A Hard Rain

A Hard Rain is the Kronos Quartet’s newest large-scale program, created in collaboration with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and inspired by the Doomsday Clock. An idea born in Chicago, where Kronos performed for a gathering of Nobel Prize–winning physicists addressing existential threats such as nuclear weapons, climate change, and artificial intelligence. That performance—combining music with readings from Hiroshima survivors, world leaders, and historical archives—sparked the vision for a program exploring the fragility of civilization and honoring the scientists working to safeguard it.