Los Angeles, California serves as home base for the concept group called Vitamin String Quartet. The group is made up of studio musicians who are brought together to interpret and record orchestra style covers of music from all types of genres ranging metal, techno, country, pop, rock and hip-hop dance music. While the quartet uses a wide assortment of artists and instruments, one fairly constant member of the group is violinist Tom Tally. Tally has been intimately involved in the composing, arranging and conduction of many songs on approximately 50 of the albums that have been recorded by the group. While the group is referred to as a string quartet, the reality is that more individuals are usually involved, using instruments such as violins, cellos, percussion, brass and woodwinds. The group was originally brought together in 1999 as an experimental project. They wanted to determine the effects of using classical style instruments to create new and different sounds on popular recordings. Early on, the FM broadcast station WWHK in Concord, NH would play the group's music 24 hours a day, every day, for a period of time. The popularity of the group's music has led to the music being featured on TV and in the movies. Credits include So You Think You Can Dance (2008), TV show The Vampire Diaries (2010), the 100th episode of Gossip Girl and the fifth season finale of Modern Family (2014). Throughout the years, the group has been involved in the recording of over 200 different albums. In 2009, the group stepped out of the box a bit and recorded some original material provided by some of the various musicians on the album Per_Versions.

The Emerson String Quartet stands alone in the history of string quartets with an unparalleled list of achievements over three decades: more than thirty acclaimed recordings since 1987, nine Grammy® Awards (including two for Best Classical Album, an unprecedented honor for a chamber music group), three Gramophone Awards, the coveted Avery Fisher Prize and cycles of the complete Beethoven, Bartók, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich string quartets in the world’s musical capitals, from New York to London and Vienna.  The Quartet has collaborated in concerts and on recordings with some of the greatest artists of our time.  After 35 years of extensive touring and recording, the Emerson Quartet continues to perform with the same benchmark integrity, energy and commitment that it has demonstrated since it was formed in 1976. 

In March 2011, Sony Classical announced an exclusive agreement with the Emerson String Quartet. The Quartet's debut album for the label, Mozart's Prussian Quartets K. 575, K. 589 and K. 590, will be released in November 2011 to coincide with a series of concerts at Wigmore Hall in London and Alice Tully Hall in New York City.   In 2011-2012, its 35th season as an ensemble, the Emerson performs extensively throughout North America and Europe, with concerts in Boston, Vancouver, Denver, Philadelphia, Washington DC, San Diego, Houston and Ann Arbor and on tours taking them to Germany, Denmark, Slovenia, Austria, England, Spain, Switzerland, Italy and South Korea. The Emerson continues its residency at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, now in its 32nd season.  

The Emerson is Quartet-in-Residence at Stony Brook University, where, in addition to a concert series, teaching and chamber music coaching throughout the academic year, it has conducted intensive string quartet workshops in 2004, 2006 and 2008.  The Quartet has also overseen three Professional Training Workshops at Carnegie’s Weill Music Institute.  In the 2006-2007 season, Carnegie Hall invited the Emerson to present its own Perspectives series, a nine-concert exploration titled Beethoven in Context, held in Isaac Stern Auditorium. No other quartet has had the opportunity to present such an expansive series at Carnegie. In 2000, the Emerson was named “ensemble of the Year” by Musical America, and in March 2004 became the 18th recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize – another first for a chamber ensemble.    

Formed in 1976, the Emerson String Quartet took its name from the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. Violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer alternate in the first chair position and are joined by violist Lawrence Dutton and cellist David Finckel. Since January 2002, Messrs. Drucker, Setzer and Dutton have stood for their performances; Mr. Finckel sits on a podium. The Quartet is based in New York City.


Occasionally funny and periodically informative, Have You Heard features journalist Jennifer Berkshire and scholar Jack Schneider as they explore the age-old quest to finally fix the nation's public schools, one policy issue at a time.

What a Hell of a Way to Die is a left-wing military & veteran podcast hosted by Nate and Francis, two slightly online combat veterans. Join us to hear discussion of veterans issues, news, and culture—all from a lefty perspective.

Theory Talk is a philosophy podcast and critical thinking jam session, featuring in-depth discussions of contemporary thought and thinkers. The show is produced by Joseph Weissman and Taylor Adkins.

Podcast cover photo: "Trouble Light" (1977) by Joseph Nechvatal.

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Hello! 

Thanks for dropping by. This is my SoundCloud sandpit, my place on the internet where I put all my audio experiments. 

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Helen Arney
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