Sounds Current

Though Angel Island began with Del Sol Quartet's collaboration with composer Huang Ruo, poet Genny Lim and arts educator Andi Wong are essential to everything the project has become and continues to be.  We are thrilled to share that since the time of this podcast, Genny has been inaugurated as San Francisco poet Laureate. She's the first Chinese American to hold this position. In this bonus conve...

Immigration is a hot-button topic for many nations around the world, and especially in the United States. The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation is one organization that not only seeks to preserve the history of immigration through Angel Island, but also to steward a culture that recognizes the complexities of immigration and works to build a community of safety and belonging. Ed Tepporn...

Casey Dexter-Lee is a state park interpreter who has dedicated 23+ years to Angel Island. Casey has been an invaluable resource for coordinating our world premiere on Angel Island and subsequent Angel Island Concert Series.  In this bonus episode, Del Sol violinist Hyeyung Sol Yoon talks with Casey on location about what it's like to visit, live, and work on Angel Island. Casey shares why it's imp...

Del Sol's relationship with Susan Moffat began as a chance encounter at a spontaneous street performance during the pandemic. In this bonus episode, hear how that meeting blossomed into impactful collaborations at the Albany Bulb and Angel Island, and an entire curriculum of programming at UC Berkeley, A Year on Angel Island. Susan highlights the broader educational and emotional impacts of these...

This is for young artists, musicians, new ensembles, and anyone seeking to take on bigger or more complex projects in their creative work! Emiko Ono is the Director, Performing Arts Program at The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. And it is safe to say that without the Hewlett Foundation's 50 Arts Commission, there may never have BEEN an Angel Island Oratorio. In this short excerpt, Charlton a...

"My hope is not to divide, but to bring people together. Because only when we know about the history, then we can see our present and can learn [from] mistakes and to do better." So says composer and conductor Huang Ruo on his vision for Angel Island. This bonus is Charlton's full conversation with Huang Ruo recorded in a friend's apartment in New York, during the 2024 Next Wave Festival , co-pres...

We're going on tour in March 2025! We'll be engaging in performances and residencies in Lincoln, Nebraska; Kansas City, Missouri, and Iowa CIty, Iowa. And in April we'll be at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Check out our calendar for more details at Calendar — Del Sol Quartet  

How do we learn from the past to change the future? This bonus is an excerpt of Charlton's interview with Matthew Ozawa, stage director for the New York premiere of Angel Island at BAM produced by Beth Morrison Productions. In this clip, Matthew shares how his first experience on Angel Island and personal family history inspired the staging of the Prototype Festival staging. And Charlton describes...

One of the complexities of Angel Island by Huang Ruo is that vocal parts are alternately in English and Chinese. For American choral groups, who are familiar with practicing Italian, German, French, and Latin diction, Chinese is not a common language with which they often have experience. And for this project, it was important to get it right. This bonus is an excerpt of Charlton's interview with...

Hear our behind the scenes conversation about producing the award-winning season 1 of  Sounds Current with our producer and editor, Andrea Klunder, from her podcast The Creative Impostor. But, wait! This episode isn't just about creating a podcast. It's about the joys and tension of being part of a chamber ensemble, pushing yourself to do something new in order to move society, and making art that...

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 conversa...

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 t...

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 res...

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 Excl...

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 creat...