Sonus Quartet is a Los Angeles based string quartet

String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

 whose members include Caroline Campbell

Caroline Campbell

Caroline Campbell is an American violinist, and member of the Sonus Quartet.-Early Life:Campbell was born in Albany, NY, and lived in Hawaii and Nevada before relocating to Palo Alto, California in the sixth grade. Campbell began playing violin at a young age, studying the Suzuki method at age three...

 (violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

 I), Kathleen Sloan

Kathleen Sloan

Kathleen Sloan is an American violinist based in Los Angeles, CA and a member of the Sonus Quartet.-Early Life:Sloan grew up in a ranching family in Breckenridge, TX...

 (violin II), Neel Hammond (viola

Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

), and Vanessa Freebairn-Smith

Vanessa Freebairn-Smith

Vanessa Freebairn-Smith is a cellist, based in Los Angeles, California. She is a founding member of the Sonus Quartet, formed in 2003, which presents art music in alternative and unusual ways, fusing classical with pop, rock, and hip-hop....

 (cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

). Freebairn-Smith and Hammond formed Sonus Quartet in 2003.

Composition

Sonus has composed arrangements which have been featured on John Frusciante

John Frusciante

John Anthony Frusciante is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, record and film producer. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he had been for a number of years and recorded five studio albums...

's The Empyrean

The Empyrean

The Empyrean is the tenth solo album by John Frusciante, released worldwide on January 20, 2009 through Record Collection. Frusciante does not plan on a following tour, as he instead wants to focus on writing and recording. The Empyrean peaked at number 151 on the US Billboard 200 as well as number...

, Van Hunt

Van Hunt

Van Hunt is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He released his debut album, Van Hunt, in 2004, and a follow-up, On the Jungle Floor, in 2006, both on Capitol Records...

's On The Jungle Floor and Martina Topley-Bird

Martina Topley-Bird

Martina Topley-Bird is a British vocalist and songwriter who first gained fame as the featured female vocalist on trip hop pioneer Tricky's debut album, Maxinquaye...

's The Blue God

The Blue God

The Blue God is the second studio album by British singer-songwriter Martina Topley-Bird, her first in five years. Released on May 12, 2008, the album had been complete since at least September 2007. Since then, Topley-Bird slowly revealed track titles and posted songs from the album on her...

, as well as albums by Boyz II Men

Boyz II Men

Boyz II Men is an American R&B vocal group best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. They are the most successful R&B group of all time, having sold more than albums worldwide. In the 1990s, Boyz II Men found fame on Motown Records as a quartet, but original member Michael McCary...

 and One Eskimo

One eskimO

One Eskimo is the first full-length studio album by the indie rock group One Eskimo. It peaked at #196 on the US Billboard charts.-Trivia:...

. Sonus performs often in L.A., at venues such as The Bootleg Theater, Room 5, Molly Malones as well as Walt Disney Concert Hall

Walt Disney Concert Hall

The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Avenue, 1st and 2nd Streets, it seats 2,265 people and serves as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra and the...

 and includes a variety of repertoire

Repertoire

Repertoire may mean repertory, a system of theatrical production and performance scheduling, but may also refer to:* Musical repertoire* Repertoire Records, a German record label specialising in 1960s and 1970s pop and rock reissues...

 from original Sonus arrangements of classical pieces such as a 15th century madrigal

Madrigal (music)

A madrigal is a secular vocal music composition, usually a partsong, of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. Traditionally, polyphonic madrigals are unaccompanied; the number of voices varies from two to eight, and most frequently from three to six....

 or a Shostakovich quartet, to popular music from The Cure

The Cure

The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...

 or Clint Mansell

Clint Mansell

Clinton Darryl "Clint" Mansell, is an English musician, composer, and former lead singer and guitarist of the band Pop Will Eat Itself....

’s Lux Aeterna

Lux Aeterna

Lux Aeterna is an album by Dave Fitzgerald. Released in 1997.This is the second solo album from flute and saxophone player Dave Fitzgerald who was a founding member of Iona. Recorded partly in the studio, and partly in the St...

.

Film

Sonus has played live with film composer Clint Mansell

Clint Mansell

Clinton Darryl "Clint" Mansell, is an English musician, composer, and former lead singer and guitarist of the band Pop Will Eat Itself....

 and contributed to the recording of Mansell's score for the film Moon

Moon (film)

Moon is a 2009 British science fiction drama film about a man who experiences a personal crisis as he nears the end of a three-year solitary stint mining helium-3 on the far side of the Earth's moon. It is the feature debut of director Duncan Jones. Sam Rockwell stars as the employee Sam Bell, and...

(2009).

External links

• Sonus Quartet Official website
• Sonus Quartet Tours With GRAMMY® Award Winning Gnarls Barkley. (2007, March 9). Yamaha Press Release.