Music and Migration — Angel Island Immigration Station
Angel Island Immigration Station
Detention Barracks
First-ever concert series
Come experience the multi-faceted experience of Angel Island in its first-ever concert series. From within the detention barracks at the Immigration Station, we’ll be exploring music and stories of the many communities who have connections to the island and its history. A beautiful day on the island, a richness of history, an exploration of the darkness and also the hope that the island represented.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
September 14, 2024 @ 11:30AM & 2PM
Kaddish: Featuring Music By Derek David
THE CONCERT
We've combined music by Derek David - his Quartet # 4 "Kaddish" and his own performances of Yiddish folk songs with short selections that give a wide view of Jewish-American music, from the Broadway standards of Jerome Kern to Ljova to Bay Area's own Gabriela Lena Frank.
The concert contains a spectrum of emotions: fun Yiddish songs, the Broadway song tradition, and Derek’s personal reflecting on mourning. “Kaddish” explores mourning through two Jewish folk melodies sourced from the Ruth Rubin Legacy Archives, indirectly reflecting on death, dying, and romance.
In a previous Del Sol concert with Derek , the audience - young and old - found a fresh viewpoint on Jewish-American experience, energized around Derek's intensely personal music. Suddenly, Yiddish seemed vital, complex, vibrant, funny and sad - not a dying language at all.
THE HISTORY
Approximately 8,000 Jews and Russians passed through Angel Island between 1910 and 1940.. According to the Angel Island Immigration Center’s Immigrant Voices Project, “historians have explored the long and often unjust treatment of Japanese and Chinese on Angel Island, much less is known about the thousands of Russians, Eastern Europeans and Jews who came to the U.S. via Asia.”
Two distinct waves included:
= Large numbers of Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian Jews began arriving at Angel Island in 1915. They were mainly men who had left their homes to escape the turmoil of war and military duty.
=At least 500 Jewish refugees made it to San Francisco and Yokohama in 1939 and 1940 to escape Nazi regimes.
FUTURE EVENTS
December 14, 2024 @ 11:30AM & 1:30PM
American Han: Featuring Music By Jungyoon Wie
Del Sol violinist Hyeyung Sol Yoon will explore the long history of Korean immigration to San Francisco, specifically those who were seeking refuge from Japanese-occupied-Korea during the early to mid 20th century. The program will feature San Francisco-based composer Jungyoon Wie’s “Han”, which incorporates traditional Korean lullaby and an elegy that represents the complexity of han, a feeling of collective unresolved anger, grief, and regret amongst the Korean people.
RESCHEDULED DATE TBD
This program explores the history of the Picture Brides through music and oral storytelling.
Featuring Takuma Itoh’s “American Postcards - Picture Brides” and music by Erika Oba. Artwork by Patricia Wakida.
RESERVATIONS - this includes admission to the museum
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Please visit AAISF’s website to play your visit. You have to take a ferry from Tiburon or San Francisco. Then you bike, walk, or tram to the immigration station.
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Please contact kathryn@delsolquartet.com for accessibility questions. Ferries are ADA accessible. The shuttle prefers advanced notice.
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Concerts are FREE with admission to the museum. $5 adult /$3 youth. We recommend you make a reservation so we can plan for how many people are attending!
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March 23, 2024 @ 11:30AM & 1:30PM. ~ Reservations ~
A special program featuring a string quartet meditation - Huang Ruo’s A Dust in Time. Program lasts 45 minute with activites available in the Hospital Building.
December 2, 2024 @ 11:30AM & 2PM
Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation with the Last Hoisan Poets
This concert series is supported, in part, by North East Medical Services
& a grant from the Zellerbach Family Foundation.