In the niche realm of adapting rock and pop songs for string quartet, the Hampton String Quartet has maintained a notably persistent presence. Assembled during the mid-'80s soon after the Kronos Quartet issued its interpretation of "Purple Haze," the group's personnel—with a single exception—received their training at New York's Juilliard School and have each pursued separate paths in classical performance and film scoring. As a unit, however, their efforts have centered on reworking familiar material from Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix. They have additionally supplied string parts for sessions involving numerous prominent pop acts, extending from Michael Jackson through Britney Spears, whose track "Heart" appeared on the Your #1 Requests...And More! collection initially sold via the McDonald's restaurant chain.
The ensemble's four-CD What If Mozart Wrote series, issued by the RCA label and presenting Mozart-styled treatments of numbers such as "Born to Be Wild" together with "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," reportedly moved 750,000 units; the quartet has meanwhile drawn listeners to prestigious spaces including Carnegie Hall and London's Queen Elizabeth Hall amid the emergence of comparable groups producing similar repertoire. Broadcast appearances have encompassed NBC's Today Show, the BBC, and a range of other television and cable channels. A Grammy nomination for best concept video arrived in 1988 for their version of the Silhouettes' "Get a Job." The current lineup consists of Regis Iandiorio on first violin, Abe Appleman on second violin, Richard Maximoff on viola, and John Reed on cello, with Appleman the sole non-founding member. Live presentations incorporate rock-stage elements such as smoke effects, lighting control, and amplification.
