Del Sol String Quartet
- Music Department
The San Francisco based Del Sol String Quartet, two-time winner of the
top Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, is
breaking the boundaries of classical music in riveting performances of
new music with a global pulse. This critically acclaimed group of high
energy master musicians explores new ways to interact with audiences,
composers, and artists across cultures and art forms. As musical
innovators "steeped in bravery and imagination" Del Sol: Commissions
and performs accessible new music from the brightest living voices
around the world-Mason Bates, Gabriela Lena Frank, Chinary Ung,
Mohammed Fairouz, Tania León, Peter Sculthorpe, Per Nørgård and many
others; Creates intriguing programs with electronica and instruments
from other cultures-Asian, Latin American and indigenous Australian;
Astounds audiences with one-of-a-kind multimedia dance, video and opera
productions, including its hit music/dance collaboration with
celebrated choreographers Janice Garrett and Charles Moulton -
Stringwreck. Del Sol's members are violinists Kate Stenberg and Rick
Shinozaki, violist Charlton Lee, and cellist Kathryn Bates. Since its
inception in 1992 at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Quartet has
worked its magic performing on prominent concert series worldwide,
including the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Museum
and National Gallery of Art in Washington DC; Symphony Space in New
York City; Other Minds Festival of New Music in San Francisco; Cabrillo
Festival of Contemporary Music, Santa Cruz, CA; Davos and Hirzenberg
Music Festivals in Switzerland; Chengdu Festival of Contemporary Music
in China; Santa Fe Opera in NM; Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY;
Candlelight Concerts, Columbia, MD; University of Vermont Lane Series
in Burlington, VT; and the bi-coastal Pacific Rim Festival co-
presented by the University of California, Santa Cruz and Brandeis
University in Waltham, MA. Del Sol's seven commercial CD releases have
been universally praised by critics, including Gramophone, which hailed
the quartet as "masters of all musical things," and The Strad, which
lauded the ensemble's "gloriously opulent, full-throated tone." With
its deep commitment to education, Del Sol has reached thousands of K-12
students through inventive school performances, workshops, coaching and
residencies. The Quartet members also have worked closely with student
composers, musicians and faculty artists at universities across the
country, including Dartmouth, MIT, Brandeis, Northeastern, University
of New Mexico, University of California at Berkeley and Santa Cruz, the
Manhattan School of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music,
among others.