The Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s Jukebox series has never been scrappy, but it does have an air of studied insouciance. Fusing the control and sophistication of a classical string quartet with the kinetic energy of rock and roll, Jukebox shows come off as competent yet cool, like an old-school rocker. The vibe is intentional, and it’s resonated with local audiences.
The genesis of the series was a 2016 event at Burlington’s ArtsRiot, now the site of the SEABA Center, that paired a nine-course vegan tasting menu with a funky musical setlist performed by a string quartet. Matt LaRocca, the VSO’s artistic adviser and project conductor, curated the musical program.
“I like to think I was the music sommelier,” he said.
LaRocca matched the amuse-bouche, a maple-rosemary meringue, with a piece by contemporary composer John Adams. He garnished other courses with works by classical heavyweights such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Maurice Ravel and Béla Bartók — but also a 2009 string quartet piece by Bryce Dessner, a composer and founding member of the rock band the National. Dessner’s “Aheym” accompanied a sweet potato ravioli.
The orchestra didn’t repeat the dinner experiment, which was an unqualified success. It did latch on to the idea of sending classically trained musicians into nontraditional spaces to perform unexpected programs, and the Jukebox series was born. For the past 10 years, the Jukebox quartet — sometimes it’s a trio — has played in offbeat venues around the state, from rock clubs to breweries to, on one occasion, an airplane hangar. LaRocca still curates the music and employs a similarly eclectic approach. Recent programs have focused on heavy metal, American roots music and scandalous composers.
Next week, Jukebox celebrates its 10th anniversary with a run of four “Jukebox Turns Ten” concerts across the state, from St. Johnsbury to Manchester — and, yes, one will be at a brewery. As an added draw, LaRocca will deploy a clever gambit that nods to the series’ name and history.
Each show will open with the Danish String Quartet’s arrangement of “Old Reinlender From Sønndala.” After that, audience members will choose eight songs from a list of 16 that the quartet will play in the order they’re selected — like a jukebox.
In a decade of Jukebox performances, LaRocca has compiled a spreadsheet of more than 200 songs. “Aheym” has seen fairly heavy rotation, but otherwise there have been surprisingly few repeats among concerts.
LaRocca added some new works to the anniversary lineup, but since the milestone lends itself to a “greatest hits” sensibility, many songs come from the repertoire. While the musicians have already practiced and performed them, it doesn’t make them any easier to play.
“We’re more used to the amount of stamina and attention and concentration that it takes,” violist Stefanie Taylor said, “but when we first started playing these concerts, moving from one movement of Mozart to some kind of very percussive and rhythmically kooky contemporary piece, it was — it is — challenging.”
At the last rehearsal before a concert or tour, the quartet will often do a full run-through of a program, violinist Brooke Quiggins-Saulnier said. Because of their genre-hopping and stylistic turns, Jukebox shows are “atypical to what you might do in an orchestral concert or a solo recital,” she explained. “It takes a lot of mental endurance as well as physical endurance.”
She described the whiplash of playing a “really rhythmic, really loud” piece one moment to something “where we’re basically playing at a snail’s pace … but our heart rate is still at what feels like 200.”
Since the musicians don’t know what the final programs will be for each anniversary concert, her preferred strategy would be to rehearse “all the really heavy hitters back to back to back, just in case those cards get pulled like that.”
The quartet, which also includes violinist Joana Genova and cellist John Dunlop, tends to play in intimate venues or adapts them as such. For the upcoming show at Rutland’s Paramount Theatre, the audience will sit onstage with the musicians. The format offers an unusually up-close view of the physicality involved in Jukebox performances.
“To see John’s hand have to shift quickly or to stretch in a weird way as you’re sitting literally a foot and a half from him is very different than if you’re sitting in Row T of an orchestra level watching 80 people on a stage,” Quiggins-Saulnier said.
“And the sweat,” Taylor added.
LaRocca compared the Jukebox experience to being at a rock show. He hosts the concerts and provides commentary between pieces. He welcomes questions yelled from the audience, and no one complains if people cheer for the musicians while they play.
In the beginning, he and the musicians were trying to figure out what Jukebox was going to look like, how it was going to feel and what they were going to wear. Ten years in, the series has come into its own.
“Now it feels like it has a real identity,” he said. “It feels like it’s its own thing.”
A subtle clue to that identity is the “Jukebox uniform,” which LaRocca said is usually black jeans, a dark shirt and, befitting a quartet that blurs the lines between classical and rock, “always Chucks.” ➆
The original print version of this article was headlined “Jukebox Heroes | To celebrate 10 years of turning classical music on its ear, the VSO quartet puts the audience in charge”
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This article appears in November 4 • 2026.
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