New York-based Chinese-American composer Huang Ruo (M. Butterfly, An American Soldier, Book of Mountains & Seas) revisits a dark chapter of American history in the multi-media work Angel Island. The collaboration with and commission by west coast-based Del Sol Quartet has been described as an opera and/or an oratorio, and adds chorus, film, and narration to tell the story of the immigration station on Angel Island. As new immigrants flowed through Angel Island inside the San Francisco Bay, (from roughly 1910-1940), Chinese immigrants faced massive discrimination because of America’s earliest racist immigration legislation – the Page Act of 1875 and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It was the first, and remains the only, law to have been implemented to prevent all members of a specific ethnic or national group from immigrating to the United States, (Washingtonperformingarts.org). At Angel Island, U.S. authorities detained half a million people from 80 countries under barbaric conditions; the majority of these detainees were Chinese immigrants. To seek solace, some of the detainees inscribed poems in Classical Chinese onto the walls of the center which were discovered years later, as the building was about to be demolished. Inspired by these century-old poems, documents, and life events, Angel Island, in eight scenes, is a powerful requiem and a revealing look at history - the attempts at immigration, and the discrimination and dehumanizing confinement experienced by the detainees. For this New Sounds, composer Huang Ruo presents some excerpts from the work, and details the history behind it. Plus, listen to some of his previous collaboration with Del Sol Quartet, A Dust In Time. - Caryn Havlik Program #4834, With Huang Ruo: Angel Island (First aired 01/11/2024) ARTIST: Del Sol QuartetWORK: Huang Ruo: A Dust in Time - Chron (ascending) [1:15]RECORDING: A Dust In TimeSOURCE: Bright Shiny ThingsINFO: delsolquartet.bandcamp.com ARTIST: Del Sol Quartet, Volti (Vocal Ensemble)WORK: Huang Ruo: Angel Island, Scene 2 [15:14]RECORDING: Private RecordingSOURCE/INFO: delsolquartet.com | huangruo.com | voltisf.org ARTIST: Del Sol Quartet, Volti (Vocal Ensemble)WORK: Huang Ruo: Angel Island, Scene 1 [1:33]RECORDING: Private RecordingSOURCE/INFO: delsolquartet.com | huangruo.com | voltisf.org ARTIST: Del Sol Quartet, Volti (Vocal Ensemble)WORK: Huang Ruo: Angel Island, Scene 6 [17:32]RECORDING: Private RecordingSOURCE/INFO: delsolquartet.com | huangruo.com | voltisf.org ARTIST: Del Sol QuartetWORK: Huang Ruo: A Dust in Time - Chron (returning) [3:44]RECORDING: A Dust In TimeSOURCE: Bright Shiny ThingsINFO: delsolquartet.bandcamp.com
New York-based Chinese-American composer Huang Ruo (M. Butterfly, An American Soldier, Book of Mountains & Seas) revisits a dark chapter of American history in the multi-media work Angel Island. The collaboration with and commission by west coast-based Del Sol Quartet has been described as an opera and/or an oratorio, and adds chorus, film, and narration to tell the story of the immigration station on Angel Island.
As new immigrants flowed through Angel Island inside the San Francisco Bay, (from roughly 1910-1940), Chinese immigrants faced massive discrimination because of America’s earliest racist immigration legislation – the Page Act of 1875 and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It was the first, and remains the only, law to have been implemented to prevent all members of a specific ethnic or national group from immigrating to the United States, (Washingtonperformingarts.org). At Angel Island, U.S. authorities detained half a million people from 80 countries under barbaric conditions; the majority of these detainees were Chinese immigrants. To seek solace, some of the detainees inscribed poems in Classical Chinese onto the walls of the center which were discovered years later, as the building was about to be demolished.
Inspired by these century-old poems, documents, and life events, Angel Island, in eight scenes, is a powerful requiem and a revealing look at history - the attempts at immigration, and the discrimination and dehumanizing confinement experienced by the detainees. For this New Sounds, composer Huang Ruo presents some excerpts from the work, and details the history behind it. Plus, listen to some of his previous collaboration with Del Sol Quartet, A Dust In Time. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4834, With Huang Ruo: Angel Island (First aired 01/11/2024)
ARTIST: Del Sol QuartetWORK: Huang Ruo: A Dust in Time - Chron (ascending) [1:15]RECORDING: A Dust In TimeSOURCE: Bright Shiny ThingsINFO: delsolquartet.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Del Sol Quartet, Volti (Vocal Ensemble)WORK: Huang Ruo: Angel Island, Scene 2 [15:14]RECORDING: Private RecordingSOURCE/INFO: delsolquartet.com | huangruo.com | voltisf.org
ARTIST: Del Sol Quartet, Volti (Vocal Ensemble)WORK: Huang Ruo: Angel Island, Scene 1 [1:33]RECORDING: Private RecordingSOURCE/INFO: delsolquartet.com | huangruo.com | voltisf.org
ARTIST: Del Sol Quartet, Volti (Vocal Ensemble)WORK: Huang Ruo: Angel Island, Scene 6 [17:32]RECORDING: Private RecordingSOURCE/INFO: delsolquartet.com | huangruo.com | voltisf.org
ARTIST: Del Sol QuartetWORK: Huang Ruo: A Dust in Time - Chron (returning) [3:44]RECORDING: A Dust In TimeSOURCE: Bright Shiny ThingsINFO: delsolquartet.bandcamp.com