San Francisco’s Del Sol Quartet believes that music can, and should, happen anywhere. From concert halls to playgrounds, canyons to senior centers, Del Sol’s performances provide the possibility for unexpected discovery, sparking dialogue and bringing people together.
Del Sol has commissioned hundreds of works by composers including Terry Riley, Tania León, Frederic Rzewski, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Chinary Ung. In 2017, Del Sol commissioned Huang Ruo’s Angel Island, based on poetry carved into the detention barracks walls by Chinese detainees. That work grew into a Tribeca-nominated podcast and the Angel Island Concert Series, transforming a site once associated with exclusion into a space for collective reflection, learning, and belonging.
Their music has been described as “excavations of beauty from the elemental” (New York Times) and “luminous yet corporeal” (LA Times). Recent recordings include The Resonance Between, a collaboration with Alam Khan and Arjun Verma.
Michael Gilbertson joined the Conservatory in 2024 and is an associate professor of composition. His works have been described by the New York Times as “elegant” and “particularly beautiful”; by the Baltimore Sun as “vivid, tightly woven” and “delectably subtle”; by the Washington Post as “genuinely moving”; and by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “a compelling fusion of new and ancient.” In 2018, he was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in music. He has also received the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Lieberson Fellowship and a Copland House Residency Award.
Gilbertson’s works have been programmed by the Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Washington National Opera, Albany Symphony, New World Symphony, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Grand Rapids Symphony, and Santa Barbara Symphony, by wind ensembles including the United States Marine Band, and by professional choirs including Musica Sacra, the Crossing, Volti, Conspirare, the Swedish Radio Choir, and Yale Choral Artists. His music includes numerous works for dance, which have been commissioned by the New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute and the Aspen-Santa Fe Ballet.
Gilbertson holds degrees from the Juilliard School and Yale University. He served as BMI Composer in Residence with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. For over a decade, he was the artistic director of ChamberFest Dubuque, an annual festival dedicated to supporting community music education.
