Well-Strung Performs for Hillary Clinton After 'Chelsea's Mom' Goes Viral

When the all-male musical foursome Well-Strung released their new video "Chelsea's Mom" on YouTube just over a week ago, the resulting chain of events was something that not even the most powerful entertainment moguls could have engineered, let alone an indie pop-classical singing string quartet.

First, within hours of its posting, a handful of political journalists took to Twitter to praise the parody video. Then their publications published articles about it. Add in a few healthy doses of conservative push-back, and the media flames were fanned. Within the first 12 hours, nearly all of the largest national news outlets including Washington Post and MSNBC were covering the story.

Then Chelsea Clinton herself tweeted the video link. Followed by her "mom" Hillary Clinton herself taking to Twitter to share the clip. And then - in the 'dreams really do come true' column, the Clinton campaign itself contacted the group directly - and invited them to perform at a special Provincetown, MA fundraiser with the candidate herself on July 2.

The video is Well-Strung's inventive take on the Fountains of Wayne hit "Stacy's Mom", reimagined as a tribute to 2016 Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The musical arrangement for strings is by Well-Strung with lyrics by Well-Strung, Jeffery Roberson & Jacques Lamarre. The video was filmed by Blake Drummond, edited by Randy Rainbow and was produced by Mark Cortale, Matt Farber and Well-Strung. The song is the first single from the group's upcoming new album titled "POPssical", due out in early October.

Mark Cortale tells us "It was such a great honor to have Well-Strung perform for Hillary Clinton. We are all obviously firm believers that Secretary Clinton should be the next President of the United States. The past week has been mind-blowing! Secretary Clinton was incredibly gracious on Thursday and said that Well-Strung was now one of her favorite musical groups. She thanked all of us for making the video which she referred to that same afternoon in her speech as "extraordinarily charming and funny". I am over the moon that the guys are now singing Chelsea's Mom as the encore to their fantastic new show in Provincetown."

Well-Strung features classical musicians who sing, putting their own spin on the music of Mozart, Ravel, Beethoven, Pink, Madonna, Kelly Clarkson and more. They are Edmund Bagnell (first violin), Christopher Marchant (second violin), Daniel Shevlin (cello) and Trevor Wadleigh (viola). Conceived by Mark Cortale and Christopher Marchant, the foursome has quickly gained international attention for being a unique combination of string quartet and boy band. The New York Times called them "a talented quartet of men that brilliantly fuses pop and classical music from Madonna to Beethoven" and the New York Daily News called them "the hottest thing with a bow since Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games". The group has been featured on The TODAY Show with Kathie Lee & Hoda, Andy Cohen's Watch What Happens Live, the CBS News and ABC Television as well as The Huffington Post among many other national media outlets. While making their London debut in the West End at the Leicester Square Theatre, BBC Radio host Jo Good called Well-Strung "absolutely amazing" after their on-air performance and interview for her show.

The recording of Well-Strung's new "POPssical" album, scheduled for an October release, is the culmination of their year-long national tour of the show by the same name, directed by Donna Drake. As passionate fans and practitioners of both classical and pop music, the quartet has made surprising combinations of the two genres their trademark. The foursome note that hearing their fans' equally passionate response to their live show version of "POPssical" only strengthened their resolve to preserve the unique show as an album.

Well-Strung just debuted their brand new show "Summer Lovin'" directed by Richard Jay-Alexander in Provincetown on July 3, running through September 12. For "Summer Lovin'" tickets and information visit www.ptownarthouse.com.

Well-Strung's recent tour highlights include performing at this month's TrevorLIVE Gala in New York honoring Sir Ian McKellan, as well as sold-out shows at 54 Below in New York City and Feinstein's in San Francisco, and performing with Tony and Emmy Award Winner Kristin Chenoweth in her two sold-out concerts at Town Hall in Provincetown, MA last August. Well-Strung also performed in May 2014 at Life Ball in Vienna on the same bill as Ke$ha and in November they performed with opera star Deborah Voigt, Norm Lewis and Sierra Boggess to open the new Walt Disney Theater at the Dr. Phillips Center in Orlando. This past December they performed for three sold-out holiday shows with the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus in San Francisco for over 4,000 people.

Photo courtesy of Well-Strung.

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