Episodes

  • Angel Island Part 4: Dialogue and Departure
    Jul 22 2024

    The word “departure” generally refers to the physical act of leaving a place. However, departure also indicates a deviation from one’s traditional course of action or way of thinking.

    As we close out this season of Sounds Current, Charlton and esteemed collaborators reflect on their experiences related to the development and subsequent productions of Angel Island. How have the music, the conversations, and their experiences on Angel Island shaped their understanding of the current immigration debate in the US and beyond? How has being a part of the project affected their personal narratives and understanding of family history? And what does the future hold for this project as a whole?

    And how is the audience receiving the piece? For the first time in this series, we hear immediate reactions..

    Part 4 Features:

    Matthew Ozawa, Stage Director, New York premiere of Angel Island

    Andi Wong, Teaching Artist and Arts Advocate

    Genny Lim, Poet, Playwright, Performer, and Pioneer

    Casey Dexter-Lee, State Park Interpreter II for Angel Island

    Susan Moffat, Principal, Future Histories Studio

    Huang Ruo, Composer, Angel Island

    Ben Kreith, Del Sol Quartet violinist

    Kathryn Bates, Del Sol Quartet cellist

    Hyeyung Sol Yoon, Del Sol Quartet violinist

    Sidney Chen, Singer, Volti San Francisco

    Ed Tepporn, Executive Director, Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

    And numerous audience members from the Next Wave Festival, co-presented by Brooklyn Academy of Music and Prototype Festival, Produced by Beth Morrison Projects in association with Brooklyn Academy of Music.

    Featured Music Provided By:

    Meilina Tsui

    Byron Au Yong

    Theresa Wong

    Timo Chen

    Taylor Ho Bynum

    Erika Oba

    Juri Seo

    Order Huang Ruo’s A Dust in Time here, listen in Spotify or your favorite music streaming service.

    The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation invites you to Immigrant Voices, a growing archive of personal stories of Pacific Coast immigrants. Explore here.

    LEARN MORE:

    https://www.delsolquartet.com/podcast

    Del Sol Quartet on Spotify

    Facebook

    Instagram

    YouTube

    CREDITS:

    Hosted by Charlton Lee

    Produced by Andrea Klunder, The Creative Impostor Studios, Charlton Lee, Kathryn Bates, Hyeyung Sol Yoon, Ben Kreith

    Story Editor: Andrea Klunder

    Sound Design: Andrea Klunder

    Technical Director & Post Production Audio: Edwin R. Ruiz

    Field Producer & Recording Engineer: Kathryn Bates

    Field Producer: Verena Lee

    Podcast Manager: Alex Riegler

    Show Notes: Lisa Widder

    Cover Art: Felicia Lee

    Theme Music: Charlton Lee

    Executive Producers: Andrea Fellows Fineberg, Don Fineberg

    Featured music from The Angel Island Oratorio composed by Huang Ruo. Performed by Del Sol Quartet & United States Air Force Band's Singing Sergeants / National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, recording and edited by Suraya Mohamed.

    Show more Show less
    44 mins
  • Angel Island Part 3: A Pandemic and a World Premiere
    Jul 10 2024

    We never experience a story in the same way twice. Sure, key elements remain firmly in place, but variables like political era, maturity, staging, and even the weather permeate each telling and play a vital part in the life of the piece.

    Charlton invites Del Sol collaborators to elaborate on their roles in the creation, performance, and ongoing support of The Angel Island Project. What role did the COVID-19 pandemic play in the development of the piece? What was it like to play the oratorio in the place that inspired it? How has interpretation of the piece expanded outside the confines of Angel Island? What can art teach us about 20th-century immigration policies, and how can it inform 21st-century solutions?

    Part 3 Features:

    Huang Ruo, Composer, Angel Island

    Sidney Chen, Singer, Volti San Francisco

    Kathryn Bates, Del Sol Quartet Cellist

    Andi Wong, Teaching Artist and Arts Advocate

    Susan Moffat, Principal, Future Histories Studio

    Ben Kreith, Del Sol Quartet Violinist

    Casey Dexter-Lee, State Park Interpreter II for Angel Island

    Genny Lim, Poet, Playwright, Performer, Pioneer

    Hyeyung Sol Yoon, Del Sol Quartet Violinist

    Taylor S. Armstrong, Senior Master Sergeant, United States Air Force Band

    Featured Music Provided By:

    Erika Oba

    Timo Chen

    Byron Au Yong

    Theresa Wong

    Jungyoon Wie

    Order Huang Ruo’s A Dust in Time here, listen in Spotify or your favorite music streaming service.

    The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation invites you to Immigrant Voices, a growing archive of personal stories of Pacific Coast immigrants. Explore here.

