Coaching Activities

This year, 2007, Del Sol appears in residency at Northeastern University in Boston and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. In the summer of 2006, the quartet was in residence at the Walden School in New Hampshire and the Tahoe Music Festival Academy in California. Del Sol participated as mentor faculty to coach and perform at Hot Springs Music Festival in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 2004 and 2005.

The quartet coaches regularly at Hayward State University, in workshops sponsored by the Chamber Musicians of Northern California. Del Sol also has held weekend coaching sessions and masterclasses at Fresno State University, both for pre-professional collegiate students and adult amateurs.

Del Sol offers a bi-annual QuartetFest, a unique weekend for young string players. Four string quartets receive coachings and perform both masterworks from the quartet literature and accessible modern works. Currently, this course is held in San Francisco. Plans are afoot to expand the program by dividing the course by age group and holding these weekends in several different Bay Area locations.

Lecture-Demonstrations

Del Sol regularly invites its audiences to pre-concert lectures, explaining and illuminating the music they perform, often joined by the composers featured in the concerts. In 2003, the quartet held a mini-residency at the University of San Francisco, presenting classes in conjunction with the Latino Studies and Women's Studies programs.

Programs for Schools (Grades 3-8)

The Del Sol String Quartet has had a long affiliation with Music at Kohl Mansion, offering shows to schools in Millbrae and Burlingame annually. In addition to presenting the assemblies, members of the Quartet visit classrooms for an in-depth introduction to the genre and the instruments. In January 2003, the quartet performed in Kohl Mansion's prestigious Family Concert series.

The quartet has been active in youth outreach since 1995; besides the ongoing work with Kohl Mansion, Del Sol has presented programs through Adventures in Music (San Francisco Symphony), Young Audiences of the Bay Area, and American Composers Forum, performing over 300 concerts for 30,000+ students. With an emphasis on pieces by living composers, the quartet brings the vitality of music today into the classroom. The quartet's efforts were rewarded by a full-length article about their outreach programs, which appears in Strings magazine (12/98).

PROGRAMS FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES

Peace Through Music

Artful Communication

Communication is a give and take using commonly understood rules and tools. One of these is patterns. Through listening to live music performed by the Del Sol String Quartet in 45-minute performances, students focus on why and how we write music, and on elements of musical language and patterning. Music from youthful composers represents four different centuries, four nationalities and four styles of music: Mozart, Arriaga, Antheil and Cmiel. Students are introduced to how easy it is to start creating and expressing oneself through music.

All Aboard the Del Sol Express!!!

Featuring a travel guide, musical maps and a colorful scrap book of sights and sounds from Latin America, this fast-paced program takes the young listener from the quartet's Bay Area home down to Mexico, Peru and Argentina, returning home via Cuba and the Caribbean. The audience will join the quartet in its travels, armed with a "phrase-book and a map" of the lands to be traversed. Math, History, Geography, Literature and Art will come to life in Del Sol's playing and analysis of the repertoire, all in an interactive show that captures the imagination of each child.

Playing with E-motion

Emphasizing the deeply human nature of music making, Del Sol presents a show that explains the communication process, from improvisation, composition, rehearsal right through to the performance of a piece of music. The audience is invited to conduct, dance and compose, sharing the joy of experiencing music viscerally, and learning about the immense range of emotions that music can evoke.

Cooking up a Musical Feast

Everyone loves to eat, and cooking a great meal that can be shared with friends is one of the joys of life. The Del Sol Quartet guides the listener through the entire process of coming up with a menu (the program), understanding the ingredients (the instruments and the sounds they can produce) cooking the feast (rehearsing) and finally the banquet (the concert). The guests share the huge variety of flavors: spicy tangos, improvised "salads," traditional favorites and, of course, a delightful light dessert.

All shows come with a "Guide" that can be a source for classroom projects, both pre- and post-concert; all areas of the curriculum are touched upon, with games, puzzles and activities that encourage a cross-disciplinary approach to learning. The two most recent guides are in an online format, with interactive games and projects. Earlier versions come in a pdf format that can be downloaded and used both in the classroom and at home.