A letter from our board chair - May 31, 2020

Dear Del Sol Family & Friends,

I am writing today to share information about the Del Sol Quartet and to describe an exciting opportunity for you to help sustain these talented artists during this unprecedented time and help us prepare for the future.

This was to have been the Del Sol Quartet’s biggest and best year ever. The Quartet was preparing for two major world premieres in addition to their core program activities. Then, the pandemic erupted and the world changed. Since March, members of the Quartet have been unable to rehearse together, let alone perform, and have experienced acute losses – financial, professional and personal.

But the Quartet members are remarkably resilient. Within days of the first shelter-in-place order, they focused their creativity and energy on conceptualizing new ways to make music and create community, re-envisioning their lives, their audiences and their venues in a post-pandemic world. To date, the results of their efforts include their weekly livestreams on Saturday evenings at 6 PM, Meditation Mondays for “respite listening,” and Composing in Place, their innovative online workshop for amateur musicians.

The Quartet members are also extraordinary individuals. Typically, they have been thinking of their colleagues and peers in the Bay Area’s new music community. This month, thanks to a generous donor, they launched the Del Sol Fast Forward Fund, a shared grant which has provided financial support to four local contemporary music ensembles and three composers to date.

Our longstanding institutional funders are standing with us, and we have been fortunate to receive emergency financial assistance from both the federal government and San Francisco.

But in order to ensure the Quartet’s continued existence, we need your help.

In honor of the Del Sol Quartet’s resilience and creativity, a longtime supporter has just offered us achallenge grant of $5000. Thanks to this donor’s generosity, any gift you make to us now will be matched up to $5000 and all of the money raised will go directly to salaries for the Quartet members.

We have always relied upon your support of Del Sol, but today, your gift is more important than ever. On behalf of the Quartet, our Board of Directors and Del Sol’s community of friends, thank you for participating in this match to support the Del Sol Quartet at this critical time. You can donate through our website, or if you prefer, mail a check payable to DSPAO to 751 – 47th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94121. For those who have given already during this time, thank you so much for your generous support! 

We all hope that you and your loved ones are safe and in good health, as we look forward to
the time when we can all be together enjoying a live performance by the Del Sol Quartet.

Sincerely,

Johanna Wald,

DSPAO Board Chair