by Rita Felciano
Posted on 4/12/08 on danceviewtimes.com
Gimmicks are all the rage these days. The idea of pulling the members of a string quartet out of their chairs to have them interact with dancers sounded like a clever marketing device but not something one necessarily wanted to see. In fact “StringWreck,” the collaboration between Janice Garrett & Dancers and the Del Sol String Quartet turned out to be a deliciously entertaining, slightly wacky evening of music and dance that could charm a turnip. Collaborating choreographers Garrett and her partner Charles Moulton set the tone but its blithe spirit floated on Del Sol’s exceptionally rich musical choices.
Entire article
Monday, April 14, 2008
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Review: Garrett dancers with Del Sol Quartet
Rachel Howard, Chronicle Dance Correspondent
San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday, April 12, 2008
Within minutes of the start of Janice Garrett & Dancers' new "StringWreck," one dancer has wrestled an actual violinist, precious instrument in hand, to the floor while another dancer is pulling the violist's hair while he plays on. But that's only the most flamboyant way the hourlong work, which opened Thursday and repeats tonight and Sunday at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum, moves a step beyond most collaborations between dance and music.
The dance - a team effort of Garrett, fellow choreographer Charles Moulton and the Del Sol String Quartet - is a delight from start to finish. It takes what could have been a merely cute, contrived concept - dancers and musicians collide - and shapes from it a continually thoughtful, surprising and even touching journey.
Entire article
San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday, April 12, 2008
Within minutes of the start of Janice Garrett & Dancers' new "StringWreck," one dancer has wrestled an actual violinist, precious instrument in hand, to the floor while another dancer is pulling the violist's hair while he plays on. But that's only the most flamboyant way the hourlong work, which opened Thursday and repeats tonight and Sunday at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum, moves a step beyond most collaborations between dance and music.
The dance - a team effort of Garrett, fellow choreographer Charles Moulton and the Del Sol String Quartet - is a delight from start to finish. It takes what could have been a merely cute, contrived concept - dancers and musicians collide - and shapes from it a continually thoughtful, surprising and even touching journey.
Entire article
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Culture Clash: Janice Garrett & Dancers and Del Sol String Quartet Mix It Up
by Jean Schiffman
San Francisco Arts Monthly, April 2008 Vol. 19 No.9
A rehearsal for Janice Garrett & Dancers' upcoming premiere, "StringWreck," is underway in the Margaret Jenkins studio. Outside, it is a blustery evening; inside, the energy is electric. The dancers, two men and two women, are warming up. Only two of the musicians comprising the Del Sol String Quartet are here tonight, but ultimately all four will perform—not just playing the music but physically interacting with the dancers.
The section that Janice Garrett and co-choreographer Charles Moulton are working on is set to "Eine kleine Nachtmusik," one of 15 pieces selected from among Del Sol's repertory of about 150, most of them by contemporary composers. Tonight, Del Sol founder Charlton Lee is It. The dancers swing him like a battering ram, leap over his shoulder, lift his legs, turn him around, carry him in a stiff standing position, swirl around him like dervishes. Throughout, Lee gamely tries to play his violin (in performance, he'll play the viola) while violinist Rick Shinozaki accompanies him from the sidelines. When Lee's bow arm is obstructed, he plucks helplessly at the strings. In performance, musicians will be tossed in the air with great abandon. Dancers will fall under the spell of the musicians' shifting tempos, morph into music stands that fly off with the sheet music. Lee will plummet through space, be dragged belly-down across the floor, playing all the while.
"We're exploring the interface between musicians and dancers," explains Garrett. "What can they do in common, where can they function together, where can't they? How do they co-exist? Where are the points of friction, tension, compatibility, harmony? And how do we weave a piece that moves through those variable landscapes of what all human interactions and relationships move through?"
Entire, original article
San Francisco Arts Monthly, April 2008 Vol. 19 No.9
A rehearsal for Janice Garrett & Dancers' upcoming premiere, "StringWreck," is underway in the Margaret Jenkins studio. Outside, it is a blustery evening; inside, the energy is electric. The dancers, two men and two women, are warming up. Only two of the musicians comprising the Del Sol String Quartet are here tonight, but ultimately all four will perform—not just playing the music but physically interacting with the dancers.
The section that Janice Garrett and co-choreographer Charles Moulton are working on is set to "Eine kleine Nachtmusik," one of 15 pieces selected from among Del Sol's repertory of about 150, most of them by contemporary composers. Tonight, Del Sol founder Charlton Lee is It. The dancers swing him like a battering ram, leap over his shoulder, lift his legs, turn him around, carry him in a stiff standing position, swirl around him like dervishes. Throughout, Lee gamely tries to play his violin (in performance, he'll play the viola) while violinist Rick Shinozaki accompanies him from the sidelines. When Lee's bow arm is obstructed, he plucks helplessly at the strings. In performance, musicians will be tossed in the air with great abandon. Dancers will fall under the spell of the musicians' shifting tempos, morph into music stands that fly off with the sheet music. Lee will plummet through space, be dragged belly-down across the floor, playing all the while.
