In 1998 Universal Pictures asked Philip Glass to write the first true score for Tod Browning's 1931 Dracula, a film that had reached audiences almost entirely without music. Glass chose a string quartet, and the Kronos Quartet recorded it for Nonesuch the following year. For years after, Kronos and Glass performed the score live beneath the film around the world.
The quartet is not in the pit. They are onstage, in view, all evening.
Nearly three decades later the same music has been given a body. Dracula, a dark shadow is a newly commissioned ballet by Nicolas Blanc for State Street Ballet, with twenty dancers, costumes by Ben-Oni Cortes, sets and lighting by Jack Mehler, and the Kronos Quartet performing the score live onstage alongside the company. The production premieres October 30 and 31, 2026 at the Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara. MKI Artists tours the full production beginning in Fall 2028.