Followers

Sunday, March 13, 2022

Performers - Part 18

Chris Marchant
Well Strung Quartet

When you think of a string quartet, do you think of stodgy people wearing tuxedos?  Meet the Well Strung Quartet.  From left, Trevor Wadleigh, viola, Chris Marchant, second violin, Edmond Bagnell, first violin, and Daniel Shevlin, cello.

They're not just a string quartet.  They're a boy band who sing and happen to play violins, viola and cello instead of guitars and drums, and they mix classical and pop music.

And they're all gay.

The group was started when Mark Cortale, director of the Provincetown Art House Theater, saw hunky Chris Marchant, above, playing Mozart and pop songs on the street in Provincetown, Massachusetts.  Chris was not naked, but he was shirtless.  Cortale posted a photo of the shirtless violinist on Facebook, and all his friends in the classical world wanted to know who this guy was.

Cortale invited Marchant to lunch.  It turned out that Marchant was performing (naked) in Naked Boys Singing, so he was not only hunky and could play the violin, he could sing, too.  Cortale pitched the idea of a group that would combine pop and classical genres.  Marchant wanted to do it as a quartet.  They found the three other players/singers, and the Well Strung Quartet was born.

The other quartet members haven't appeared naked, but Chris Marchant is not shy about showing off his assets.

He has done some nude photo shoots.

Including this full-frontal.

Meanwhile, back to the quartet – or is it a boy band?

Here are some excerpts from one of their songs, a mixture of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Kelly Clarkson's Since U Been Gone.  I extracted and merged some clips from the video to shorten it, but this should give you a taste.  I think they're having a lot of fun with the mashup of pop and classical music.  You can see the full video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJTVSyt7eMQ

In 2016 they did a music video called Chelsea's Mom in support of Hillary Clinton's campaign.  One week after it was released, the Clinton campaign asked them to be the opening act at her campaign rally in Provincetown.

I'll leave you with some excerpts from a poolside interview.

6 comments:

SickoRicko said...

You are so good at what you do!

Unashamed Male said...

Thanks, Rick. I had fun with this one.

JiEL said...

I was wondering if Chris Marchant would be a French Canadian as his name Marchant is a French name.

Unashamed Male said...

He was born and raised in Canton, Ohio. I don't know his family background.

JiEL said...

It would be a good research on Ancestery. I know that some of my relatives family did move to USA during the 20th century from Province of Québec which is mostly a French speaking place.
Many did have to change their family names as it wasn't easy to prounounce them in English.
I know that the name «Lange» is from my family roots.
Like some «Leblanc» would become White.

For Marchant, the French name is more «MarchanD» so...
Marchand means «merchant» a seller of goods.

Anonyme said...

Everything about him is handsome/hot perfection