Cellist Matt Haimovitz and clarinetist David Krakauer have come together to create a new project centered around Olivier Messaien'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 Messaien. The point of departure is the clarinetist Henri Akoka who gave the premiere in the prison camp, was Jewish. Metaphorically, to focus on Akoka's story (not literally, but rather poetically through music) is to bring out the human aspect of this composition seen through the "eyes" of one individual caught up in terrifying events beyond his control. Indeed, as the forces of fundamentalism, intolerance and violence intensify in today's world, this project is 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 residency in May 2007.