Retreating.....

That looks like the appropriate amount of music & scores to be out in rehearsal, yes?!

The quartet recently took a much needed 3 day retreat into the woods. Why is a retreat so important? For three days, we each removed ourselves from our normal environment with its constraints, responsibilities and demands (in addition to city noise!) and threw ourselves into long days of quartet rehearsing and the occasional blackberry picking. It gave us time to prepare for the start of this season as well as brainstorm lots of ideas for the coming years. Often times in "modern society" we want to squeeze the most into the smallest amount of time - in an hour meeting, we often are supposed to not only articulate our artistic dreams and ideas but figure out how to implement them perfectly as well. These days gave us some beautiful space to just let ideas - both musical and practical - sit and ferment. The lack of internet access turned out to be a nice way to unplug and connect with each other (even if certain members of the quartet were eager to check their e-mail!) The quiet beauty of the area, the star-filled night skies, and the plentiful pears, apples, and berries made the whole quartet feel incredibly blessed and rested at the end of those days! Until the next retreat.....

How do you spell Chautauqua?

After being invited to perform at the Chautauqua Institution in June (as part of the Monday afternoon Logan Chamber Music Series), it took some of the quartet several months to finally figure out how to actually spell Chautauqua. Perhaps it was due revenge when the prelude article to our performance in the Chautauquan Daily accidentally ran a picture of former cellist Hannah Addario-Berry in the article. (Obviously, they must have mistaken the red-hair!)

After 16 hours of travel - by various motorized vehicles and several different planes - we arrived in the serene Chautauqua the night before our performance. After resting a little - and sound checking a lot - we got ready to perform at 4p.m. with Gabriela Lena Frank's Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout, Ronald Bruce Smith's Quartet No. 3, Chinary Ung's Spiral X, and Reza Vali's Nayshaboorák.

sound checking for Ung & Smith

The concert was well-received, although it seemed that this music was quite novel to many of the audience members. We were so grateful to have 2 of our composers with us - Ronald Bruce Smith and Reza Vali!

Ron in the hall sound-checking

We were graced in the audience with the presence of the newest member of the Cleveland Symphony, Katherine Bormann, who brought us many well wishes.

All in all, it was a great trip. Charlton got to rekindle fond memories from his summer spent in Chautauqua 20 years previous and show everyone around to the old haunts. Then it was back to San Francisco for Quartetfest Session 2!

Springtime in NY

New York City was a particularly beautiful place for Del Sol’s whirlwind tour this past April. For the five magical days, the city lavished us with spring colors as we explored mostly brand-new venues and many enthusiastic audiences from Brooklyn, to Downtown, to the Upper West Side.

On the first night of our tour, we converged at the avant-garde Café Orwell in Brooklyn wiith Amy X Neuburg, playing for a lively young crowd . The next night we played at the historical Gershwin Hotel as part of Vicky Chow's Contagious Sounds, a new music series focusing on adventurous contemporary artists and composer. The concert was in an intimate, old and lustrous ballroom - while it was only one third of its original size, it is definitely an acoustical “find” in Manhattan.

A third concert took place the following afternoon-Easter Sunday-in the beautiful penthouse home of Jonathan Vincent, where some young fans were dyeing elaborate Easter eggs before the concert. There were spectacular panoramic views and pictures of his late grandfather, famed singer Theodore Upmann, everywhere you turned.

For our final concert, we played closing night of the Cutting Edge New Music Festival curated by Victoria Bond at Symphony Space. Composers Reza Vali, Ben Johnston, Ronald Bruce Smith and Amy X Neuberg participated in person to introduce their piece in a lively dialogue with Bond. (Amy X additionally performed with us as part of her first string quartet!) Despite the physical absence of 85-year-old Ben Johnston (at home in Wisconsin), we were able to include him in the concert via Skype video, which proved to be quite delightful. Despite the difficulties of Ben’s meticulous and complex use of "just intonation," with great patience and perseverance, we made the piece our own to an enthusiastic New York reception.

