From left: David Harrington, John Sherba, Hank Dutt, and Sunny Yang of the Kronos Quartet perform in front of fifth graders from School Without Walls at Francis Stevens at Washington Performing Arts in Washington on Tuesday. photos by Allan Fong For China Daily

The Kronos Quartet's performances are usually met by thunderous applause from a audiences in the hundreds or even thousands. But on Tuesday, they performed in front of an audience of less than 30 to give fifth graders a lesson in cultural and musical appreciation.

The performance included recent works by Azerbaijani composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh and Wu Man, a Chinese composer hailed as one of the greatest pipa virtuosos to ever play the instrument.

David Harrington, founder of the San Francisco-based group, believes this kind of experience is vital to a child's education.

"Exposure to a wide range of music can be a really wonderful part of education," he said. "To be able to experience music from another culture that's not your own, that you didn't grow up hearing, what an opportunity that is."

To the fifth-grade class from School Without Walls at Francis-Stevens in Northwest Washington, DC, the Kronos Quartet's performance was just one component of their curriculum on global cultures and arts.

The syllabus is derived from the Embassy Adoption program, a 42-year-old partnership between DC public schools and Washington Performing Arts that annually connects 2,500 fifth- and sixth-graders in DC schools with up to 75 embassies and other international entities.

This year, School Without Walls at Francis-Stevens was paired with the Chinese Embassy, so their curriculum focused on gaining an understanding of the nation's culture and role in world affairs.

The Kronos Quartet gave the class a taste of contemporary Chinese music by playing one of Wu Man's newest pieces titled Silk and Bamboo.

Harrington said he was thrilled to perform the piece.

"Wu Man is one of the greatest pipa players in the world. This is the first piece of music she's written for other performers. I'm really proud that we got to do that," he said.