Bringing Broadway's incredible musicians from the pit to the stage!
XQUARTET
XQuartet is dedicated to the art of singer-songwriter collaboration, on stage and in the studio.
Grown in the eclectic musical landscape of New York City, we have devoted our careers to listening and responding to what artists really need: experienced and efficient partnership, combined with deep musical sensibility, to lift the addition of strings to the next level. We know the importance of being ready to go with blend, rhythmic commitment, and stellar intonation from the first note. We also know that’s just the beginning: as active contributors in arranging, recording, and performing live, our range of experience leads to the quick melding of ideas that brings an artist’s vision to life.
Our most recent project was an 8-week live-streamed residency at New York’s legendary Beacon Theatre with Trey Anastasio as The Rescue Squad Strings, but we’ve been working together and shaping what we do for more than 2 decades. Collectively, our recording, arranging, and performance credits include Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Paul Simon, Adele, Sting, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, David Byrne, Lana Del Rey, Pharell Williams, Lou Reed, Rufus Wainwright, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Barbra Streisand, Harry Connick, Jr., Dave Matthews, Michael Jackson, Pearl Jam, Mary J. Blige, Foo Fighters, Antony & The Johnsons, A Great Big World, Phillip Phillips, Five for Fighting, The O’Jays, Florence + The Machine, Father John Misty, and many others.
We invite you to explore the possibilities of a collaboration with XQuartet on our site. In addition to live performance and studio sessions with the quartet, we offer arrangements, orchestrations, scoring and music coordination. Our vast network of top-tier colleagues allows us to scale the size of our ensemble from full string sections to symphony orchestras, depending on your vision.
For more information, please visit: https://www.xquartet.com
Katie Kresek, - Violin & Arrangements
Katie Kresek’s dynamic career as a performer, creator, and educator is defined by versatility and multi-genre musical artistry. She is currently the concertmaster and co-orchestrator of Moulin Rouge! the Musical at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway, for which she has received a 2020 Tony Award for Best Orchestrations and a 2020 Outer Critics Circle Award Honor for Outstanding Orchestrations. During the Broadway shutdown, she can be seen with Trey Anastasio at his eight-week virtual residency, Beacon Jams, as part of the Rescue Squad Strings.
As a recording artist, she has performed on albums with Norah Jones, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Five For Fighting, Sarah Jarosz, The Hot Sardines, Breaking Benjamin, Phillip Phillips, Zayn Malik, and many more. Recent tours include Adele 25 Live in both Europe and North America, Five For Fighting Live with String Quartet, Elbow's 2020 American Tour, Father John Misty’s 2018 Pure Comedy Tour, Rod Stewart at Madison Square Garden, and in Europe, US, Japan, and Latin America as the lead violinist and strings arranger for Lana Del Rey. She served as the concertmaster of David Byrne's Contemporary Color project, performing with Byrne, St. Vincent, Tune-Yards, and Lucius in shows in Toronto and New York. She has also collaborated with Rufus Wainwright, Roseanne Cash, Diana Krall, St. Vincent, Billy Porter, A Great Big World, Bastille, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Jesca Hoop, Steve Martin & Edie Brickell (with the Steep Canyon Rangers), Alicia Keys, Kanye West, O.A.R., Shakira, KD Lang, Chris Martin, Josh Groban, John Mayer, Jewel, Lenny Kravitz, Joanna Newsom, Enya, Susan Boyle, Il Divo, Ayo, Maya Isacowitz, Misterwives, Chilly Gonzales, Chromeo, Mt. Eden, The French Gentlemen, Frank Ocean, MNDR, She & Him, Amber Rubarth, Kishi Bashi, and many others.
Her most recent arranging projects include Jonathan Coulton's album Some Guys, Phillip Phillips Behind The Light, and Lana Del Rey's Body Electric on the Paradise LP which was nominated for a Grammy.
Her work in television includes performances on Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with James Corden, The Late Show with Steven Colbert, American Idol, Bluegrass Underground, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Today Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, The View, CBS The Early Show, The Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting, and the 51st Annual Grammy Awards. In film, she has recorded soundtracks for Music and Lyrics, The Last New Yorker, Our Disappeared, and Alive Inside. Her Broadway credits include the original New York production and Angelica Tour of Hamilton, The Cher Show, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, American Idiot, The Lion King, Chaplin, Follies, Cinderella, The Phantom of the Opera, Gigi, Honeymoon in Vegas, Matilda, Pippin, On The Town, A Minister's Wife, Giant, Frozen, and many more.
