at UC Berkeley this Sunday.

The Times (UK) weighed in on the decade's best music late last month, including Nonesuch albums in each of four categories. Now, the Sunday Times  offers its list of the best albums of 2009, and Nonesuch artists are one again represented across genres: Wilco for Wilco (the album) in rock/pop, Kronos Quartet's Floodplain in world, and Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi in jazz. SPIN includes Wilco (the album) and Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali on its own list of the year's best.

John Adams and Kronos Quartet return to Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles tonight for another concert in West Coast, Left Coast, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's music festival curated by Adams. Tonight, they'll join the LA Phil for the world premiere of Thomas Newman's new piece, It Got Dark. An encore performance will be given at the Hall tomorrow night.

West Coast, Left Coast, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's festival curated by John Adams, continues tonight with the composer and Kronos Quartet performing California-inspired music at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Adams will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group in performances of Ingram Marshall's Fog Tropes and selections from Frank Zappa's Yellow Shark; Kronos performs Harry Partch's U.S. Highball.

This weekend marks the start of West Coast, Left Coast, the LA Philharmonic festival curated by John Adams, its creative chair. The festival, which celebrates the unique spirit of California's creative renegades, kicks off on Saturday with a special Opening Event titled Eureka!, featuring Kronos Quartet's premiere of a new work by Thomas Newman.

Kronos Quartet was in New York City earlier this week to receive the Asia Society's Cultural Achievement Award at the organization's annual gala at the Waldorf Astoria hotel Tuesday night. Kronos was recognized for its efforts to link cultures and create a global cultural dialogue through music. Among the night's honorees were Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, and Sesame Street creator Joan Ganz Cooney.

Sesame Street celebrated its 40th anniversary on Tuesday, and Kronos Quartet has offered its own best wishes by revisiting its appearance on the show. In 1987, the group stopped by Sesame Street to talk with Big Bird about the string quartet, becoming in the process one of the few groups who could possibly perform "Purple Haze," the Jimi Hendrix classic, so fittingly on the show.

While Kronos Quartet was in New York City last week for a performance at Carnegie Hall, it's unclear whether members of the group stopped by this particular New York food-cart vendor to sample the city's finer fare. Though we at the Nonesuch Journal are unprepared at this time to endorse this product, we are happy to heed its advice and always "Ask for a Kronos!"

Kronos Quartet performed at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday as part of Kronos's Perspectives series, the only artist to be given such a focus this season. It also happens to coincide with the Hall's current festival of Chinese music, and, says the New York Times, "Of the many Western ensembles trooping into Carnegie to play Chinese music (or music about China) the Kronos is by far the most adept at cultural crossing over."