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Even though Joan Jeanrenaud's name may not sound all that familiar, she is a world-renowned cellist, surely the best known in the avant-garde classical field. But for many music lovers, she remains "the girl in Kronos Quartet." Jeanrenaud spent 20 years with the groundbreaking string quartet, recording with it over 30 albums and performing more than 2,000 concerts. In 1999, she left the group for a solo career that has encompassed performance art, composition, and free improvisation. Jeanrenaud grew up on a small farm outside Memphis, TN. The third child of a family not particularly inclined to music, she began playing cello at age 11. A year later she was studying with Peter Spurbeck. Quickly she developed a special interest in contemporary music. She went to Indiana University, where she worked with Fritz Magg and co-founded the IU Contemporary Music Ensemble. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree and spent 1977 in Geneva, Switzerland, to take private lessons from famous cellis...