A (non) Winter Trip to DC

Is it almost summer already? Del Sol is a bit seasonally confused because, in February, we travelled to a balmy 70 degree Washington DC to perform two engaging all-Asian programs. Our performance of works by six composers at the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery featured Kui Dong's “Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter Suite” for string quartet and traditional Chinese instruments - this concert was in conjunction with the the exhibition "Seasons: Chinese Landscapes" at the museum. Guest artists playing pipa, sheng, guzheng, and Chinese strings and winds accompanied us with the composer participating, and the Washington Post reviewer praised the work for "exceptional beauty and imagination." Three of the six featured composers attended the performance (Kui Dong, Reza Vali and Koji Nakano), further captivating the audience in a delightful evening, despite any mishaps due to the DC metro shut-down the Smithsonian stop. Sadly, post-concert, after-museum-hour photos in the gallery did not pan out!

The following day, we performed the entrancing string quartet version of Koji Nakano’s Time Song III at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theatre, sponsored by the S & R Foundation. In this piece, we evoke the spirits of transfigured souls by shouting and singing while playing our instrumental line. This distinct and powerful music provided many interesting conversations later that evening, at reception hosted by the foundation - few people had ever heard music like it!

We're Back!

We're back to blogging, so check out this page every so often and find out what is on our musical brains, what we've been up to (maybe we're playing on top of 15 foot ladders!), and much much more!

Summer 2009

1. Del Sol String Quartet’s New York Debut
2. “You Are Hear” at San Francisco International Airport
3. Other Minds Festival 14
4. Virginia Waring International Piano Competition
5. “Mestizaje” Del Sol’s Home Season Concerts
6. “Wet Ink” Concert
7. Garden of Memory
8. CD Reviews

1. Del Sol String Quartet’s New York Debut

We will perform our first concert at Symphony Space in New York City on October 1st, co-presented by the Polish Cultural Institute. We will play string quartets by two contemporary Polish composers, Pawel Mykietin and Pawel Szymanski. Also on the program will be the New
York premiere of “Esencia,” written for us by Cuban-American composer Tania León, through a commission from the Fromm Music Foundation, as well as a work by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz. The following day, October 2nd, we will present a lecture-concert at New York’s Korean Cultural Service, featuring music by Paul Yeon Lee as well as other Korean composers. Stay tuned for more details this fall!

2. “You Are Hear” at San Francisco International Airport

This summer Del Sol treats travelers to an eclectic program of music, new and old, as they pass through SFO. Presented by Tarmac Music, this performance series brings great Bay Area musical groups to SFO every Friday through the summer. The Quartet’s next airport performance will be on August 21st, 11am-2pm. For those of you traveling that day, please come visit us in Terminal 3!

3. Other Minds Festival 14

Del Sol played to packed houses for all three nights of the Other Minds Festival of new music in San Francisco in March. Del Sol’s cellist, Hannah Addario-Berry, recalls: We spent the weeks leading up to the festival immersing ourselves in composer/pianist Michael Harrison’s glorious and challenging ‘Tone Clouds’. This piece, written for Del Sol, uses a ‘just intonation’ tuning system, which required us to retrain our ears and fingers to match his specially-tuned piano. He joined us to perform the world premiere of ‘Tone Clouds’ for String Quartet and Piano, and we look forward to recording the piece someday!”

In addition to Harrison’s piece, we performed the world premiere of “Gondola”, a new work written for Del Sol by Toronto-based Linda Catlin Smith (and commissioned through the Canada Council for the Arts). Also, it was wonderful to get to know the young Polish composer, Dobromila Jaskot, on her first trip to the U.S., and perform her quartet “Linearia.” And of course, we greatly enjoyed the opportunity to work with composer Chinary Ung and perform his “Spiral X: In Memoriam” again. In a review of the festival, London Financial Times critic Allan Ulrich wrote: "Chinary Ung’s Spiral X: In Memoriam recalls the Cambodian holocaust through lush string textures
punctuated by the wailing and keening of the members of the Del Sol String Quartet, the dedicatees and superb interpreters of the piece. A true cry from the heart."

