Sculthorpe: The Complete String Quartets with Didjeridu Del Sol String Quartet feat. Stephen Kent

• 1 String Quartet No. 12, From Ubirr (Earth Cry) 12:22
• 2 I. Prelude 03:24
• 3 II. In the Valley 03:49
• 4 III. On High Hills 04:45
• 5 IV. At Quamby Bluff 08:00
• 6 I. Loneliness 04:10
• 7 II. Anger 03:58
• 8 III. Yearning 05:49
• 9 IV. Trauma 04:18
• 10 V. Freedom 05:30
• 11 I. Prelude 02:04
• 12 II. A Land Singing 04:27
• 13 III. A Dying Land 07:32
• 14 IV. A Lost Land 06:43
• 15 V. Postlude 05:20
• Total Runtime 01:22:11

Info for Sculthorpe: The Complete String Quartets with Didjeridu

The Del Sol String Quartet teams up with didjeridu virtuoso Stephen Kent to bring to life the Complete String Quartets with Didjeriu by Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe. The result is a unique and exciting aural experience, filled with rich organic sonic colors brought to life through the use of the traditional quartet and the indigenous sounds of the didjeridu. Charlton Lee of Del Sol says it’s: “Amongst the amazing artistic collaborations that Del Sol has had in our 22-years of music making,..”

Born in Launceston in 1929, Peter Sculthorpe was educated at the University of Melbourne, and Wadham College, Oxford. He is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Sydney, where he began teaching in 1964. He was a visiting fellow at Yale University, USA, and Sussex University, UK, and has taught at universities within and outside Australia. He held honorary doctorates from the universities of Tasmania, Sydney, Melbourne, Sussex and Griffith. An Officer of both the Order of Australia and of the British Empire, in 1998 he was elected a National Trust of Australia National Living Treasure. In 2002, he was elected to Foreign Honorary Membership of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Peter Sculthorpe wrote works in most musical forms. His output related closely to the social and physical climate of Australia, and the cultures of the Pacific Basin. He was influenced by the music of Asia, especially during the 1960s by that of Japan and Indonesia. In recent years he became more deeply influenced by the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island music and culture. Peter passed away on August 8, 2014.

The San Francisco based Del Sol String Quartet, two-time winner of the top Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, commissions and performs outstanding new works from around the world, provides innovative educational programs. They have released six prior CDs since 2002, including their first Sono Luminus release “ZIA” (DSL-92164). The group also collaborates with other artists in multi-media, dance, video and opera productions. Del Sol has commissioned and premiered pieces by composers such as Mason Bates, Kui Dong, Gabriela Lena Frank, Tania León, Keeril Makan, Hyo-shin Na, Ronald Bruce Smith, Chinary Ung and Reza Vali, among many others.

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Stephen Kent was born in Britain and spent his formative years in East Africa. Trained on the French horn, he adapted western brass instruments to didjeridu techniques while music director of Australia’s Circus Oz (1981-83). This group’s support for Aboriginal culture led him deeper into Aboriginal land and inspired his playing the didjeridu. Since the mid 1980’s, he has pioneered the contemporary use of didjeridu in myriad collaborations with an extraordinary range of musicians, dancers and artists. He has performed all around the world and has a catalog of over 20 recordings, including 6 solo works and others with groups including Trance Mission, Lights in a Fat City, and Baraka Moon.

Del Sol String Quartet
Stephen Kent, Didjeridu

Del Sol String Quartet
The San Francisco based Del Sol String Quartet, two-time winner of the top Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, is breaking the boundaries of classical music in riveting performances of new music with a global pulse.

Kate Stenberg
first violinist with the Del Sol String Quartet, was a founding member of the Bay Area contemporary music groups Left Coast and The Real Vocal String Quartet. She has performed as a soloist in the U.S., Europe, Mexico, Canada and South Korea, as well as with cellists Bonnie Hampton, Joan Jeanrenaud and Jean-Michel Fonteneau, and pianists Eva-Maria Zimmermann, Lisa Moore and Sarah Cahill, and she also plays on occasion in the San Francisco Symphony. Stenberg’s solo playing has been described as "highly virtuosic and deeply communicative…” In addition to her recordings with the Del Sol String Quartet, she has recorded with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Stratos, and her CD of contemporary repertoire, “Scenes from a Séance” (with pianist Eva-Maria Zimmerman) was released by Other Minds in 2012. Stenberg graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and received her Master’s Degree from the Eastman School of Music.

Rick Shinozaki
violinist, is principal second violin of Symphony Silicon Valley and concertmaster of the Nova Vista Symphony. Solo appearances include the world premiere of Viennese composer Zdzislaw Wysocki's Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra under Kent Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony. Rick has collaborated closely with Bay Area composers Mark Fish and Durwynne Hsieh, commissioning, performing and editing their work, most notably premiering Hsieh's Concerto for Marimba, Violin and Orchestra with the Marin Symphony. With pianist Irene Jacobson, the Shinozaki-Jacobson Duo has delighted audiences with an eclectic repertoire and interpretations cited as "scintillating" and "in perfect harmony," resulting in the release of their first recording for the Latin American Chamber Music Society. Rick is a protégé of Serban Rusu of Tiburon; he also studied extensively with legendary pedagogue Josef Gingold and Yuval Yaron at Indiana University, from which he holds a Master of Music degree.

Charlton Lee
violist, has performed throughout North America and Europe both as a chamber musician and soloist. He founded the award-winning Del Sol String Quartet, which specializes in contemporary music and mixed-media productions, in 1992 at the renowned Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. He is sought after as an educator, chamber music coach, and jurist, with teaching experience at San Francisco State University, San Francisco School of the Arts, Steamboat Springs and Oaxaca music festivals, and he coaches regularly for Chamber Musicians of Northern California and the Symphony of the Redwoods. Charlton also teams up with his wife, Eva-Maria Zimmermann, to perform duo pieces for viola and piano. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics and Physics from the University of California at Berkeley and his Master’s degree in Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Kathryn Bates Williams
cellist, hailed by the New York Times as "a cellist with a beautifully rounded sound," has a passionate commitment to her art form by embracing tradition while exploring innovation in all genres of performance. She has served as the cellist of the New Fromm Players at the Tanglewood Music Center, where her performances have been called "the revelation of the concert" and "electrifying" (Boston Globe). After working with various new music ensembles, including the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and Ensemble Parallèle, Kathryn co-founded the New Spectrum Ensemble to bridge the gap between contemporary and standard repertoire and break down the barrier between audience and performer. A native of historic Concord, Massachusetts, Kathryn received her B.M. degree from Rice University Shepherd School of Music, under the direction of Norman Fischer, and Master's degree in Chamber Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Mark Kosower and Jean-Michel Fonteneau.

This album contains no booklet.