Low Strung String Quartet from New York City, NY

What if Eric Clapton put down his amped Stratocaster and picked up an aged Stradivarius? What if little Jimmy Page had learned the cello, not the guitar? The answer is Low Strung, an all-cello group that doesn’t just tame rock and roll for the faint of heart - rather, it fires the rock songs we know and love with the richness, range, and power of six cellos. Dave Rector founded Low Strung at Yale University four years ago, and he has reformed the group with New York cellists who are glad to let their proverbial hair down and take a break from Bach. Opening “Stairway to Heaven” with strains of Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers”, or leading from Beethoven’s brooding Symphony No. 7 into “Hotel California”, Low Strung makes old classics materialize from even older classics. Whether you’ve got a poster of Pete Townshend or Beethoven in your room, Low Strung is a musical spectacle you do not want to miss. The group’s eponymous first album became a hot commodity upon its release in 2007, and its sales since demonstrate that Low Strung appeals to a wide range of people -- from the middle-school orchestra to undergrads hanging out in dorm rooms to symphony-going baby boomers who grew up listening to the original tunes. According to the UK’s Blackpool Gazette, Low Strung “could, literally, become the new rock and roll” (1/12/08).