Cinema Arts: Attention
World Premiere of New Work by Pamela Z with the Del Sol String Quartet Kanbar Forum7:30 p.m.
Kanbar Forum
Note: Separate ticket required; includes museum admission.
Cinema Arts: Attention Tickets
Attention is a new, hybrid work for string quartet with video where voices and electronic devices explore the ways in which attention and focus are challenged in today’s culture. In the work, the musicians will play instruments, sing, speak, move, and interact with each other and devices in a circular loop to create a mesh of interlocking sonic events and projected visuals.
In celebration of this world premiere, the Del Sol String Quartet will perform three additional compositions, resonant with the themes and technological adaptations present in Pamela Z’s new work.
A moderated conversation and Q & A will follow the performance.
Pamela Z is a composer/performer and media artist who makes solo works combining wide-ranging vocal techniques with electronic processing, samples, gesture-activated MIDI controllers, and video. She has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan. Her work has been presented at venues and exhibitions including Bang on a Can (NY), the Japan Interlink Festival, Other Minds (SF), the Venice Biennale, and the Dakar Biennale. She’s created installations and has composed scores for dance, film, and chamber ensembles. Her awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Doris Duke Artist Impact Award, Creative Capital, the Herb Alpert Award, MAP, the ASCAP Award, an Ars Electronica honorable mention, the NEA/Japan-United States Fellowship, and a Djerrassi Resident Artist Program residency.
Del Sol String Quartet was hailed by Gramophone as “masters of all musical things they survey.” The quartet is a leading force in twenty-first-century chamber music, vibrantly exploring the stories and sounds of the Pacific Rim. Founded in 1992 and based in San Francisco, the group devotes itself to commissioning and performing new works, collaborating across disciplines, and creating innovative educational programs.
Del Sol has released eight critically acclaimed recordings, including three on the GRAMMY® award–winning Sono Luminus label. The New York Times praised Del Sol’s most recent recording, Scrapyard ExoMca, saying “see if your foot can stay still once you put on this funky disc of rhythmically infectious . . . music played by the adventurous Del Sol String Quartet.”
Del Sol has commissioned and premiered in over 100 works by a diverse range of composers, including Terry Riley, Mason Bates, Gabriela Lena Frank, Chinary Ung, Mohammed Fairouz, Tania León, Ken Ueno, Peter Sculthorpe, Reza Vali and Per Nørgård. The group has performed in prominent concert series nationwide, including the Kennedy Center; Library of Congress; National Gallery of Art; Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery in Washington, DC; Symphony Space, NYC; Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Santa Cruz; Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY; Clefworks Festival, Montgomery, AL; Colorado Music Festival, Boulder; Other Minds Festival, San Francisco; Santa Fe Opera; University of Vermont Lane Series; and internationally in Switzerland, France, China, South Korea, Canada, and Mexico. Del Sol has also held residencies at various educational institutions across the United States.
