This interview originally aired on October 7, 2025.
Chris Michel: And I am very excited, very, very excited to be joined today by Hyeyung from the Del Sol Quartet, Vivian Fung and Theresa Wong here today to talk about their upcoming performance Facing the Moon: Songs of the Diaspora, which will be at the Presidio Theater on October 19th. Welcome. Thank you for being here.
Hyeyung Sol Yoon: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having us.
Chris Michel: So I think we could get started. If one of you wants to talk about the origins and the inspiration of this amazing program that you’ve got coming up.
Hyeyung Sol Yoon: Sure.Thank you for having us, Chris. So the collaboration with San Francisco Poet Laureate Genny Lim goes back a long time for the Del Sol Quartet. It actually goes back to the time that I- before I joined the Quartet, which was about two and a half years ago. And the Del Sol Quartet had this really wonderful project that took place about four or five years ago. It’s called Angel Island Oratorio. And it’s a piece that was commissioned by the Quartet from Composer Huang Ruo to write an oratorio for string quartet and a chamber choir inspired by the poetry that is carved on the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Center. And for those of you, like me, who haven’t– at that point– I visited Angel Island now multiple, multiple times. But when I first joined the Quartet, I had hardly heard about Angel Island and I didn’t realize that it was a place where many immigrants, mostly Chinese, mostly from Asia, were passed through or detained or sent back to their home country– it served as an immigration center for all those people. And for many immigrants who were detained there for sometimes months, years [they] expressed their frustration and their anger at the situation. They carved poetry, original poetry that they had created onto the walls, and it was a form of resistance. It was a form of protest for them. And when you enter the immigration center right now, some of the poetry– some of the poems are preserved and the walls are just covered with Chinese calligraphy. It’s a really powerful place that Del Sol has since started a concert series on the island at the detention center, which happens four times a year. We were just there this past Saturday and it’s always a meaningful, meaningful event for us to present. And this is a collaboration that we have with the Angel Island Immigration Center Foundation there. But going back to this project Facing the Moon, the Del Sol Quartet met Genny Lim, who is now the San Francisco Poet Laureate. Because of this– the Angel Island Oratorio– because she was one of the people who had translated the poetry from the walls, the poetry that they could collect, um, first time into English. And it was published under the name of Island, which can be found– which can be, um, purchased right now. So she was also one of the activists who made sure that the immigration center was saved from demolition back in the seventies, I think. So she’s a very powerful figure and community member in that Angel Island family. So yeah. So that’s how it kind of started. Yeah.
Chris Michel: Yeah. And so I wanna give a shout out there to those programs that you do on Angel Island ’cause that was– it is magical and wonderful. And then Genny Lim’s book, yeah, you can– if you go out to Angel Island you can purchase it there at the bookstore. It’s also available and online. And then fast forwarding then to this project, how did Del Sol decide that they wanted to do this particular arrangement and how did it get started?
Hyeyung Sol Yoon: Yeah, so Facing the Moon: Songs of Diaspora– it’s a project that has been kind of in the works for a long time, since Del Sol is such a big fan of Genny’s works and she– her poetry is just so powerful and so meaningful. And we asked her to write original poetry for this project. So all the poetry that you’ll hear, if you come to the event on October 19th, will be original poetry that Genny wrote. And we have beautiful composers: Theresa Wong, Vivian Fung, who are here with us today, but also Melina Choi, who lives in Florida, who will be flying in, and they wrote original music to go along with the original poetry. So we’re so happy to have everybody join together in this collaboration.
Chris Michel: I think that’s a good segue there. Why don’t– Vivian, do you want to talk a little bit about how you became involved in the project and what it was that brought you in?
Vivian Fung: Yeah. So I love writing for string quartets, so I have been– I have written, um, maybe five string quartets along with other various pieces for strings: violin, cello, and I have been a fan of the Del Sol ever since I moved to the area maybe 10 years ago. And so I’ve been, you know, attuned to some of their projects that they’ve been working on, and we’ve, um, kept in touch. And so we’ve been trying to find a– the right moment to collaborate. And I guess this was the converging of different people. And so I’m very honored to be a part of this.
