Before I got into the LA PHIL, I joined a group called Mariano and The Unbelievables. It was a Baroque Rock group consisting of a string quartet, a guitar player, Bass, conga, drums and Argentinean born Mariano Moreno on Piano and Harpsichord, represented by big time agent, Jerry Perenchio. I was called by Lenny Poncher who worked for Perenchio, to put together the best string quartet he could find. He hired Jay Rosen on violin and via Jay’s recommendations, called Ron Folsom on Violin, Ryan Selberg on Cello and me on Viola because we were three of the best string players in town. The four of us gathered our instruments and drove over to the 9000 building on Sunset Blvd where Perenchio had his office. Upon arrival, we were lead to a room, asked to set up, had music placed in front of us and we played like a strong solid unit and were hired on the spot. Immediately the next day, we began rehearsals with Mariano and the band. We all clicked so it was a lot of fun because I was used to playing classical music all the time and it was a pleasant break to actually play some popular hit tunes. They dressed us in 18th century drawing room outfits with powdered wigs and brocade waistcoats. The pants that we wore had no zipper so when you needed to go to the bathroom you needed to pull the pants down which was a little dicey if you only had a five minute break. We ended up making two albums for Capitol Records and touring with Donovan. We played at venues such as the Hollywood Bowl and The Cow Palace in San Francisco. When we opened for Donovan, prior to the start of every concert, Donovan‘s father's job was to throw flowers out to the audience to the screaming girls. They would jump and try to grab the flowers. One evening, I arrived early and I saw the basket of flowers on stage. I picked up the basket and proceeded to toss flowers out to the frenzied girls in the audience. It was quite a power trip and so exciting because the girls were going crazy fighting over the bouquets and throwing their underwear at me. Donovan‘s father's other job was to find a cute girl for his son. If Donovan noticed a girl from the stage, he would inform his father to bring for backstage to his dressing room after the concert. One of the highlights of the show was ending the concert with “Mellow Yellow”. It was Donovan’s number one hit at the time and the audience became very animated and sang along with the tune. Everyone was dressed up in hippie clothes because that that was the style of the time and Donovan wore a long flowing white shirt and beads around his neck. After the tour, we were hired to perform for the opening of a brand new club, Spectrum 2000, on Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood, California. It was formerly the home of Ciro's, a popular Hollywood nightclub owned by William Wilkerson, and later, The very famous Comedy Store. On the first day of our opening they actually found out that I was under age; I was still a teenager and they served liquor in in the club so technically I was not allowed to be there but they couldn’t just replace me at the last minutes' notice. The management just told me to stay away from the bar and keep my mouth shut. It was quite a thrill and a lot of fun opening up a brand new club packed with celebrity actors, musicians, singers and writers. While Mariano played his harpsichord on stage with the band, our string quartet strolled around the audience while performing. They put a small mic on the bridge of our string instruments which allowed us to control the volume and special effects. We played some of the hits from our albums. I enjoyed strolling instead of always sitting on stage, intimately noticing the patrons expressions and body language; everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time. During a performance of Winchester Cathedral, Mariano pointed at me to just take it and I played solo and loved being the center of attention for that moment. I ended up tripping and falling into the lap of Andy Williams. who just kind of grinned at me so I grinned back. We got one check…disbanded and our string quartet went on to become The Midnight Strings . . . . . . . . . #Marianoandtheunbelieveables #Musicians #stringquartet #jerryepstein #violist #capitolrecords #pophits #baroquerock #Donovan #hollywoodbowl #cowpalace #jerryperenchioartists #mellowyellow #upupandaway #canttakemyeyesoffyou #windy #sundaywillneverbethesame #dontsleepinthesubway #georgygirl #rockandroll #60s #sixtiesmusic #hippyfashion #retro #vintage #throwback #obscure60srock #groovy #brocadewaistcoat #soulfulstrings https://www.instagram.com/p/BwGH85wAYTo/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1og7zkyadt082