4. Virginia Waring International Piano Competition

Also in March, Del Sol traveled to Palm Desert, California to perform as the quartet-in-residence for the Chamber Music Round, at the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition. In three intense days and two concerts, the quartet members rehearsed and performed piano quintets by Brahms, Schumann, and Franck with the 12 finalists in the competition. “It was a treat to perform some old masterworks with a variety of incredibly talented young pianists and interpreters. We look forward to seeing their careers blossom in the coming years.” (Charlton Lee, Del Sol Violist)

5. “Mestizaje” Del Sol’s Home Season Concerts

In May we presented our Bay Area Home Season concerts in Point Reyes Station and San Francisco, including world premieres of two brand-new works written especially for Del Sol by composers Paul Yeon Lee (Korea) and Tania León (Cuba). Both composers came out from New York City to join the Quartet for the San Francisco concert and educational outreach activities. The Quartet, together with Lee and León, presented their pieces to young music students at San Francisco’s Community Music Center and School of the Arts, followed by an
interactive conversation among the students, Quartet members and composers. The Home Season program also included Linda Catlin Smith’s “Gondola” (premiered in March at the OM Festival), and the String Quartet No. 5 by Philip Glass. San Francisco Classical Voice reviewer Beeri Moalem wrote that Del Sol’s “commitment to new music is essential to keeping our classical music community living and breathing, with current composers who write from the depths of their soul as well as the profundity of their brain.”

6. “Wet Ink” Concert

In June Del Sol visited Grass Valley, CA to perform at the “Wet Ink” concert hosted by the Music in the Mountains Summer Festival. The Quartet had the opportunity to work with four composers from the Nevada City Composers Cooperative, Jay Sydeman, Mark Vance, Jerry Grant, and Randy McKean, and performed the world premieres of each of their string quartets on a beautiful evening at the Nevada County Fairgrounds.


7. Garden of Memory

Del Sol performed again at this year’s annual Summer Solstice event “Garden of Memory” at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland. Taking place in the beautiful Julia Morgan-designed columbarium, this event is a wonderful bazaar of new music ensembles, composers, electric and acoustic musicians. Audience members wander through the maze of hallways and alcoves and chapels, stopping to sit and listen to their favorite ensemble or a newly discovered treasure. The Quartet performed a wide range of music from Glass to Gershwin and was thrilled to reconnect with didjeridoo master, Stephen Kent, to play Peter Sculthorpe’s beautiful piece for string quartet and didjeridoo.

8. CD Reviews

Del Sol’s two recent CDs have been a hit with the reviewers!

“First Life” (2009), which features world premiere recordings of rare early works for string quartet and solo piano by Marc Blitzstein was released by Other Minds Records this April. (OM 1017-2): “... the Del Sol players produce a gloriously opulent, full-throated tone that prevents exuberantly inventive writing from catching an expressive chill. Warmly recorded and perceptively played, this is music well worth getting to know.” (Strad magazine)


“Ring of Fire-Music of the Pacific Rim” (2008) (OM-1016-2) “No fault-lines in this spirited musical journey around volcano country” Gramophone called Del Sol “masters of all musical things surveyed on this disc” (Gramophone magazine)







Full reviews and links can be found on our website.

Happy Year of the Ox!

1. Other Minds Festival 14
2. Blitzstein CD: "First Life"
3. Chamber Music America
4. "Composing Together" Schools Program
5. Rave Reviews for Ring of Fire
6. Commissioning Joan Jeanrenaud
7. Your Support is Crucial

1. Other Minds Festival 14

Del Sol plays the music of Chinary Ung, Michael Harrison, Dobromila Jaskot, and Linda Catlin Smith at the Other Minds Festival 14 on March 5-7, 2009 at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. Three of the composers wrote their works specifically for Del Sol, and the Quartet will be performing on all three nights of the Festival, including two world premieres and one U.S. premiere. Check out the remarkable tuning system of Michael Harrison, who will play his specially tuned, “just-intonation” piano with the Quartet in his piece, "Tone Clouds," on the Festival’s closing night. The Quartet’s participation in the Festival is supported, in part, by a generous grant from the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation.
The Trio con Brio Copenhagen and the Amsterdam Cello Octet are also coming to town for the three-day Festival, along with a host of other performers and composers. Concerts take place March 5-7: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. The specific programs for each evening’s concert are listed at www.otherminds.org. For tickets, call the JCCSF Box Office at (415) 292-1233 or order online.