Chris Michel: And what was the process like? So how did you collaborate with Genny Lim? Did she give you poetry to work from or were you starting yourself and then bringing her in?
Vivian Fung: Yeah, so it was mainly Genny’s sort of direction that we followed. So she came up with the idea of the phases of the moon as sort of weaving through the entire evening, and the idea of diaspora becoming a part of it because of the fact that we are three women composers of Chinese background, but with very different upbringings and with very different heritages. Even though we’re all Chinese, we come from very different backgrounds. So just weaving all that into the narrative I thought was very interesting. And then because Genny was so prolific, she wrote a stack of poetry for us. And then Kathryn from the Del Sol Quartet sort of sifted through them and narrowed it down to choices for each of the composers. And then from there we got to choose, ultimately, what should we want to set. So for me, I actually have the important role of beginning the evening or the afternoon, and also ending the afternoon quartet and Genny’s voice. So I start with water and I end with light. And I, I think that is a wonderful bookend for me, and actually the two movements or the two poems are quite– um, they complement each other quite well.
Chris Michel: Wonderful. And so again, the performance is gonna be October 19th, the title is Facing the Moon: Songs of the Diaspora. And so you mentioned that you’re doing the beginning and the end. How are the other two composers weaved in then?
Vivian Fung: Well, maybe I’ll pass it on to Theresa. [Giggling.]
Theresa Wong: Actually, we don’t know yet. [Laughing.] The whole entire production is– we will see how it comes together because it also involves two multidisciplinary artists – Olivia Ting and Mark Heller who are creating visual projections. So it’s actually– we’re really excited to see how it all comes together, all these pieces of poetry, the music, and the visuals. As Vivian said, we were, you know, each kind of given options of different poems to set. And so, for me, my connection originally, I’ve been working with Del Sol for many years. I think 2017 was my first collaboration. I wrote a piece for their 25th anniversary and, you know, just becoming part of the family, I’ve been keeping up with what they’re doing and also wrote a piece for their Joy Project during the pandemic. And it was during the pandemic when they had an online broadcast on Zoom of the Last Hoisan Poets, which Genny is a part of, along with Nellie Wong and Flo Oy Wong. And this was the first time I heard Genny’s poetry. And it really– it really moved me. And also what was so special was that my maternal grandfather and his side of the family are all from Hoisan, and this is a small region outside of Canton in southern China. And so I grew up hearing Hoisan-wa, which is a dialect of Chinese. And my grandfather pretty much only spoke that. He spoke a little bit of Cantonese, and primarily my family spoke Cantonese at home. So I heard this language, I couldn’t really understand it, but my grandmother spoke it with him, my mother spoke it with him. And so it was just completely like this sound that’s– and it’s a very particular dialect. It has a very strong kind of visceral sound, and it was part of my childhood, but, you know, just something that I don’t really share with a lot of people. I don’t know other people from Hoisan, necessarily, outside of my family. And to suddenly have this world of, you know, the new music and art and poetry touch that culture was very meaningful for me and very powerful. And so when I began to write the pieces for this project, you know, it was just sort of feeling like a connection of a shared past with Genny and with all of us. I mean, of course we all have very different backgrounds and very different trajectories of a diaspora, but I think there’s something very powerful there of just the shared lineage. Um– my particular pieces are written in just intonation, uh– tuning system based on the natural harmonics of resonating frequency. So it’s slightly different than the equal tempered tuning, which is based on 12 tones in an octave, which a lot of western classical music is written in. And for me, I’ve been working with this tuning system for years, and what I love is it really directly relates to this feeling of our diversity as people and the sounds of us as people. So whether it’s the dialects we speak, but also of course the music that we make. And so I feel like a lot of music has merged into 12 tone equal temperament, and a lot of that has to do with, you know, globalization, colonialism, imperialism. And so, um– and I absolutely love 12 tone. I don’t feel like one is better than the other, it’s just that I feel like now we’re in this time when just like Del Sol bringing poets like Genny back, bringing these microcultures back, it’s so important to think about, like, what are the sounds we make as composers, as musicians, how can we bring in this diversity in different ways?