    LEARN MORE

    https://www.delsolquartet.com/podcast

    Del Sol Quartet on Spotify

    Facebook

    Instagram

    YouTube

    CREDITS

    Hosted by Charlton Lee

    Produced by Andrea Klunder, The Creative Impostor Studios, Charlton Lee, Kathryn Bates, Hyeyung Sol Yoon, Ben Kreith

    Story Editor: Andrea Klunder

    Sound Design: Andrea Klunder

    Technical Director & Post Production Audio: Edwin R. Ruiz

    Field Producer & Recording Engineer: Kathryn Bates

    Field Producer: Verena Lee

    Podcast Manager: Alex Riegler

    Show Notes: Lisa Widder

    Cover Art: Felicia Lee

    Theme Music: Charlton Lee

    Executive Producers: Andrea Fellows Fineberg, Don Fineberg

    Featured music from A Dust in Time and The Angel Island Oratorio composed by Huang Ruo. Performed by Del Sol Quartet. Angel Island also features the United States Air Force Band's Singing Sergeants / National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, recorded and edited by Suraya Mohamed.

    Show more Show less
    47 mins
  • Angel Island Part 2: A Truth To Be Told
    Jun 24 2024

    Much like Angel Island, the project, Angel Island, the place, is a point of entry, connecting many visitors to a history they know nothing about––and reminding some of a traumatic past they'd rather forget.

    Del Sol Quartet violist Charlton Lee and collaborators draw audiences into the world of Angel Island, a tranquil state park in San Francisco Bay dotted with winding trails and a campus of restored wooden buildings that once served as a processing station, interrogation hub, and detention center for mostly Asian immigrants between 1910 and 1940.

    What is the island like today, and what may life have been like for the 500,000 newly arrived individuals and families who landed here a century ago in search of a better life? And what is the emotional legacy of the stories that may never have been told from one generation to the next?

    This conversation contains brief, graphic mentions of suicide. Please take care when engaging with the episode.

    Part 2 Features:

    Casey Dexter-Lee, State Park Interpreter II for Angel Island

    Hyeyung Sol Yoon, Del Sol Quartet violinist

    Kathryn Bates, Del Sol Quartet cellist

    Ed Tepporn, Executive Director, Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

    Emiko Ono, Director Of Performing Arts Program at The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation

    Andi Wong, educator and collaborator, Angel Island Project

    Genny Lim, poet and collaborator, Angel Island Project

    Music in this Episode Provided By:

    Theresa Wong

    Ken Ueno

    Timo Chen

    Taylor Ho Bynum

    Jungyoon Wie

    Erika Oba

    Byron Au Yong

    The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundations invites you to Immigrant Voices, a growing archive of personal stories of Pacific Coast immigrants. Explore here.

    RESOURCES & LINKS

    Huang Ruo

    Angel Island Immigration Station

    Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

    Immigrant Voices Oral History Project

    Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island

    Genny Lim

    The Last Hoisan Poets

    William & Flora Hewlett Foundation

    The National Archives at San Francisco (San Bruno)

    LEARN MORE ABOUT DEL SOL

    https://www.delsolquartet.com/podcast

    Del Sol Quartet on Spotify

    Facebook

    Instagram

    YouTube

    CREDITS

    Hosted by Charlton Lee

    Produced by Andrea Klunder, The Creative Impostor Studios, Charlton Lee, Kathryn Bates, Hyeyung Sol Yoon, Ben Kreith

    Story Editor: Andrea Klunder

    Sound Design: Andrea Klunder

    Technical Director & Post Production Audio: Edwin R. Ruiz

    Field Producer & Recording Engineer: Kathryn Bates

    Field Producer: Verena Lee

    Podcast Manager: Alex Riegler

    Show Notes: Lisa Widder

    Cover Art: Felicia Lee

    Theme Music: Charlton Lee

    Executive Producers: Andrea Fellows Fineberg, Don Fineberg

    Show more Show less
    43 mins
  • Angel Island Part 1: A Haunting History
    Jun 10 2024

    Welcome to Angel Island. With stunning views of San Francisco Bay and lush hiking trails, the island is nestled between the promise of the Golden Gate Bridge and California’s sun-soaked mainland coast. But between 1910 and 1940, hundreds of thousands of Asians arriving at the Angel Island Immigration Station faced separation, interrogation, and often deportation under the longstanding Chinese Exclusion Act.

    The ghosts of Angel Island, however, endure. Poems carved into the soft wooden walls of the detention barracks give voice to long-remembered frustration, humiliation, and loneliness of the immigrants detained there. These inscriptions in Chinese calligraphy link that shameful past to our present immigration debate, bringing history into the reality of our current lives.