"We're exploring the interface between musicians and dancers," explains Garrett. "What can they do in common, where can they function together, where can't they? How do they co-exist? Where are the points of friction, tension, compatibility, harmony? And how do we weave a piece that moves through those variable landscapes of what all human interactions and relationships move through?"
Entire, original article
Friday, February 1, 2008
Joyous Eclecticism
In the San Francisco Classical Voice, 1/29/08 ...
By Michelle Dulak Thomson
In a Bay Area music scene crammed full of resolute, relentless eclectics, the Del Sol Quartet stands out less for packing bewilderingly various elements into its programs than for doing it with such ease and stylishness. The Del Sols’ grand mélange of a recital Tuesday night, courtesy of Berkeley Chamber Performances, reprised its Old First Concerts program of a couple months back.
For a packed audience in the ballroom of the Berkeley City Club (more chairs were needed, and obtained), the ensemble and two guests, clarinetist Jeff Anderle and didgeridoo player Stephen Kent, presented a quartet of pieces divided by wild extremes of geography and united by the intensity of their colors and the vividness of their gestures.
More
By Michelle Dulak Thomson
In a Bay Area music scene crammed full of resolute, relentless eclectics, the Del Sol Quartet stands out less for packing bewilderingly various elements into its programs than for doing it with such ease and stylishness. The Del Sols’ grand mélange of a recital Tuesday night, courtesy of Berkeley Chamber Performances, reprised its Old First Concerts program of a couple months back.
For a packed audience in the ballroom of the Berkeley City Club (more chairs were needed, and obtained), the ensemble and two guests, clarinetist Jeff Anderle and didgeridoo player Stephen Kent, presented a quartet of pieces divided by wild extremes of geography and united by the intensity of their colors and the vividness of their gestures.
More
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Del Sol Quartet Wins CMA/ASCAP Award
For Immediate Release December 18th, 2007
Del Sol Quartet Wins CMA/ASCAP Award
for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music
First Prize, Ensemble-Mixed Repertory
Given annually, the award recognizes ensembles, presenters and festivals that have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to 20th- and 21st-century music, especially works written in the past 25 years. In addition to considering originality, the independent panel of judges looked for innovative presentation and audience-development strategies. The prizes will be given out at the Chamber Music America National Conference in New York City on January 5, 2008, which will be CMA’s 30th Anniversary. The awards are given jointly by Chamber Music America and ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers).
This marks the second time San Francisco-based Del Sol Quartet has received this award. Through collaborations with other artists Del Sol consistently has sought to expand the role of the string quartet beyond traditional classical chamber music. In July 2007 Del Sol performed Tan Dun’s “Ghost Opera” at the Santa Fe Opera’s new music series with Wu Man, pipa soloist. In this performance, the Quartet members integrated their string playing with additional vocal and percussion roles while moving around onstage, all within a full-scale operatic production. The Quartet plans to explore multimedia collaborations further in the current 2007-08 season, including upcoming performances of “String Wreck” with choreographer Charles Moulton and the Janice Garrett Dance Company in April 2008 and “Divide Light,” a new operetta by composer Thomas Edward Morgan and visual artist Lesley Dill, based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson, to be presented by Montalvo Arts Center in August 2008.
Del Sol's groundbreaking performance with hip-hop inspired composer/violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain of his complete string quartets was featured nationally on the CBS Evening News. During the spring of 2006 the quartet also partnered with composers Duo Huang, Kui Dong and Melody of China, the Bay Area's internationally acclaimed traditional Chinese music ensemble, to perform new works written for the combination of Chinese instruments and string quartet. In their previous season Del Sol collaborated with Hyo-Shin Na and five other contemporary women composers from Korea, premiering their work in Seoul and San Francisco.
At a recent concert at the Library of Congress, the Del Sol Quartet, praised by critics as “emotionally riveting,” “immediately engrossing and consuming,” "first rate,” and “taut and propulsive,” premiered a work by Grawemeyer Award-winning composer, Chinary Ung, commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation, plus works by Kui Dong, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Peter Sculthorpe’s Quartet no.16 for string quartet and didgeridoo.
The members of the Del Sol String Quartet are Kate Stenberg and Rick Shinozaki, violinists, Charlton Lee, violist, and Hannah Addario-Berry, cellist. The quartet began at the renowned Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, after which it was awarded a residency at San Francisco State University in association with the Alexander String Quartet. www.delsolquartet.com
______________________________________________________________________________
For all Booking and PR: Contact Peter Robles at probles@seriousmusicmedia.com 646-386-7057
Del Sol Quartet Wins CMA/ASCAP Award
for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music
First Prize, Ensemble-Mixed Repertory
Given annually, the award recognizes ensembles, presenters and festivals that have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to 20th- and 21st-century music, especially works written in the past 25 years. In addition to considering originality, the independent panel of judges looked for innovative presentation and audience-development strategies. The prizes will be given out at the Chamber Music America National Conference in New York City on January 5, 2008, which will be CMA’s 30th Anniversary. The awards are given jointly by Chamber Music America and ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers).
