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Clarinetist David Krakauer and Cellist Matt Haimovitz have come together to create a new project centered around Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. Given that this piece was composed in a prisoner of war camp in the midst of tremendous world upheaval, and that the subject matter of the quartet describes cataclysmic events (the end of time itself), Haimovitz and Krakauer have created a program of music surrounding and commenting on this aspect of the Messiaen. The point of departure is the fact that the clarinetist Henri Akoka who gave the premiere in the prison camp, was Jewish. Indeed, as the forces of fundamentalism, intolerance and violence intensify in today’s world, this project seems all the more timely. The Messiaen work is bookmarked between two new compositions in a way that “lifts” it out of the polite confines of a normal chamber music performance. Krakauer and Haimovitz first developed this project at the Banff Centre for the Arts in May 2007 where it received an enthusiastic standing ovation. In the 2008/2009 season, performances included dates at Tulsa Performing Arts Center presented by Choregus Productions, Stanford and Duke University. A recording of the piece is also scheduled for later this year.