Chris Michel: And was there anything specific about the Hoisan heritage that you brought into the piece?
Theresa Wong: Not particularly. I would say it was just sort of more– I mean, often when I write, I feel that I’m channeling some kind of genetic memory. I don’t– I haven’t really studied a lot of Chinese music but I feel that I’m very drawn to certain aspects, like, for example, the qin, which is one of the oldest instruments, um, like a seven string zither– works a lot on harmonics and overtones. And I, as a cellist, began playing it in many ways, and later discovered, like, the ways I play it have a similarity to the way the qin is played: playing harmonics and flageolet, hitting the strings in different ways with your hands. But I wanted to say that one of the great things about Del Sol is that they are versed in just intonation and are just so fluent. It’s like another language. And they’ve worked with composers like Ben Johnston and, and can just, you know, read the notation and also understand and hear that tuning in a really amazing way. So it’s a very special opportunity to work with them.
Chris Michel: And Vivian, how about for you? What aspects of your Chinese heritage did you bring into the piece?
Vivian Fung: I think Genny’s poetry has a directness as far as the experience of, let’s say, being transplanted from a different country, you know, and the idea that there are these memories that sort of are like ghosts, you know, and then that transforms itself into different things, you know? And so the directness of her poetry really resonated with me. And so that the idea of memory, the idea of trauma, the idea of being transplanted to a different country, the idea of this shared past, you know, the idea of these ancestors that are– that you don’t know, but you have this, as Theresa was saying, this sort of, um, intuitive grasp of it, I think is so powerful and it’s a voice that I resonated with and I believe is so relevant to us today. And so that’s why this is so meaningful for me and I think for all of us as well, because it comes at a time when we need to be reminded of this, you know? And that it cuts to the core for me as far as my place, my legacy with my family, and history, you know, and we need to really reflect on that and this is a wonderful opportunity to come together in this event to really experience that.
Chris Michel: Wonderful. And you mentioned the kind of multimedia aspects of that. Sounds like maybe that’s still in the works, or can you tell us a little bit about it.
Hyeyung Sol Yoon: Sure. So as Theresa mentioned, the multimedia aspect is that we have really amazing artists, Olivia Ting, working on the visuals. So, um, I’m not gonna reveal every- a lot of [laughing] things that you have to come to the event to see. But there will be images, beautiful, beautiful imageries projected behind the quartet, and also visuals by Mark Heller, who is a San Francisco based artist and we are also going to have a dancer joining us too, and her name is Lynn Huang, a San Francisco based dancer who works frequently with Lenora Dance Comp- Lenora Lee Dance Company. So we’re– it’s gonna be a big, big celebratory event, I think. Right? Um, with the composers there and the Quartet, Genny, [the] dancer, Lynn, Olivia Ting and Mark Keller. Yeah. It’s gonna be, it’s gonna be good.
Chris Michel: Okay. Yeah. And so the pieces actually have poetry readings with them?
Hyeyung Sol Yoon: Um, yes. Okay, so there will be parts where Genny is reciting the poetry herself, and then there will be times, um, when the poetry– Genny’s kind of voiceover, um, will be playing alongside some of the music, but not all.
Chis Michel: So like prerecorded?
Hyeyung Sol Yoon: Prerecorded, yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Chris Michel: All right. Well, why don’t we take a break from talking for a moment and we can have a listen to, um, one of Vivian’s pieces. This is the one that you had picked out for us. Do you wanna talk a little bit about this before we play it?
Vivian Fung: Um, which, which, uh–
Chris Michel: This would be from Insects and Machines, The First String Quartet, Third Movement.
