World Premiere: “Currents Will Carry Our Rebellion” by Juhi Bansal

The narrative-driven music of Juhi Bansal spans genres and influences to create deeply expressive, evocative sound worlds. For her Recomposing America project, ACF has commissioned a new work for Del Sol Quartet as part of their Angel Island Concert Series held at the former immigration processing and detention center in the San Francisco Bay.

From 1910-40, Asian immigrants to the United States were subjected to racist and inhumane treatment at Angel Island. Among these immigrants were Indian families who left a country under heavy British colonial rule only to find more racial prejudice and systematic persecution. Juhi’s work examines the letters, poems, stories, and messages that were sent between San Francisco and India that fomented rebellion in a shared act of fighting oppression.

Recomposing America highlights artistic perspectives unique to the United States and the broader Americas through direct commissions, institutional collaborations, and public dialogue. Timed with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Recomposing America aims to refresh and reimagine the “who,” “what,” and “why” of the United States, and the stories therein.