Rosanna Gamson’s QUARTETS project is inspired by, and set to, the famous Quartet for the End of Time by Olivier Messiaen. The inevitability of death, the vicissitudes of time and the hope of transcendence. These themes and more come together to make Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time one of the unquestioned chamber music masterpieces of the 20th century. Messiaen wrote and premiered the eight-movement work in 1941 while imprisoned at Stalag VIII-A, a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War Two. It refers to the Book of Revelation and angels announcing the end of the world. In our current time, Gamson reimagines contemporary angels as tired and abandoned clowns, urgently warning people who cannot hear them.

We are now seeking a Los Angeles area presenting partner for QUARTETS.