Established in Seattle back in 1973, the Kronos Quartet have been instrumental in showing crowds of listeners the beauty of experimental music, and their birthday celebrations are expectedly lavish.

The storied quartet have had a long history of fruitful collaboration, and many of their most famous collaborators are dropping in to assist with the festivities, which kicked off on June 22 but run until March 28 2014.

Pioneering composers Philip Glass (who featured in FACT’s 100 Best Albums of the 1980s feature) and Terry Riley have both composed new work for the Quartet: Glass’s String Quartet No. 6 is his sixth written especially for the Kronos Quartet, and Riley’s is his 27th. Riley’s piece will be a focal point of the main anniversary show; a starry celebration at New York’s Carnegie Hall on March 28 2014.

Elsewhere on the schedule, the Lincoln Center will be playing host to the five-day Out Of Doors mini-festival which will see Dan Deacon, My Brightest Diamond and more premiering new work and showing off collaborations with the Quartet. Possibly the most interesting date however sees the Quartet in collaboration with electronic music don Amon Tobin, and on July 14 he is set to reveal their work together at San Francisco’s Stern Grove Festival.

On top of the long list of live performances and collaborations, the Nonesuch label will be releasing a mammoth six-disc set of music from the Kronos Quartet in early 2014. Collecting up five of the Quartet’s most acclaimed albums: Pieces of Africa, Nuevo, Floodplain, Caravan, and Night Prayers; the sixth disc will contain a selection of new material featuring their new cellist Sunny Yang.

For more information and a full list of dates, head over here.