adventures while quartet-ing

These are some of the adventures of the Melodious Strings Quartet. While on the road, sometimes we see interesting things that just need to be shared. In addition, there may be a lot of photos of corgis, australian shepherds, and rabbits, as well as random music nerd humor, other musical things, fun melodious strings updates, and other related and non-related stuff n' such.

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I feel so blessed to be able to perform string music at two such beautiful mountain venues. 

#Ilovemyjob

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Performed with the Melodious Strings Quartet for a wedding today at the Belle Grove Plantation in King George, Virginia, where James Madison was born. It was beautiful, but very UK-weather type weather.

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Our primary Melodious Strings violinist and cellist performed for a beautiful wedding at Sundara in Boones Mill, Virginia!

Photo of the newly wed couple by Chelsa Yoder Photography: https://www.facebook.com/chelsayoderphotography/

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The Melodious Strings Quartet performed a variety of classical and traditional pieces, including the 2nd Borodin quartet and a few Haydn quartets for the dedication of a new church at the beautiful "Our Lady of the Angels Monastery" in Crozet, Virginia. We were honored to perform for them, and their enthusiasm and enjoyment of the music was and is fully appreciated!

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Working with Kate to arrange this event was delightfully simple. The music was beautiful and much appreciated by all of our guests. Thank you for sharing your talent.

-Sister Kathy Ulrich at "Our Lady of the Angels" monastery in Crozet, Virginia (new building dedication)

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We received photos from Craig yesterday for a beautiful wedding that Melodious Strings had performed for at the gorgeous Columns at Six Penny Farm. We loved performing for this sweet couple's event! Thank you Craig & Kathleen!

photography by: nvisionphotographyva.com

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Having a bit of fun making headers for our repertoire page on our melodious strings site. 

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We kind of write more custom arrangements for strings than I had previously thought.

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Our photo shoot photos have arrived!! They turned out beautifully, thanks to our photographer, Tim Hoysradt: http://timothysphotography.zenfolio.com/about.html

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Horses, mountains, and cellos oh my!

Here are photos with our wintergreen resort quartet adventure in Roseland, Virginia! Also say hi to Sarah, our lovely cellist today! 

Yesterday we drove, and drove, and then drove some more, to a remote but astonishing location in Virginia called the Wintergreen Resort, where the wedding location was so hard to get to you had to go up by shuttle.

It was 20 degrees cooler (which is great for an outdoor wedding, both for the bride and groom and the quartet!), and we were home of the epic Devil’s Knob peak, one of Virginia’s highest locations. The view at the top felt anything but real.

Also, the bride and her father arrived by horse carriage, which delighted all of us to no end. Suffice to say, after we performed we got permission to cuddle the horses.  

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Melodious Strings Photo Shoot

Thanks a thousand times over to the Columns at Six Penny Farm, and Timothy Hoysradt, for generously lending their time and gorgeous home to give us a beautiful backdrop and surroundings (Columns at Six Penny Farm) and lovely work as well as time and efforts (professional photographer, Timothy Hoysradt) last evening. It was silly and fun and quite productive, and the weather was just beautiful. We will share the new Melodious Strings photos when they are ready!

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A Melodious Strings violin and cello duet enjoyed performing pieces such as the main theme from the film, Amelie, and other contemporary and traditional favorites at King Family Vineyard in Crozet, Virginia, and admired the walls of mountain that they were surrounded by. 

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And we present to you our violist’s familiar, Merlin. Ever loyal, ever vegetarian, and ever fluffy. 

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Our black tri aussie definitely knows how to relax. 

During our hectic work week, sometimes things can become a little fast forward paced and a little crazy. If our aussies, Pickle (black tri) and Daisy (red merle), have taught us anything (which they have, many many good things), it is that it is really important to be relaxed and not stressed out, and that there is always time to do that, and that you can be happy without any extra special effects-you don’t have to have a reason to be happy, they just are. :)

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Katherine and her team were amazing! I had emailed them in a bit of a panic about a week or two before my wedding and they responded immediately. Booking the Melodious Strings Quartet for my wedding ceremony ended up being one of the most stress free things of my wedding. I was able to plan each piece of my ceremony, as they have a huge selection to choose from, and Katherine was very on top of things. Having them play as our guests arrived and during the processional and recessional really added something special- I would definitely recommend them!"

Elizabeth, bride of her ceremony at Boathouse at Rocketts Landing in Richmond, Virginia

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And this is why we do what we do-we don’t want you to stress out about your wedding day. Our job is to take care of another element of your special day so you don’t have to!

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In other news, this is Albus the Corgi, whose human is Patrick, our cellist. Patrick is currently teaching Albus some beginner lessons in cello. Albus is currently teaching Patrick how to give him more treats. 

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A beautiful day to perform "Beautiful Day" by U2 via violin duet for a wedding at Columns at Six Penny Farm! Other requests performed were “For the Dancing & the Dreaming” by John Powell from How to Train Your Dragon 2 soundtrack, and Alan Jackson’s “Remember When”.