The Vitamin String Quartet (VSQ) is currently in the first leg of their tour around the Midwest and Westcoast, jamming out to the group’s classical crossover of contemporary music. On Tuesday, Oct. 29, they will hit the stage in Milwaukee at the Pabst Theater at 8 p.m.
The setlist will include a number of their pieces that were featured in the Netflix hit show “Bridgerton,” produced by Shonda Rhimes. VSQ recently put out an album covering a wide variety of popular Taylor Swift songs, which will be featured on the tour along with other pop and rock cover songs the group has been preforming for years.
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“I’ve never played in front of a crowd with VSQ that wasn’t a great crowd,” VSQ cellist, Derek Stein said. “We have great fans who are very excited to come see us play. A tour of this magnitude is a first for us so we’re really presenting ourselves to the largest amount of fans that we ever have before.”
In the ’90s, the record company CMH Label Group, was experimenting with mashing up different styles of music, like the instrumental genera and pop music. One of these experiments was the combination of a string quartet with contemporary rock and pop music. Thus, the Vitamin String Quartet was born.
“Which we aimed to be the ideal modern string group,” Leo Flynn, Brand Manager at CMH Label Group, said. “We really wanted to define what modern string music is, especially for mainstream listeners.”
VSQ has been putting out string music covers of pop and rock songs since 1999. In the early days, they released tributes to Led Zeppelin, R.E.M. and Tool, songs they still preform to this day.
Over the years they have had songs featured in television shows like “Modern Family,” “Gossip Girl,” “Westworld” and “Reign,” building up a track record in the world of TV and pop culture fans. This led to the many features of VSQ’s music in “Bridgerton,” which came out at the end of 2020.
“’Bridgerton’ on a massive scale has done in the TV space what we’re trying to do,” Flynn said. “Bringing worlds together to show the commonalities, to show how much energy there is when we connect to things and each other. It’s been a wonderful thing to be a part of the show.”
Stein has been playing the cello since he was four years old. In middle and high school his favorite bad was No Doubt. He came across a VSQ tribute to them and became a fan. After receiving his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, an opportunity came up for him to audition for the group in 2011. He has been a member of the rotating cast of musicians ever since and has been featured in most of the live performances.
The classical crossover string quartet has earned over 2 billion streams, around 4 million downloads and over 1 million physical units sold across over the 300 releases of cover songs.
For anyone considering coming out to the show, “VSQ really does bring all of these beautiful worlds together,” Flynn said. “It’s an aspirational show, you’re seeing classical instruments played by these virtuosos, but you’re also getting a rock edge to it. It’s beautiful, it’s romantic, it’s mysterious, it’s edgy, it’s all of those things in one night and I think people walk away feeling blown away with it all.”