Vivian Fung: Okay. So this is a work called Pizzicato, and it’s, um, a short work, a four minute work where– “Pizzicato” is an Italian term, which means “plucked string,” so during this movement – and it’s often performed as a standalone piece, and very often it’s performed during Lunar New Year concerts – it’s where the string quartet simulates non-Western instruments like the pipa or the gamelon, or, you know, the qin, the idea of plucked instruments where the quartet really works as a whole to create this sound world. And it’s very rhythmic, there’s a lot of interlocking rhythms and a few surprises at the end. So this is called Pizzicato from my first string quartet.
[Music plays.]
Chris Michel: Music there from Vivian Fung, that was Pizzicato from The First String Quartet. It can be found on a release called Insect and Machines: Quartets of Vivian Fung. And um, we are joined here today with Vivian, Theresa Wong and Hyeyung from the Del Sol Quartet, talking about the upcoming Facing the Moon: Songs of the Diaspora, October 19th, over at the Presidio Theater. And, um, I think maybe we could– and it’s kind of as we’ve been saying, it’s based on the poetry of Genny Lim. So there’s an excerpt of one of her poems that we have here, and it looks like Theresa and Vivian are gonna read that for us.
Theresa Wong & Vivian Fung alternating: So this is an excerpt from Amnesia.
“Memory is an immigrant
who carries the burden of the past
She is the conscience that won’t forget
The truth of history suppressed
The hope despair denied
The rebel, the outlaw, the exile
Who spurns flattery, deception
She holds the rope, the strand, the thread
That binds the whole cloth
That gathers the music, laughter and joys”
Chris Michel: Wonderful. Again, that’s the poetry of Genny Lim. And with that sort of– the notions of, immigration, what were the feelings that you had in composing these pieces? Um, Theresa, maybe you want to take that one?
Theresa Wong: Yeah, sure. Um, yeah, like Vivian was saying before, it’s such a powerful feeling to tap into the fact that we all have pasts that we know parts of, we don’t know parts of, we feel connected. Some things are obscured, some things aren’t obscured, also because of the trauma. I mean, that is just so powerful, especially when we think about everything that’s going on today with the wars. Because you do not only affect the people who are living now, you are affecting generations to come. And I think all of us have that in our past. There is traumas of war and um, you know, diaspora is the shifting of people by choice or not by choice. And often it’s not– it’s by pure– the pure need to survive. And um, now I forget what your original question was? [Laughter.]
Chris Michel: –Just, uh, the notion of immigration and how it related to the piece?
Theresa Wong: Yeah, yeah. So, you know, I was just thinking about, like, my parents both immigrated, so they grew up in Canton and Hong Kong and I was the first generation born in the United States, but that past– I guess for me, channeling it into music, there’s a lot to draw from, there’s a lot of emotions, there’s a lot of, um, ideas and there– it’s a mysterious feeling, but it’s also, um, you know, it kind of brings you back into thinking, like, well, what are your roots, you know, to what we are all doing today as new music artists, how does that trajectory come from all of these generations? And I think it’s really fascinating. And so, yeah, I just had a lot to tap into there in Genny’s poetry that I set, there was just, you know, feelings of shock, feelings of awe, feelings of desperation, feelings of joy, feelings of tapping into how we are all connected and how we can work together to create a better life. Yeah.
Chris Michel: Yeah, Vivian, did you want to add–?
Vivian Fung: Yeah. I just wanted to add on the eloquence of what Theresa just said, um, not– I mean, I think the key to our future is also understanding our past and, um, especially since– um, I have a family, I have a 10-year-old son, and I’m asking myself, what is my family’s legacy? What do I wanna pass down to my son? And just knowing what happened, you know, and a lot of these things growing up, I think for all of us, they were taboo because it’s something that you don’t talk about– the idea of war or being in a new country, but you’re facing, you know, how to survive in a new country, you’re not facing the past, you’re always facing today and the future. So, reclaiming past and also understanding that so that we can pass that down to the future, I think is, for me, quite important. And actually permeates this work, but also has been a thread, um, permeating a lot of my recent projects too. So it really cuts deep for me.
