Pop Quiz! What do the following three things have in common?
- A series of free concerts performed outdoors in the San Francisco Bay area and online designed to spread joy and connection during a global pandemic
- An oratorio commission by composer Huang Ruo, world premiere, and subsequent podcast inspired by poetry written by Chinese detainees on Angel Island, attempting to immigrate into the United States in the early 1900s
- A 5-day rafting trip along the Yampa River in Utah where you begin and end your day with a live string quartet concert performed in the woods at your campsite
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Well, if you looked at the title of this episode, you’ve already guessed it! It’s the Del Sol Quartet, currently composed of Charlton Lee on viola, Hyeyung Sol Yoon and Ben Keith on violins, and Kathryn Bates on cello.
And if you’ve been paying attention, you may know that I’ve been having the pleasure to collaborate with Del Sol on the first season of their podcast Sounds Current, which was a 2024 official selection at the Tribeca Audio Storytelling Festival and won a gold signal award for Artists & Designers Shaping Culture.
But awards aside… let me tell you what this collaboration has been like for me.
Have you ever had an experience of working with someone at the top of their game that pushes you, artistically (in a good way), to be and do more than you have in the past?
A project that streeeetches your skills in a way that is at times uncomfortable and exhausting, but in the end you see (or in this case hear) what you’ve created and say, “Wow! That really is good.”?
And then suddenly, you find yourself in new rooms, having new conversations, with new people, about even more inspiring topics?
Okay… well if you haven’t yet had that experience, go ahead and live vicariously through me for the next hour and maybe you’ll get a taste of what I mean.
This episode isn’t just about creating a podcast, though we do talk a little bit about Sounds Current in the second half.
It’s about the joys and tension of being part of a group of artists (rather than a solo creator), 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 we don’t go into detail. If you want to learn more, please visit DelSolQuartet.com, as well as Sounds Current, our award-winning podcast collaboration, that I’d love for you to hear (and share with those who may also be moved by it.) Season 1 is about Angel Island’s history, the commission and premiere of the oratorio, and the ongoing American immigration story. Season 2 is in the works about the Yampa River, water conservation, and changing ecosystems (yes, and what music has to do with all of that!) If this topic excites you and you’d like to learn more, reach out!
Connect with Del Sol Quartet
Sounds Current Podcast – subscribe/follow for bonus content!
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“There’s this ritual of trying to come up with ways that we can make an artistic impression on people and to, somehow get them out of their normal state of being, or the normal way of thinking, to consider alternate ideas and concepts or realities.” ~Charlton Lee, Del Sol Quartet
“I think that, you know, the more chances to have dialogues with people, when conversations and discussions are, like, failing all over the world — even though we can have it in like a very small way, I think those opportunities are useful and they’re vital.” ~Hyeyung Sol Yoon, Del Sol Quartet
“We’re investing in storytelling… The specificity of what we’re trying to do with this podcast is about connecting, in some sense, past, present, future. It’s about creating. We’re part of a continuum of society and we’re really trying to renew creative possibility.” ~Kathryn Bates, Del Sol Quartet
“I know that, like, Charles Dickens didn’t create ‘content,’ right? Like, he wrote ‘books.'” ~Ben Kreith, Del Sol Quartet
Connect with Andrea
Email or Voice andrea@thecreativeimpostor.com
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