As someone with a deep love for chamber music, Pomona College lecturer in music Sarah Thornblade found that what she values the most is the rehearsal process: “the brainstorming, the inspiration one gets from working very honestly and closely with others, and the fact that we share the role of artistic director as we bring a score to life off of the page.”
On Sunday, November 8, Little Bridges will welcome Thornblade and her colleagues of the Eclipse String Quartet for a one-of-a-kind program of repertoire including the world premiere of a piece by Turkish-American composer Ali Can Puskulcu and a work by Pomona professor Ania Vu.
Widely acclaimed for their artistry and fresh interpretations, the Eclipse Quartet performs works by contemporary composers and nontraditional string quartet music. The all-female ensemble includes two music faculty at Pomona: Sarah Thornblade (violin) and Maggie Parkins (cello), along with Sara Parkins (violin) and Alma Lisa Fernandez (viola).
Sarah Thornblade recalled how the idea for Eclipse was sparked through “conversations with peers about our shared desire to dig more deeply into new music [for] string quartets.” The string quartet form felt particularly exciting to Thornblade because “historically, the string quartet has been a compositional laboratory for composers, often where they explore their most adventurous and/or abstract ideas. The sound of a quartet is so flexible, from something voice-like to percussive and there is such a wide range of how the roles within a foursome can be organized.”
Experimentation is also a key part of the process of selecting repertoire. Thornblade articulated the group’s philosophy: “We have always been interested in exploring music that represents points of view, styles, languages that expand all of our perspectives on the world, moving us into a more diverse definition of what is concert music and where it comes from.” In practice, that looks like considering the “long arc of the program, the audience’s experience” and incorporating a “variety of styles, textures and emotional content which can help keep ears fresh.”
Often programs are built around a piece, in this case a premiere of a work by Ali Can Puskulcu entitled Before I Was, I Dreamed. “We absolutely love working with living composers,” said Thornblade. “There is nothing more thrilling than having the opportunity to discuss a piece of music with the composer.” Performing new works is both exciting and challenging, as there are no prior interpretations to work from. But Thornblade welcomes the challenge, comparing the experience to “exploring a new place.”
“You are so attuned to everything around you, every detail of the score, as you are the first to create sounds from these pages. You are cutting the first path through this musical ‘forest’ of a new composition, opening it up to the audience’s ears for the first time.”
Another highlight of the program is a work by Professor Ania Vu, Unveiling, which Thornblade described as “beautiful and surprising.” The Eclipse String Quartet will perform this free concert on November 8th at 3:00 p.m. in Bridges Hall of Music.
Each semester, the Pomona College Music Department presents over 30 performances by faculty, guest artists and students. The Fall 2026 concert calendar is available online at pomona.edu/music-calendar. All the department’s concerts are free and open to the public.
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Eclipse String Quartet
3 p.m., Saturday, November 8, 2026
Bridges Hall of Music, 150 E. 4th Street, Claremont, CA
Music by Osvaldo Golijov, Grażyna Bacewicz, Ali Can Puskulcu (premiere), and Ania Vu.
Free admission, without tickets. Doors open approximately 30 minutes prior to the performance.