Chris Michel: Yeah. And can you talk a little bit about your own personal journey? So I know you were in Canada before, and now you’re here. What has that been like, seeing the change in attitudes towards–?
Vivian Fung: Well, I think, you know, it’s such a difficult time because everybody has a hard stance on opinions and everybody’s locked into their corner. And I think what is lost and, you know, there’s this whole discussion of does empathy even matter anymore? You know? Um, and I think that, you know, with a project like this, it brings us together, you know, the idea that you can experience something that maybe you haven’t experienced before, and it creates this idea of a new shared experience. I think that’s so important to be able to feel something of another person that you might not be experiencing yourself. And music and poetry and art has a way of doing that, and I feel like that is so important and so needed right now in our current sort of deadlock state. And so I feel actually more compelled as an artist to do these projects just because I think it’s so needed right now.
Chris Michel: Yeah. Wonderful. Did you get a chance to compare notes with the other composers as you were doing this?
Vivian Fung: Theresa and I met initially as far as– because I hadn’t, uh, because I just moved into the area maybe, uh, you know, a few years ago and I wasn’t really familiar with Theresa’s work, so we met over coffee just to, you know, talk shop and to get to know one another. But as far as when we got into the composing process, it was very much our own thing. And it’s just united by Genny’s poetry, I think. And then the mastermind behind this is actually, um, the artists that were mentioned, but also Kathryn, the cellist from the Del Sol Quartet it, it is actually– she’s the uniting force behind everyone. So she’s the one that’s going to be, um, guiding us through this whole process, I think.
Chris Michel: Okay, great. And then, um, so we talked about the immigration side of things, but another big aspect of this is the moon. So this is being done– yesterday was Mid-Autumn Festival, and so we’re in that season right now. How did the moon play into the pieces and the stories that are being told? [Pause] –Or did it? [Chuckling.]
Hyeyung Sol Yoon: Well, the one aspect of the visuals that are being credited by Olivia and Mark, the moon is a very, very central theme in the imagery, and in terms of the music, I don’t know if, um, y’all–
Theresa Wong: –It was, it wasn’t particularly a part of the composition process, but yes, the harvest moon, which was full yesterday, is such an important Chinese holiday–
Hyeyung Sol Yoon: –And Korean.
Theresa Wong: –And Korean [laughter]. I mean, exactly. Asian. Yeah, yeah. And um, like, for example, yesterday, I– my brother was in town this weekend, so we had dinner with my parents and it was just really fun ’cause all my family members were just texting pictures of the full moon where they were– And it just such a beautiful thing to ponder, just looking at the moon. So simple, you know?
Vivian Fung: Yeah. That’s– and also, like, I think maybe the progression, you know– I mean, I understand the progression from darkness to light, you know, because of– I’m bookending the event and the idea of starting with this darkness, you know, and ending with this light, the idea of darkness versus hope, you know, I think is also this sort of transformation that happens and the phases of the moon kind of lend itself to that very well. That sort of narrative. Yeah.
Hyeyung Sol Yoon: Yeah. And the moon is such an important part of Asian culture, and I was thinking about what you said, Theresa, about, you know, the imperialism and this kind of capitalistic kind of drive for, um, energy and just, like, nonstop work, right? [Someone murmurs assent.] And just, uh, we all, you know, with climate change and everything, we need the cooling of the moon right now. We need the cool– So yeah, yesterday was such a beautiful– oh, it was so beautiful. Yeah. My daughter was like, oh, can you see the rabbits in there? [Everyone laughs.] I was like, what are they making again? I’m like, they’re making duck, the rice cakes, come on.
Chris Michel: And so, Hyeyung, you bring up an interesting point. And so, being of Korean heritage, like what is– what are you seeing in this piece that you can relate to or don’t relate to?
