Seven)Suns
seven)suns is a string quartet that brings two related music subcultures of the modern-day working class, Metal and Hardcore, into classical music. The sound of seven)suns is, by turns, driven, aggressive, dissonant and hard-edged as well as contemplative, meditative, still and serene. Their repertoire is drawn from works by the members of the group, re-imagined string quartet versions of metal and hardcore songs, as well as works from the Western art music tradition.
Comfortable in many different arenas of music, seven)suns has played shows in such diverse venues as The Cell, Firehouse Space, Shapeshifter Lab, and recently The Knitting Factory, opening for the well known metalcore band The Empire Shall Fall. The quartet has also collaborated with the composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, performing his work “A Civil Rights Reader as Democratic Vistas” featuring the writer and poet Carl Hancock Rux.
seven)suns recently gained notoriety for receiving over 12,000 hits on YouTube in the space of only a few days for its version of Pantera’s “This Love/Domination” and was featured on numerous heavy metal websites such as SkullsandBones.com and MetalSucks.net among others. The group just returned from a residency at Avaloch Farm this summer, beginning work on a year long project tentatively titled “Songs of the Voiceless” based on the quartet’s visits to Rikers Island Correctional Facility in New York City. The members of seven)suns have been volunteering there playing music for and with inmates in conjunction with the Rangjung Dharma Prison Project- a Tibetan Buddhist organization whose mission is to teach meditation and provide guidance to inmates.
seven)suns is:
Amanda Lo: violins
Earl Maneein and Patti Kilroy: violin and viola
Jennifer DeVore: cello
City: New York City