Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Our 2007-2008 Season Kicks Off with Prestige & Publicity

Contents:
1. Library of Congress “Ring of Fire” Concert, 10/19/07
2. Free Noontime Concert, Thursday, 10/11/07
3. On TV Again!
4. Fall QuartetFest
5. More Good News About Grants
6. Future Bookings

1. Library of Congress “Ring of Fire” Concert, 10/19/07
We are honored to kick off our 2007-2008 season with a world premiere concert at the Library of Congress, which is “the de facto national library of the United States and one of the most important libraries in the world.” The venue for our concert, the Coolidge Auditorium, is renowned for the caliber of the artists who have performed there, and for premieres of newly commissioned works.

The work being premiered, entitled “Spiral X: In Memorium,” was written for Del Sol by Cambodian-American composer Chinary Ung under a commission from the Koussevitsky Foundation. The piece, which includes vocalization by the musicians, has eight parts. Yes, eight ; one for each instrument and one for each musician’s voice. For this performance we will play on rare, 17-18th century, Italian stringed instruments from the Library’s collection. If you can’t make it to DC for this historic event, you can hear the next live performance at our Spring Home Season concert in May 2008.
For more info go to http://delsolquartet.com/concert.html.

Later this fall we’ll be recording this piece and works by other contemporary Pacific Rim composers such as Hyo-Shin Na, Kui Dong, and Jack Body. This CD will be released in 2008. Donors who contribute over $1,000 to our nonprofit Del Sol Performing Arts Organization before February will be listed as sponsors of this Pacific Rim recording in the CD liner notes.

2. Free Noontime Concert, Thursday, 10/11/07, 12:00 PM
Del Sol will perform as part of the UCSF Chancellor’s Concert Series at Cole Hall, UCSF Medical School, 513 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco.
For more info go to http://delsolquartet.com/concert.html.

3. On TV Again!
The SPARK episode featuring Del Sol, first broadcast in April, will be shown again on Wed., Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m., and will repeat on Sun., Oct. 21, at 6:30 a.m. on KQED-TV Channel 9. The rerun also can be seen in the South Bay on KTEH-TV 54 and KCAH-TV 25 check www.kteh.org for details.

4. Fall QuartetFest
Once again, we’re holding our QuartetFest, a unique weekend (Nov. 3 & 4) for young string players. Four student string quartets receive coaching and perform both masterworks from the quartet literature and accessible modern works.

5. More Good News About Grants
The Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation has awarded our nonprofit Del Sol Performing Arts Organization (DSPAO) a first-time grant of $15,000 for our Pacific Rim project (the CD recording this fall and the concert in May 2008). This institutional backing goes far but doesn’t meet all of our expenses. We’re still looking for more individual donors to support this important recording project. Other good grant news came from the Amphion Foundation, which has awarded the DSPAO $4000, an increase of 50% over their grant to us last year.

6. Future Bookings
We’re pleased to announce that we’ve engaged Serious Music Media to help us with bookings and publicity. They have been making headway with prestigious presenters as far out as 2010, with suggestions for exciting programs, some involving collaborations with other artists and art forms.