BONUS: Holding Each Other’s Stories, Discovering Some Truth with Genny Lim and Andi Wong
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 conversation with Genny and Andi, we tease our upcoming collaboration, Songs of the Diaspora, a multimedia performance that will premiere late 2025 with poetry by Genny Lim, and new music by Chinese...
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BONUS: Building a Future of Inclusion and Belonging Amidst the Complexities of the Immigrant Experience with Ed Tepporn
Sounds Current
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 is the Executive Director of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, and in this conversation excerpt, he and Charlton discuss the legacy of Angel Island and the nuances of what immigration...
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BONUS: Living and Working on Angel Island with Casey Dexter-Lee
Sounds Current
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 important to preserve the legacies of the island for future generations. Mentioned in the Episode Connect with Del Sol Quartet This episode is a bonus from the "Angel Island" season of...
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BONUS: Transforming Place Through Performance with Susan Moffat
Sounds Current
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 collaborations, including initiatives to connect students with their heritage and history through immersive art experiences (in which Charlton’s daughter participated!). Susan says the students...
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BONUS: Following Your Own Artistic Voice with Emiko Ono, Hewlett Foundation
Sounds Current
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 In this short excerpt, Charlton and Emiko are discussing the creative process and offering insight based on their own experiences for aspiring artists who are in pursuit of funding and resources in order to realize their vision. Visit to learn more...
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BONUS: Embracing the Unknown and Bringing People Together with Composer Huang Ruo
Sounds Current
“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 , co-presented by Brooklyn Academy of Music and Prototype Festival. Follow the evolution of our collaboration from the first time we met, through the dark times of the COVID pandemic, all the way to New York. Learn...
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BONUS: Join Del Sol on spring tour!
Sounds Current
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
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BONUS: Staging Angel Island in NYC by Engaging With the Spirits with Matthew Ozawa
Sounds Current
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 how this project has shifted his own relationship to the energy of the Immigration Station detention barracks. As Matthew says, “This is now gonna exist for all times, for so many generations and...
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BONUS: Singing in Chinese with Sidney Chen
Sounds Current
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 Sidney Chen of Volti. Volti is the vocal ensemble that was instrumental in the development and world premiere of Angel Island. In this clip, they are discussing the nuances of Chinese language,...
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BONUS: Making Magic with Del Sol Quartet from The Creative Impostor Podcast
Sounds Current
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 means something valuable even when, and especially if, it doesn’t make sense economically. Oh and you will hear us mention briefly the Yampa River trip and the Pandemic Joy project, though...
info_outlineHow 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.
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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
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.