Del Sol Quartet + Volti

The world-premiere of Angel Island – Oratorio for Voices and Strings by Huang Ruo. Performed by Del Sol Quartet and Volti, directed by Robert Geary.

Inspired by the poems carved into the walls at the detention center at Angel Island Immigration Station during the Chinese Exclusion Act years, this new work takes a deep look at discrimination and immigration issues in our nation.

About Del Sol Quartet + Volti

Fascinated by the feedback loop between social change, technology, and artistic innovation, the San Francisco-based Del Sol Quartet is a leading force in 21st-century chamber music. They believe that live music can, and should, happen anywhere – whether introducing Ben Johnston’s microtonal Americana at the Library of Congress or in a canyon cave, taking Aeryn Santillan’s gun-violence memorial to SF streets, or collaborating with North Indian musicians to create genre-bending new works. Since 1992, Del Sol has commissioned or premiered thousands of works.

Volti’s professional singers, under the direction of founder and Artistic Director Robert Geary, are dedicated to the discovery, creation, and performance of new vocal music. The ensemble’s mission is to foster and showcase contemporary American music and composers, and to introduce contemporary vocal music from around the world to local audiences. The group has commissioned more than 100 new works, by emerging as well as established composers.

Composer Huang Ruo has been lauded by the NY Times for having “a distinctive style.” His vibrant and inventive musical voice draws equal inspiration from Chinese ancient and folk music, Western avant-garde, experimental, noise, natural and processed sound, rock, and jazz to create a seamless integration using a compositional technique he calls “Dimensionalism.” Huang Ruo’s compositional works span from orchestra, chamber music, opera, theater, and dance, to cross-genre, sound installation, architectural installation, multimedia, experimental improvisation, folk rock, and film.

Huang’s music has been premiered and performed by the NY Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, National Polish Radio Orchestra, Santa Fe Opera, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Asko/Schoenberg, Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta.

Supported by the Hewlett Foundation “50 Arts Commissions,” the Clarence E. Heller Charitable & Phyllis C. Wattis Foundations, and Grants for the Arts.

For more information, visit www.delsolquartet.com/angelisland

Photo by Lenny Gonzalez