Hyeyung Sol Yoon, violin; Benjamin Kreith, violin; Charlton Lee, viola; Kathryn Bates, cello
San Francisco’s Del Sol Quartet believes that music can, and should, happen anywhere - screaming out Aeryn Santillan’s Makeshift Memorials from a Mission District sidewalk or a rural high school, bouncing Ben Johnston’s microtonal Americana off the canyon walls of the Yampa River or the hallowed walls of Library of Congress, bringing Huang Ruo’s Angel Island Oratorio home to the island detention barracks or across the Pacific to the Singapore International Arts Festival. Del Sol’s performances provide the possibility for unexpected discovery, sparking dialogue and bringing people together.
Since 1992, Del Sol has commissioned or premiered hundreds of works by composers including Terry Riley, Tania León, Frederic Rzewski, Vijay Iyer, Mason Bates, Pamela Z, Chinary Ung, Chen Yi, Andy Akiho, Erberk Eryilmaz, Theresa Wong, and Reza Vali. They especially value their ongoing relationship with the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music in Boonville, California.
Huang Ruo – A Dust in Time, Del Sol’s eleventh album, was described in The New York Times as “excavations of beauty from the elemental.” Recent Del Sol recordings include The Resonance Between, a collaboration with North Indian musicians Alam Khan & Arjun Verma, SPELLLING and The Mystery School with Oakland magical-futurist pop phenomenon SPELLLING, and their podcast “Sounds Current,” an official selection of the Tribeca Festival.
Chinary Ung—the first American composer to win the highly coveted Grawemeyer Award—is heralded for combining the sounds of Cambodian folk traditions with contemporary classical techniques. The acclaimed Del Sol String Quartet performs works spanning six decades, including the world premiere of a new commission.