David: We will be in Philadelphia rehearsing with a choir the evening before. We get there on the 17^th and we will rehearse with the choir on the 18^t. On the day of the show we come in on the early side and get our sound fixed up and go over what we need to go over and rehearse with the choir again. In the mean time on the 18th our crew sets up the stage and that continues on the 19^t. For Kronos this is a very big production.

David: When we rehearsed with Terry there were all kinds of changes that got made. There were mistakes in the score, mistakes in the parts. There were things he didn’t think sounded like he was hoping they would. There were little things, everything that contributes to the whole. In our relationship with Terry Riley and many other composers the level of give and take is a lot. The piece keeps changing, at a certain point there were a couple movements I felt needed to be faster. So after all the backing tracks were made they had to be changed. That happened after a few performances. When that happened the videos had to be shortened. I needed to be sure Terry agreed with me. Which he did and that was good. The piece is something that is constantly evolving.

The last time we did it was in South Korea several weeks ago and it was so thrilling to do this piece with this choir whose first language is not English. They did such a beautiful job. They put so much of themselves in it. The conductor was just wonderful. One of the things about this piece that is unlike any other string quartet is that there is a community that surrounds it, and the community is the choir. I’m not sure how big the choir will be in Philadelphia but I bet it will be large. Lets say you get forty to fifty people surrounding the piece, you get different dimension than just the four of us.

PCM: Is this a program that’s available all the time for presenters. So far you have had twenty six performances.

David: You know more about than I do. Now I now how many times we’ve played it the next time someone asks. (Laughs)

PCM: I  did my homework.

David: Well the thing about Sun Rings is that we can’t do it night after night because the equipment can’t get there and we don’t have enough rehearsal time with the choir unless we use the same choir. In the case of Korea we were able to play it two night because we used the same choir. They traveled to another city with us. There are considerations like that.

PCM: If you’re contacted next year.

David: We would love to do it. For me Sun Rings is such an amazing thing to share with our audience. Absolutely! We know how it goes at this point. It’s a regular thing that is part of our tour.