Hyeyung Sol Yoon: Oh, sure. Um, yeah, no, I relate to so much, um, with my Asian sisters here. [Someone chuckles.] Yeah. I mean for me being in the Del Sol Quartet and to– you know, as Theresa mentioned about the just intonation, and actually I’m new to it too, right? So I feel like I’m learning a new language ’cause my– all my training has been, when I was young, in Western classical music, in conservatory training, which is very based on Western Europe, kind of that, um, philosophy and, I’m, you know, learning– I know what, you know, Korean folk music, traditional music sounds like, and I’ve always loved that since I was very young. My parents have a deep love for it. But to kind of look at it from a different point of view now and, you know, hearing, “Oh, it’s a different tuning system than what I learned in school,” you know, and really appreciating it that way [of] learning a new scale. And I actually, I was recently– I took on a student who’s quite young, who’s in fifth grade, a violent student, and I’m teaching him different scales, right, like D major, you know, E flat major and all that, right. And I’m– and he’s trying to learn from me what the scales are, how to– and then, and then right now, at the same time I’m trying to learn the Johnson scales and, and trying to learn a different kind of tuning system. And it was like, “Oh, we’re in the same process here.” It’s kind of cool.
Theresa Wong: It’s kind of funny because, like, recently I gave a workshop with, uh, like 12 cellists at the New Music or the New Directions Cello Festival. And I was teaching people like, okay, what’s the, just, you know, major third? And so I played it and, you know, played like a Suzuki song using that tuning, and everyone was like, oh my God, that sounds like a young child learning how to play the cello. Because actually a lot of times. We will intuitively drift towards those pure tunings.
Chris Michel: [Laughing.] Right, right, right, right. So your student might, might be able to find–
Hyeyung Sol Yoon: I know, I know, I know. He should– He should teach me– and I, um– but, but you know, just like also centering, you know, Asian women’s voices and stories. Gen Lim, who’s an icon, really, she’s amazing. And, you know, to really highlight and really pay attention and listen to her poetry, her words, and to listen to the composers here, all from Chinese diaspora, female women composers. It’s a really deeply meaningful project. Yeah.
Chris Michel: Great. Well, why don’t we, um, have a listen to another piece of music. Um, Theresa, we’ll play a track. um, from you– do you wanna talk about the, the one–
Theresa Wong: Yeah, sure. This is Light in the Grotto from an album that came out in April called Journey to the Cave of Guanyin. And this suite of pieces came about, um, through– originally, a couple years ago, I was a guest of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, and I created three performances based on artworks in the museum’s collection. And one of the projects was based on the figure of Guanyin, who is a deity known in pretty much every Asian culture. And in China she is known as Guanyin or Shi Yin. And what I love is that the name actually means “The one who hears all the sounds of the world.” Which refers to her as a Bodhisattva who hears all the cries, all the suffering of the world. And what I also found really interesting was when I first saw a statue of Guanyin at the museum, it was a prince. And I thought, “Wait a second. I grew up knowing of this as like a, you know, a female deity. What, what’s going on here?” And I discovered that through history, it began sort of as a Hindu figure called Avalokiteśvara. And, and through his– like, through centuries, this figure morphed in the collective consciousness to become a female. So I thought that was also extremely interesting. Um, just as– as a queer person, thinking of like a deity that could represent, like, this kind of gender fluidity. And so in the consciousness, that figure became a female. And so this piece is, um, one of a collection sort of inspired by Guanyin.
[Music plays.]
Chris Michel: Okay. Music from Theresa Wong here on KALX Berkeley. That was [Light] In the Grotto from the release Journey to the Cave of Guanyin. And we are joined by Theresa and Vivian and Hyeyung here, talking about the upcoming show, again, I will remind you, it’s called Facing the Moon: Songs of the Diaspora, and it is at the Presidio Theater on October 19th in the afternoon. And I encourage everybody to go out and see the show. But you guys have some other events coming up. Do you want to talk a little bit about what else Del Sol has?