2. Blitzstein CD: "First Life"

This April, Other Minds Records will release "First Life," a CD featuring world premiere recordings of rarely-played early works by American composer, Marc Blitzstein (1905-1964), performed by the Del Sol String Quartet and pianist Sarah Cahill. Del Sol recorded Blitzstein's complete string quartet repertoire--Quartet for Strings "The Italian" (1930) and the Serenade for String Quartet (1932)--and Cahill plays the Piano Sonata (1927), Piano Percussion Music (1929), and the Scherzo "Bourgeois at Play" (1930).
"First Life" will be available for sneak-preview purchase at the Other Minds Festival this March, or online.


3. Chamber Music America

In January, Del Sol violinist Kate Stenberg performed with pianist Eva-Maria Zimmermann in New York City at the closing "American Masterpieces" concert of the 2009 Chamber Music America National Conference. This concert honors chamber groups that have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts in the past year. The duo played Ruth Crawford Seeger’s violin Sonata in the beautiful Saint Luke’s Church, on a program shared with the Harlem String Quartet, The Parker Quartet and the String Trio of New York. A few years ago Del Sol played Crawford Seeger’s masterful 1931 string quartet and have recorded the Andante movement on their “Tear” CD (2002).
Violist Charlton Lee also attended the CMA Conference, joining Del Sol’s booking agent, Peter Robles of Serious Music Media, to meet with presenters on whose concert series the Quartet will perform in the coming seasons. They also enjoyed Kate’s and Eva-Maria’s concert from the audience. Charlton later spent a beautiful, snowy day with composer Michael Harrison, discussing and working on Del Sol’s upcoming premiere of his “Tone Clouds” piece for string quartet and piano. While in New York, the land of composers and food, Charlton also shared meals with two other composers writing works for Del Sol--Tania León and Paul Lee-- whose quartets will be premiered at our Home Season concerts in May.
photos from left to right: Kate Stenberg, Eva-Maria Zimmermann, Charlton Lee – photos by Charles Amirkhanian

4. "Composing Together" Schools Program

Del Sol collaborated with local composer and educator, Katrina Wreede, in a highly successful educational program last fall reaching traditionally under-served students in three public middle and high schools in San Francisco and the East Bay. In several classroom visits during the semester the Quartet members and Katrina provided students with hands-on mentoring to compose their own music through a process tailored to their varied musical experience, understanding and skill levels. At the end of the project the Quartet performed the students’ works in concerts at each school, which was recorded on CDs for the participants. In evaluating last year's program, one participating teacher commented: "I would do this project every year. This is a superb project for school musicians." We hope to continue and expand the program to five schools this fall if we can raise the required funding from foundations and other supporters.
Washington High School students - photo by Jill Hendricks

5. Rave Reviews for Ring of Fire

Del Sol’s new CD, “Ring of Fire: Music of the Pacific Rim,” released in 2008 on the Other Minds label, has been praised by critics from San Francisco to the UK as “ear-opening” and a “bracing sampler, performed with sensitivity and flair.” (The Boston Globe). The December 2008 issue of Gramophone magazine published a glowing, half-page review with color photos, calling the Quartet “masters of all musical things they survey on this disc, playing with a combination of ferocious attack, riveting interplay and silken splendour.” See our website for complete reviews and to buy the CD.

6. Commissioning Joan Jeanrenaud

This year we are beginning a new project with San Francisco composer, Joan Jeanrenaud, to write her first string quartet for Del Sol. The Quartet members are excited to work with Jeanrenaud, a new music champion and acclaimed former cellist of the Kronos Quartet. This project is supported by foundation grants awarded to us by the American Composers Forum and The San Francisco Foundation, along with generous matching gifts from several of our individual donors. We expect to premiere the new work at our 2010 Home Season concerts.

Left to right Kate Stenberg, Rick Shinozaki, Hannah Addario-Berry, Joan Jeanrenaud, Charlton Lee – photo by Frank Addario

7. Your Support is Crucial

We appreciate so much the generous response of donors to our 2008 Year-End solicitation. Because of the recession, like many other nonprofits, we began cutting costs last fall and have cut our 2009 budget further. We depend on the generosity of individuals like you to continue making contemporary chamber music accessible to the public through the Del Sol Quartet’s work. Your gifts support continuing our “Composing Together” collaboration in public schools this fall, our Home Season concerts in May, and two new multi-media projects that we hope to begin this year, plus our ongoing operations. You can donate online. Thank you to all of you who have continued to support us through hard times, and we hope that others also will give as generously as they can.