This marks the second time San Francisco-based Del Sol Quartet has received this award. Through collaborations with other artists Del Sol consistently has sought to expand the role of the string quartet beyond traditional classical chamber music. In July 2007 Del Sol performed Tan Dun’s “Ghost Opera” at the Santa Fe Opera’s new music series with Wu Man, pipa soloist. In this performance, the Quartet members integrated their string playing with additional vocal and percussion roles while moving around onstage, all within a full-scale operatic production. The Quartet plans to explore multimedia collaborations further in the current 2007-08 season, including upcoming performances of “String Wreck” with choreographer Charles Moulton and the Janice Garrett Dance Company in April 2008 and “Divide Light,” a new operetta by composer Thomas Edward Morgan and visual artist Lesley Dill, based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson, to be presented by Montalvo Arts Center in August 2008.
Del Sol's groundbreaking performance with hip-hop inspired composer/violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain of his complete string quartets was featured nationally on the CBS Evening News. During the spring of 2006 the quartet also partnered with composers Duo Huang, Kui Dong and Melody of China, the Bay Area's internationally acclaimed traditional Chinese music ensemble, to perform new works written for the combination of Chinese instruments and string quartet. In their previous season Del Sol collaborated with Hyo-Shin Na and five other contemporary women composers from Korea, premiering their work in Seoul and San Francisco.
At a recent concert at the Library of Congress, the Del Sol Quartet, praised by critics as “emotionally riveting,” “immediately engrossing and consuming,” "first rate,” and “taut and propulsive,” premiered a work by Grawemeyer Award-winning composer, Chinary Ung, commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation, plus works by Kui Dong, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Peter Sculthorpe’s Quartet no.16 for string quartet and didgeridoo.
The members of the Del Sol String Quartet are Kate Stenberg and Rick Shinozaki, violinists, Charlton Lee, violist, and Hannah Addario-Berry, cellist. The quartet began at the renowned Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, after which it was awarded a residency at San Francisco State University in association with the Alexander String Quartet. www.delsolquartet.com
______________________________________________________________________________
For all Booking and PR: Contact Peter Robles at probles@seriousmusicmedia.com 646-386-7057
Friday, May 4, 2007
Umbilical Chords: Women Composers and the Creative Process
The Del Sol String Quartet premieres a retrospective of music composed by and about women from the past 111 years.
May 27 (Point Reyes Station)
May 30 (Berkeley)
May 31 (San Jose)
June 3 (San Francisco)
Click here for a PDF of the full press release.
May 27 (Point Reyes Station)
May 30 (Berkeley)
May 31 (San Jose)
June 3 (San Francisco)
Click here for a PDF of the full press release.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
References in Feb. '07 Chamber Music
Del Sol is mentioned three times in the February 2007 issue (Vol. 24, No. 1) of Chamber Music magazine.
"A Midwestern Modernist" by James M. Keller, an article about Ruth Crawford Seeger
p. 67 talks about Crawford's String Quartet 1931, Andante movement as
“one I would recommend wholeheartedly is provided by the Del Sol String Quartet, a San Francisco foursome steeped in bravery and imagination.” He refers to Tear as “the group’s mind-expanding sampler CD.” He goes on to describe how Del Sol plays the movement faster than “any of the competition; ... [which] allows for a more fluid fluctuation among the constant waxing and waning of the four instruments...[T]he Del Sols’ result is grippingly otherworldly rather than just scrawny, and their ghostly timbre is abetted by an unusually vivid recorded acoustic. I hope we may look forward to their recording of this work in its entirety.”
p. 63, picture of Tear CD jacket
Click here for more info on Tear
"The Kronos Tradition" by Frank Otieri, p. 41
"In today's chamber music landscape — where quartets ranging from the Cassatt, Del Sol[emphasis added], Lark and Pacifica to genre-defying ensembles such as Ethel and Invert perform new music extensively and in some cases exclusively — it's difficult to remember the pre-Kronos idea of what a string quartet was or could be."
"A Midwestern Modernist" by James M. Keller, an article about Ruth Crawford Seeger
p. 67 talks about Crawford's String Quartet 1931, Andante movement as
“one I would recommend wholeheartedly is provided by the Del Sol String Quartet, a San Francisco foursome steeped in bravery and imagination.” He refers to Tear as “the group’s mind-expanding sampler CD.” He goes on to describe how Del Sol plays the movement faster than “any of the competition; ... [which] allows for a more fluid fluctuation among the constant waxing and waning of the four instruments...[T]he Del Sols’ result is grippingly otherworldly rather than just scrawny, and their ghostly timbre is abetted by an unusually vivid recorded acoustic. I hope we may look forward to their recording of this work in its entirety.”
p. 63, picture of Tear CD jacket
Click here for more info on Tear
"The Kronos Tradition" by Frank Otieri, p. 41
"In today's chamber music landscape — where quartets ranging from the Cassatt, Del Sol[emphasis added], Lark and Pacifica to genre-defying ensembles such as Ethel and Invert perform new music extensively and in some cases exclusively — it's difficult to remember the pre-Kronos idea of what a string quartet was or could be."
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