Del Sol String Quartet: Heart and Seoul

Friday October 2, 2009 at 7 pm

Korean Cultural Service NY

The Korean Cultural Service NY welcomes Del Sol String Quartet in an evening of stunning compositions from Korea and Latin-America. The San Francisco-based Del Sol String Quartet, two-time winners of the national Chamber Music America/ASCAP First Place Award for Adventurous Programming, stands out as a group of pure invention—exploring new ways for a string quartet to interact with audiences, composers and other artists. The members of the Quartet are Kate Stenberg and Rick Shinozaki, violinists, Charlton Lee, violist, and Hannah Addario-Berry, cellist. Upcoming activities include performances at New York’s Symphony Space, The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Candlelight Concerts in Maryland, University of Vermont Bishop Lane Artists’ Series, and the Pacific Rim Music Festival at UC, Santa Cruz; Brandeis University as well as in Seoul. World premieres of commissioned works by Joan Jeanrenaud, former cellist for 20 years of Kronos Quartet, and Ronald Bruce Smith will highlight next season.

The evening’s concert takes the listener on a journey from the music of Paul Yeon Lee’s Quartet Ari, Ari… ari, based on the Korean folk song Arirang, to Hyo-shin Na’s Song of the Beggars, a representation of the spirit of Korean mendicants, who howl their wheedling wails best when totally ashamed of their plight. Hae-Sung Lee’s heart-wrenching Sae (Bird) and a movement from a new work by Cuban composer Tania Leon entitled Esencia, inspired by fragrant scents that are found in Cuban home life. The brilliantly beautiful fourth movement of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Quartet, Leyandas: An Andean Walkabout, entitled Chasqui, depicting a legendary figure from the Inca period--the chasqui runner, who sprinted great distances to deliver messages between towns separated from one another by the Andean peaks.

“masters of all musical things they survey ...” -Gramophone Magazine

“the Del Sol players produce a gloriously opulent, full-throated tone …”

-Strad Magazine

“bracing ...performed with sensitivity and flair ...” -The Boston Globe

Free admission but reservation is required. To RSVP, please call (212) 759-9550 or email info@koreanculture.org. For more information on the Del Sol, please visit www.seriousmusicmedia.com/delsol.html.