New Vintage Strings is a contemporary string ensemble from St. Charles, Illinois. Known for their wide range of styles, including rock, alternative, pop, classical, jazz, and more, New Vintage Strings will set the perfect tone for your wedding ceremony, cocktail hour or dinner. Their unique instrumentation, two violins, viola and double bass, and blend of diverse genres sets New Vintage Strings apart from traditional string quartets. The use of the double bass (also known as string bass, upright bass or acoustic bass) instead of cello in the quartet provides a modern twist and adds versatility and rhythmic depth in styles performed.

Services Offered

New Vintage Strings has been playing together since 2010 and can perform as a duet, trio or quartet for your wedding. Their extensive repertoire list suits all tastes and styles, and they can perform custom arrangements upon request. They can also guide you through the music selection process for everything from prelude to postlude, processional to recessional, cocktails to dinner.

About the Group

New Vintage Strings can be seen giving public performances at many restaurants, breweries, wineries, coffee shops and parks throughout the northwest suburbs of Chicago, especially in the Fox Valley Tri-Cities area.

All four musicians, including husband-and-wife team Jeremy and Emily Beyer, along with Maura Brown and Allison Zabelin, hold degrees in music and work full-time as public school orchestra directors. They have served as principal members of the Fox Valley Orchestra in Aurora and the Kishwaukee Symphony in DeKalb, and are happy to bring their musical talents to your wedding.

Elgin native, Emily Beyer, 1st violin, studied music education (BME, 2007) at Northern Illinois University and presently directs middle and high school orchestras in Yorkville, District 115. She had served as assistant concertmaster of the Fox Valley Orchestra and currently serves as principal 2nd violin of the Kishwaukee Symphony in DeKalb.

Maura Brown, 2nd violin, grew up in the St. Louis area and earned undergraduate degrees BM (performance), and BME (music education), from Ohio State University in 2007. She went on to earn master's degrees, MM (performance), and MME (music education) from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2009. She serves as concertmaster of the Fox Valley Orchestra and directs the orchestras at Elk Grove High School, District 214.

Allison Zabelin, viola, grew up in Aurora and studied music education (BME, 2011) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She earned her master's of music education degree (MME, 2015) from Vandercook School of Music, Chicago. She serves as principal violist of the Fox Valley Orchestra and teaches orchestra in Libertyville, District 70.

Originally from Algonquin, Jeremy Beyer, double bass, has extensive performance experience in a multitde of musical genres. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Northern Illinois University, BME (music education) 2006 & MM (music history) 2014. He serves as principal bass of the Kishwaukee Symphony and assistant principal bass of the Fox Valley Orchestra. As a jazz bassist, he performs regulary with the Matt Loeb Trio, Chicago Hot Five and Barb City Stompers. He can also be seen playing electric bass with the classic rock cover band, After School Special, in the Libertyville area. Presently, he teaches guitar and orchestra at Dundee-Crown High School, District 300.