Celebrate the season with Soulstice Strings on Dec. 16
Plumas Arts is thrilled to offer a Virtual Words & Music on Thursday, Dec. 16, at 7 p.m. featuring Soulstice Strings. Soulstice Strings has been a favorite holiday performance at December Words & Music the past five years.
Soulstice Strings is a reunion of a String Quartet originally named the String Beings formed when members Holly Sternberg, Kelsey Kepple, and Chris Retallack were 5th- and 6th-graders at Quincy Elementary School. At the time, they were playing in Face the Music Studio’s Elementary String Orchestra named Pulling Strings.
That summer the String Beings started rehearsing together as a string quartet. Johnene learned how to play the viola so she could allow Holly and Kelsey to be 1st and 2nd violinists with Chris Retallack holding down the low end on the cello. The quartet excelled very quickly and soon were playing at many weddings and gigs around Plumas County. They also recorded a CD called Mountain Chase, thanks to Jeff Kepple who produced and recorded the album.
The Soulstice Strings came into being several winters back around the time of the solstice, when the fortuitous situation came about that Kelsey Kepple had moved back to Quincy. The Quartet re-bonded with the name to commemorate the Winter Solstice.
The Quartet is now comprised of members Holly Sternberg, Chris Retallack, Johnene McDonald and Tor Murphy on Viola. The program will be very eclectic with the group performing a variety of music from modern to classics, with many holiday favorites mixed in. There is an extraordinary addition to one of their songs by Tor at the end that you won’t want to miss.
Words & Music is a program of Plumas Arts, featuring acoustic performances of music and the spoken word. The virtual performance will be available on Plumas Art’s YouTube channel at this link https://youtu.be/ePHCFld4y0M or you can find access to it at plumasarts.org. The premier will start right at 7 pm and will be “live” until the performance is over. Once the “live” premier is over the video can be re-played and re-watched from any portion of the performance. For more information about this or any other offerings, please call Plumas Arts at (530) 283-3402.
This virtual performance was filmed in the Plumas Arts Gallery at 525 Main Street in downtown Quincy. Be sure to stop in and check out our ever-changing gallery walls and hundreds of affordable small items, pottery, jewelry, cards and more made by local artists. Please consider donating to Plumas Arts if you’re able to help us put more free offerings like this on. Visit the website to make your donation.
The Soulstice Strings from left in the photo above: Holly Sternberg, Chris Retallack, Johnene McDonald and Tor Murphy will perform virtually this Thursday, Dec. 16.