Hyeyung Sol Yoon: Sure. Um, so tonight actually we’re gonna play at a place called Internet Archive and it’s a concert celebrating a trillion, um, records of web pages. [Starts laughing.] Okay. I’m, like, totally not a tech person, so I’m gonna try to talk through this, I’m sorry, computer programming people. Um, so, that’s, um, archived trillion webpages archived on the Wayback Machine. I think I got that right.
Chris Michel: Wow. Okay.
Hyeyung Sol Yoon: Yes. So in order to celebrate this momentous occasion, the Internet Archive has commissioned two composers, Sam Reider and Erika Oba, who are San Francisco Bay Area based composers. So we are going to give world premieres of two pieces tonight, and we’re also gonna play Ben Johnston’s 10 String Quartet. Um, Theresa was mentioning the just intonation,so this is another piece that’s in just intonation. So it’s gonna be a celebratory event tonight at Internet Archive at 7:00 PM. And then, um, we also are doing, like, 30 new pieces this season. It’s a lot. [Laughing.] And one of the projects that we’re engaged in that is kind of bringing up the number of pieces that we have to learn, um, is the Korean Experimental Music Festival, um, that is happening at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and also UC Berkeley here too. And that’s gonna be on November 12th here at Cal, and also November 14th at Santa Cruz. And in collaboration with the National Gugak Center in Korea, which is the foremost place for Korean traditional music and folk music. The two universities have joined teams with them to commission students and faculty of these two institutions to write new original works for string quartet and gayageum, which is a Korean zither. So the National Gugak Center are sending gayageum players to our area, to– locally here, to premiere these pieces with us as the house band, the house string quartet. So yeah, we’re really excited about those two things and hopefully we’ll also go to Korea to premiere those pieces in Korea, later in the season.
Chris Michel: And Vivian, I know you’ve got a couple of pieces that are [unintelligible] soon.
Vivian Fung: Yeah. So I’ll mention a couple. So November 15th, um, Orchestra at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, led by Edwin Outwater is performing a work called Aqua and it’s an orchestral piece, a short orchestral piece that will open the concert on November 15th, in Hume Hall at the Conservatory. And it’s a piece that is inspired by the MacArthur Genius Grant winning architect, Jeanne Gang, and she did the renderings of this building called Aqua Tower in Chicago. And if you don’t know that building, you should check it out. It’s a brilliant skyscraper that is reminiscent of the waves of water. And then in January, I have a piece called Ominous, uh, with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. And then, looking ahead, I have a premier with Ensemble for These Times in April, as well as a CD coming out that is a CD of Nick Phan’s collaboration, so Nick Phan and Jasper Quartet on a new work called Lamenting Earth.
Chris Michel: Wow. And, uh, Theresa, what about you?
Theresa Wong: Yeah, so I don’t have any upcoming performances, um, in the near future because I’m focusing on composing an opera that is set to premiere in 2027, which also involves Del Sol Quartet and, also part of Peninsula Women’s Chorus and myself and percussionist Haruka Fuji. So there’s gonna be a– it’s a big group ensemble but also I am envisioning it as an installation. And so the opera will have sort of two realizations. One is a live concert and one is sort of an installation with video and projections and sculpture. And the working title is Vox Lumina. And so the theme is really about, um, a lot of what we’ve been talking about, which is just the parts of ourselves that are, you know, well, not in all cases, but in many cases, like, hidden or marginalized or that aren’t seen. And so it’s bringing these things to light and giving them light. And so I’m in sort of deep composing mode.
Chris Michel: Sounds wonderful. I guess we kind of wrap things up here then. Thank you so much for coming in today and– any final words here?
Hyeyung Sol Yoon: No, just thank you, Chris for bringing us here.
All: Yeah. Thank you here for having us. Thank you for having us.
Vivian Fung: And please come to, uh, our event at the Presidio Theater October 19th.
Chris Michel: Yeah. I guess that about wraps it up. Um, thanks again for coming in.
