Alam Khan, Arjun K. Verma, Del Sol Quartet: The Resonance Between
Alam Khan, son of the renowned Sarode Maestro Swara Samrat Ali Akbar Khan, has been captivating global audiences for many years. His father’s careful crafting and guidance shows in each note as well as in Alam’s imaginative way of expressing the ancient ragas passed down from the courts of Emperor Akbar by Mian Tansen in the 16th century.
Alam has had the privilege and honor of performing alongside some of India’s greatest Tabla masters– such as Swapan Chaudhuri, Zakir Hussain and Anindo Chatterjee–in a constantly growing list of highly reputed venues.
He also collaborated and performed with a wide array of artists from different genres such as the grammy winning Tedeschi Trucks Band, Karsh Kale, Beats Antique, Eligh, film composer and performer Michael Andrews, composer Christopher Hedge, Rabab virtuoso Homayoun Sakhi, The San Francisco and Fremont Symphonies, conductors Christian Reif and Michael Morgan, Oud musicians Yair Dalal and Rahim Alhaj, Bob Weir, Rob Wasserman, and Amp Live. He is also a founding member of the genre bending group “Grand Tapestry” and the primary composer of “The Resonance Between”.
Alam was the personal assistant to his father during his final years of life, helping aid him in teaching at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California–a mecca for students and lovers of Indian classical music. Alam, following his father’s wishes, is now the teacher of advanced instrumental classes at the Ali Akbar College of Music and has dedicated his life to preserving, performing and teaching this music to the world.
Arjun K. Verma, sitarist, was trained by the legendary Maestro Ali Akbar Khan. He has spent his entire life steeped in the tradition of North Indian Classical Music. The son of internationally performing sitarist Roop Verma, who was a disciple of Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar, Arjun began learning sitar from his father at age five.
With over three decades of performance experience, at venues including the United Nations (Geneva), the Fillmore (San Francisco), Fox Theater (Oakland), Pattee Arena (Monterey), the New School (New York), Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham), Prague Castle (Prague), and NBC Bay Area television (San Jose), Arjun has emerged with a unique voice on the sitar—both within the tradition of North Indian Classical Music, and through his innovative cross-genre collaborations.
Arjun’s music has received critical acclaim from leading publications, including the New York Times, Times of India, Sruti Magazine, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
In addition to performing, Arjun teaches sitar and North Indian Classical Music at the Ali Akbar College of Music and the East-West School of Music.
📷 Chris Yeh
Del Sol is a string quartet that thrives outside the concert hall. Its members are: Benjamin Kreith & Hyeyung Sol Yoon on violins, Charlton Lee on viola and Kathryn Bates on cello.
Del Sol began as a thought on the night shift at Fermilab. Charlton Lee, in his pre-viola days, loved the cutting edge of physics research – always looking for the next discovery, pushing boundaries. But he missed the way music connected people, building community by communicating in ways physics never would. What if he could bring that scientific passion for exploration to a string quartet?
Twenty-six years later, we are still sharing music that brings out the endorphins. Music that brings the quartet tradition out of Europe and into the rest of the world, a musical voice for Asia and beyond. Music that asks why not?
Although Del Sol began in New Mexico, the quartet quickly found its home in San Francisco where the city matched our hunger for innovation. We feel drawn to the West Coast tradition of freethinking outsider artists, fascinated by the feedback loop between social change, technology, and artistic innovation. Our current lineup, marked by violinist Hyeyung Sol Yoon joining forces with mainstays Kathryn Bates and Ben Kreith, looks to bring a fresh energy, freedom, and precision to our diverse repertoire.
Del Sol has commissioned and premiered pieces by our heroes like Ben Johnston, Gabriela Lena Frank, Frederic Rzewski, Chinary Ung and Terry Riley. And while we have remained committed to building a community in the Bay Area, our performances take us all over the country, from Boonville Grange Hall in northern California to the Library of Congress in Washington DC, and all over the world, with recent trips to Switzerland and China.
