Joan Jeanrenaud

Although the name Joan Jeanrenaud may not immediately register with the general public, she ranks among the most acclaimed cellists on the global stage, especially within avant-garde classical circles. Even so, countless listeners continue to know her simply as "the girl in Kronos Quartet." She devoted two decades to that pioneering ensemble, appearing on more than thirty albums and delivering upwards of two thousand concerts before departing in 1999 to pursue an independent path that embraced performance art, original writing, and spontaneous improvisation.

Born the third child in a Memphis, Tennessee-area farming household whose members showed little musical inclination, she took up the cello at eleven. The following year brought lessons with Peter Spurbeck, and her focus soon turned toward contemporary repertoire. At Indiana University she studied with Fritz Magg and helped establish the IU Contemporary Music Ensemble, ultimately earning a Bachelor of Music degree. In 1977 she traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, for private instruction from cellist Pierre Fournier.

Upon returning the next year, fellow Indiana University alumnus and violist Hank Dutt urged her to audition for the open cello chair in Kronos Quartet. Founded in 1973 by David Harrington, the group had recently relocated its operations from Seattle to San Francisco and counted Dutt among its newest members. Jeanrenaud joined and remained for twenty years, during which the ensemble shifted from a conventional classical string quartet into an experimental unit that favored informal venues and an independent outlook.

She began a twelve-month leave from the quartet in 1998 and announced her permanent exit the following summer, at which point Jennifer Culp took over the position. Staying rooted in avant-garde and experimental music, Jeanrenaud then pursued the range of projects her Kronos schedule had precluded. Early solo recitals featured compositions by Fluxus figures such as Christian Wolff and Charlotte Moorman, together with collaborations involving dancers Molissa Fenley and Anna Halprin. Her first recording apart from the quartet was Lou Harrison’s Rhymes With Silver, issued by New Albion in 2000.

A 2000/2001 residency at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts enabled further explorations, among them a computer-accompanied duet in Mark Grey’s “Blood Red,” a multimedia staging of Philip Glass’ “Metamorphosis” with projected visuals, and her initial forays into composition. In 2001 she entered the free-improvisation sphere through guitarist Fred Frith, performing and recording with his trio Maybe Monday.