Tuesday, January 3, 2006

Del Sol Quartet on Top

in San Francisco Classical Voice, Music Reviews

by Janos Gereben

San Francisco's Del Sol Quartet has been named the year's winner of the Chamber Ensemble/Mixed Repertory category for 2005-2006 by Chamber Music America and ASCAP. The quartet's Kate Stenberg, Rick Shinozaki, Charlton Lee, and Monica Scott have been much in the news lately, especially with their release of the complete string quartet repertory of George Antheil on the Other Minds label, which was nominated for a Grammy. As reported in Music News, the quartet has also engaged in an extensive exchange program, both touring Korea and sponsoring concerts here of musicians from Korea (under the title of "Del Seoul," har, har).

Del Sol's new award will be given at CMA's 28th annual national conference ("Chart Your Course: Navigating in an Unpredictable Culture") in New York City, January 12-15. The quartet will perform at the conference, as well. Among the other local winners is Babatunde Lea of Vallejo in the jazz ensembles category. For the first time, the recipient of the CMA's highest honor, the Richard J. Bogomolny Service Award, is a jazz artist: Billy Taylor, pianist, educator, TV and radio host, member of the National Council on the Arts, Kennedy Center Artistic Advisor for Jazz, and recipient of major honors, including the National Medal of Arts.

Original article