    In Part One, violist and founding member of the Del Sol Quartet, Charlton Lee, introduces both Angel Island's history and the creatives behind The Angel Island Project. A collaboration between Del Sol and composer Huang Ruo, this haunting oratorio for string quartet and chamber choir weaves together poetry and music in a poignant, powerful expression of history, hope, and humanity.

    Part One Features:

    Charlton Lee, Del Sol Quartet violist

    Huang Ruo, Composer and conductor

    Kathryn Bates, Del Sol Quartet cellist

    Hyeyung Sol Yoon, Del Sol Quartet violinist

    Ben Kreith, Del Sol Quartet violinist

    Ed Tepporn, Executive Director, Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

    Andi Wong, Teaching Artist and Arts Advocate

    Genny Lim, Poet, Playwright, Performer, Pioneer

    RESOURCES & LINKS

    Huang Ruo

    Angel Island Immigration Station

    Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

    Immigrant Voices Oral History Project

    Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island

    Genny Lim

    The Last Hoisan Poets

    ArtsEd4All

    The Chinese Historical Society Of America

    William & Flora Hewlett Foundation

    UC Berkeley Global Urban Humanities Initiative

    LEARN MORE

    https://www.delsolquartet.com/podcast

    Del Sol Quartet on Spotify

    Facebook

    Instagram

    YouTube

    CREDITS

    Hosted by Charlton Lee

    Produced by Andrea Klunder, The Creative Impostor Studios, Charlton Lee, Kathryn Bates, Hyeyung Sol Yoon, Ben Kreith

    Story Editor: Andrea Klunder

    Sound Design: Andrea Klunder

    Technical Director & Post Production Audio: Edwin R. Ruiz

    Field Producer & Recording Engineer: Kathryn Bates

    Field Producer: Verena Lee

    Podcast Manager: Alex Riegler

    Show Notes: Lisa Widder

    Cover Art: Felicia Lee

    Theme Music: Charlton Lee

    Executive Producers: Andrea Fellows Fineberg, Don Fineberg

    Featured music from The Angel Island Oratorio composed by Huang Ruo. Performed by Del Sol Quartet & United States Air Force Band's Singing Sergeants / National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, recording and edited by Suraya Mohamed.

    Show more Show less
    34 mins
  • TRAILER - Season 1: Angel Island
    Apr 28 2024

    How does a string quartet help build community from Chinese immigrant poetry carved into detention-center walls on Angel Island? Let their words sing out after 100 years of silence.

    Season 1 of Sounds Current with the Del Sol Quartet follows the quest to shine light on San Francisco’s Angel Island, a site of detention and dehumanization for Chinese immigrants in the 1900s. We travel with the creatives behind The Angel Island Project, including composer Huang Ruo, poet Genny Lim, educator Andi Wong and more. Sounds Current: Angel Island explores how we make compassionate art that builds community.

    ***

    San Francisco’s Del Sol Quartet believes that music can, and should, happen anywhere - screaming out Aeryn Santillan’s “Makeshift Memorials” from a Mission District sidewalk or a rural high school, bouncing Ben Johnston’s microtonal “Americana” off the canyon walls of the Yampa River or the hallowed walls of Library of Congress, bringing Huang Ruo’s “Angel Island Oratorio” home to the island detention barracks or across the Pacific to the Singapore International Arts Festival.

    Since 1992, Del Sol has commissioned or premiered hundreds of works from diverse composers. Their performances provide the possibility for unexpected discovery, sparking dialogue and bringing people together.

    CREDITS

    Hosted by Charlton Lee

    Produced by Andrea Klunder, The Creative Impostor Studios, Charlton Lee, Kathryn Bates, Hyeyung Sol Yoon, Ben Kreith

    Story Editor: Andrea Klunder

    Sound Design: Andrea Klunder

    Technical Director & Post Production Audio: Edwin R. Ruiz

    Field Producer & Recording Engineer: Kathryn Bates

    Field Producer: Verena Lee

    Podcast Manager: Alex Riegler

    Show Notes: Lisa Widder

    Cover Art: Felicia Lee

    Theme Music: composed by Charlton Lee, performed by Del Sol Quartet

    Executive Producers: Andrea Fellows Fineberg, Don Fineberg

    LEARN MORE

    https://www.delsolquartet.com/podcast

    Del Sol Quartet on Spotify

    Facebook

    Instagram

    YouTube

    Featured music from The Angel Island Oratorio composed by Huang Ruo. Performed by Del Sol Quartet & United States Air Force Band's Singing Sergeants / National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, recording and edited by Suraya Mohamed.

    Show more Show less
    2 mins