As a music and talent coordinator, Katie has put together ensembles for countless national and international film, television, recording and touring projects, including the 2014 Met Gala with Frank Ocean, Adele’s debut at the 2009 Grammy Awards, and Adele’s 2015 television special “Live at Radio City” on NBC.
More information at www.katiekresekmusic.com
Max Moston - Violin & Arrangements
Maxim Moston is a multi-faceted musician working in New York City. His primary instrument is the violin, but he’s been known to play viola, mandolin, guitar and various keyboard instruments.
Maxim appears regularly on the stages of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center as a member of numerous classical ensembles around New York. He has also been involved in over 40 Broadway productions, most recently in Moulin Rouge, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Fiddler On The Roof.
Maxim has performed around the world as violinist and music director for Antony and the Johnsons. He worked extensively with Brooklyn bands Slow Six and Edison Woods and has appeared with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Belle and Sebastian, Mary J Blige, Beck, Nick Cave and Jay-Z, among countless others.
Maxim’s arrangements and orchestrations can be heard on numerous albums and live performances, including worldwide releases from Antony and the Johnsons, Rufus Wainwright, Keren Ann and Josh Groban. Performances of his orchestral re-imaginings of William Basinski’s seminal Disintegration Loops 1 and 2 have been warmly received on three continents.
More information can be found at maximmoston.com
Rachel Golub - Violin & Viola
Rachel Golub is a violinist, vocalist, and violist of many colors and sounds, performing with artists ranging from Jay-Z, Elton John, Sting, and Bruce Springsteen to Adele, Philip Glass, and Suzanne Vega. As a session artist, Rachel can be heard on recordings with Sharon Jones, Antibalas (FU Chronicles), James Taylor, Darlene Love, Superhuman Happiness, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, The Walkmen (Lisbon), Ryuchi Sakamoto, Chromeo, Breaking Benjamin, Lucy Woodward, Seth Glier (The Next Right Thing) and many, many others. As her alter-ego, Go-Ray, she released her own arrangements of devotional music from different traditions as 'TheYoga Sessions: Go-Ray & Duke’ on Yoga Organix/Black Swan, as well as collaborations with EarthRise SoundSystem and Idan Raichel. Rachel is a part of the 2016 David Byrne-produced concert-documentary Contemporary Color.
In New York, Rachel performs live with Elliott Sharp and Orchestra Carbon, The Metropolitan Opera, The FU Ark-ist-RA, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Andrea Bocelli, among many others, as well as on Broadway (Matilda, Hamilton, Moulin Rouge). Summer engagements include the Classical Tahoe festival and the D.C. Funk Parade.
During the strange year of 2020, Rachel was recruited to join Trey Anastasio Band for sevenweeks of the Beacon Jams, as part of the maverick Rescue Squad Strings.
After receiving her BA in Classics from Yale, she studied violin with Lorand Fenyves, and also became a disciple of Indian classical music with sitar maestro Ustad Shahid Parvez.
An avid distance-swimmer, seasoned through eleven South Brooklyn winters, Rachel has circumnavigated Manhattan, and in 2009, became the sixth known person to swim the first narrows of the Strait of Magellan. She created the Liminophone, an algorithmic composition using real-time meteorological data from New York-New Jersey Harbor, to sonify the swimming experience. more at www.rachelgolubmusic.com
Anja Wood - Cello
Anja Wood is a versatile musician, performing and recording with icons David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Dave Matthews, Barbara Streisand, Chris Cornell, and Harry Connick, Jr. She has played with countless other performers, like Pearl Jam, Rufus Wainwright, and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. Anja plays Hamilton on Broadway, and the Hamilton soundtrack just went triple Platinum. Anja resides in New York City with her 2 daughters, and is also the founder and President of The Lelt Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides assistance to acutely malnourished children in Ethiopia.
Misha Seeff - Singer/Songwriter
In 2021, teen singer-songwriter Misha Seeff released his debut full-length, Dreamhaven. The 15-song album highlighted the roots of his songwriting skills, featuring many of the first songs he ever wrote. Now, just over a year later, Seeff releases his second project, Mind. The EP continues the narrative Seeff introduced on Dreamhaven, staying true to the songwriter’s heart-wrenching ballads and upbeat, catchy tracks. However, Mind showcases a new layer of complexity in Seeff’s writing. The deeper, matured songs prove that throughout the last year, Seeff’s songwriting and vocal abilities have improved beyond expectations.