Programs
Angel Island
Oratorio composed by Huang Ruo
“Works like Angel Island can help us reconnect with the past in a new way.” - NPR
Between 1910 and 1940, as new immigrants flowed through the immigration station on Angel Island inside the San Francisco Bay, Chinese immigrants faced massive discrimination because of America’s earliest racist immigration legislation – the Chinese Exclusion Act. Being held for sometimes up to years in brutal conditions at the detention center, many of these immigrants looked for solace by inscribing poetry onto the walls of the center.
ANGEL ISLAND – Oratorio brings these poems to life in the very space they were created. Composed by Huang Ruo, the oratorio for string quartet and chamber choir weaves a story of immigration, discrimination, and confinement - bringing history into the reality of our current lives.
We are presenting three ways of telling the story of Angel Island.
Concert program of Huang Ruo’s Angel Island - Oratorio with string quartet and chamber Choir (see video of Del Sol’s performance with The U.S. Air Force Band’s Singing Sergeants)
Concert program with string quartet-only movements of Huang Ruo’s Angel Island - Oratorio interspersed with music by Chinary Ung, JungYoon Wie, and Vivian Fung
Theatrical production directed by Matthew Ozawa and produced by Beth Morrison (click here for more info)
“Though Angel Island is steeped in historical material, the work carries resonance today.”
Selected Performances
10.22.2021 - World Premiere at the Presidio Theater in San Francisco, CA
10.23.2021 - Angel Island Immigration Station in Angel Island, CA
7.17.2022 - Chatter co-presented with Santa Fe Opera in Albuquerque, NM
5.2.2023 - Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art with The U.S. Air Force Band’s Singing Sergeants in Washington, D.C.
5.19.2023 to 5.20.2023 - Singapore International Festival of the Arts in Singapore
Del Sol Quartet (quartet programs)
Dust in Time
composed by Huang Ruo
“An hour could have passed, or more, or less. It doesn’t matter: Losing yourself in this space outside time is part of the point.” - New York Times
Like a Tibetan sand mandala, Huang Ruo’s A Dust in Time grows from the central essence-point of silence towards the colored fullness of ecstasy before returning to its source. The music offers a pathway to ever-expanding possibilities. We’ve shared this experience in a wide variety of settings - from a sandbank in the Yampa River to an art exhibit at the Smithsonian. Originally a one hour cycle, the piece can also be performed in 30 minute or 90 minute versions.
“Delivered with sensitivity and patience by the Del Sol players, Ruo’s score begins with virtually single-note phrases from the cello and viola, excavations of beauty from the elemental, like the slow movements of late Beethoven quartets.”
Selected Performances
10.29.2020 - World Premiere at the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, CA
10.15.2021 - Museum of Chinese in America in NYC
santa fe
4.14.2023 - Music Center Recital Hall at University of California at Santa Cruz
5.1.2023 - Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C.
Music for Bringing People Together
From the comfort of community to the screaming pain of loss, this music leads us towards common ground by fully engaging our intellect and imagination. The experience is both radical and familiar. The homespun invention of Ben Johnston’s “Amazing Grace” is paired with Aeryn Santillan’s visceral “Makeshift Memorials.” As one listener told us, “I was asking myself how I should respond to this music - then I realized I was crying.”
Program
Aeryn Santillan - Makeshift Memorials
Ben Johnston - String Quartet #4 (Amazing Grace)
Jungyoon Wie - New Work
Julius Eastman - Gay Guerrilla
Music For Finding Home
Call it intersectionality. Or just call it being yourself. These friends and neighbors sound like California today - from the healing wisdom of Chinary Ung’s singing spirals to Gabriela Lena Frank’s invigorating mestizaje.
Program
Music by Chinary Ung, Gabriela Lena Frank, Rajna Swaminathan, and Jungyoon Wie
Del Sol Quartet plus Collaborators (1-3 people)
The Resonance Between
composed by Alam Khan and Arjun K. Verma
“The ensemble floats, runs, flies, and moves in every possible way…” - PopMatters
Energy, clarity and virtuosity connect across traditions. Any doubt about this was dispelled by whoops of approval from the full-house audiences on both nights of the San Francisco premiere. This collaborative project creates a contemporary musical synergy that speaks to North Indian musical connoisseurs and neophytes alike.
Alam Khan is the grandson of Allauddin Khan, the music legend who trained India's 20th century cultural ambassadors Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar, both revered for their astonishing classical virtuosity as well as for their visionary east-west collaborations. As Alam explains, “Making this music was my way of honoring while attempting to further the innovations made by both my grandfather and father. Incorporating my sphere of musical influences and conceptual nature allowed me to express that world between worlds."
Alam Khan - sarode & composer, Arjun K. Verma - sitar & composer, Del Sol Quartet, Jack Perla - arranger/composer
“The intricacies of each composition speak to the skill of each musician…This is no shallow imitation of any particular classical tradition. At the same time, it is accessible, the sounds at once exciting and familiar.”
Past Performances
10.13.2023 - World Premiere at the Presidio Theater in San Francisco, CA (sold out)
10.14.2023 - Presidio Theater in San Francisco, CA (sold out)
At the India Basin Waterfront Park in SF
The Jingwei Bird is a mythical creature that appears in the Shan-hai jing, The Classics of Mountains and Seas, a Chinese classic text and compilation of mythic geography and beasts. The story involves Nüwa, a girl who is drowned and transformed into a bird, determined to fill out the sea one pebble at a time to protect others from perishing as she did. The story captures the importance of perseverance, even against seemingly impossible odds, and reminds us of our vital connection to the planet.
New music by Asian American composers with powerful bilingual poetry read by Last Hoisan Poets Genny Lim and Nellie Wong create a program exploring themes of eco-futurism, climate change, and our relationship to the planet.
Selected Performances
8.18.2023 - Northeast Medical Services Chinatown PACE Center in San Francisco, CA
8.19.2023 - Seaplane Lagoon Promenade in Alameda, CA
10.29.2023 - India Basin Waterfront Park in San Francisco, CA