By Krista Minard

On a stormy Tuesday winter night, the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria filled with people who braved rain and wind to attend the inaugural performance of the Sacramento Public Library’s music series. In the hall, the Bay Area-based UBG Strings quartet played a set of about 15 pieces in a concert titled “Bach To Beyoncé.” 

It was not just music. Layers of storytelling and audience interaction also peppered the evening, bringing a welcoming conversational element that further warmed the room.

“We’ll play a hodgepodge, smorgasbord of different types of music that most people aren’t necessarily used to hearing on string instruments,” UBG Strings founder Keith Lawrence explained to the crowd that first night. “Our instruments bring so much joy to us here on stage, and we have a rule: We can play anything that we can sing.” He quickly added, “But that doesn’t mean we can sing.”

The quartet that evening — violist Lawrence, violinists Philip Brezina and Shaina Evoniuk and cellist Byron Hogan — started with Mozart’s “Queen of the Night” aria. Then they played “Somebody to Love” by Queen. As the show unfolded, audience members heard some Bach, and many recognizable contemporary tunes, including “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane, “Blank Space” by Taylor Swift (attendees were mouthing “got a long list of ex-lovers”), Beyoncé’s ballad “Halo,” and ending with “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen: and guests were able to enjoy this impressive repertoire for free. 

Between that first concert in January and others since — “Songs from the Movies” in May and “Bach to s’Cool” in August — approximately 1,500 people have attended in person, and 1,200 have viewed the professionally produced videos on the library’s YouTube channel. 

With two more event dates this year, organizer Todd Deck is thrilled with the series’ success so far. “I really didn’t know what to expect,” said Deck, community engagement services manager for the library. “We hadn’t done a large-scale adult program in a while, and this one is really different.”

The series spawned out of a conversation between longtime friends Deck and Lawrence when Lawrence was in Sacramento for the Colour of Music Black Classical Musicians Festival last fall. “Our goals aligned as far as bringing people together and removing barriers,” Deck said.

At the time, Deck was fairly new to his role and discovered that a majority of the library’s working adult patrons primarily access services digitally. “They’re using our apps and our books online and our audiobooks, and that’s fantastic,” Deck said. “But from a gathering side, getting people together, it was a bit more complicated, so we needed to try some innovative things.”

Because it’s the library, it makes sense that storytelling is part of the experience. During the “Bach to s’Cool” concert, for example, violinist Kayo Miki took the mic to preface the quartet’s version of British singer/songwriter Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.” Miki shared that she had listened to the song, written in 1985, on her clock radio while growing up, and that it’s been enjoying a recent resurgence.

Her teenaged son had heard her practicing the night before, she said, and he remarked that he knew that song. Grinning, Miki said to the concert attendees, “I was, like, ‘It’s not from “Stranger Things”— it’s from the ’80s!’” The audience laughed.

Although the series is part of the library’s adult programming, all ages are welcome. “People are really hungry to come together and experience something intergenerational,” says Deck, noting  the age, ethnic, gender and socioeconomic diversity among the attendees. “All walks walk through the door, and people are walking out the door feeling more optimistic about the state of the world than when they walked in.” 

He described an attendee who approached him after the first concert and asked if she could hug him. “She said, ‘This has been one of the happiest nights I’ve had since COVID.’” He said Lawrence told him one of his highlights was seeing a four-generation Black family sitting in the front row “just delighted by all of it.” 

Deck also recalls a gentleman who was unhoused being moved to tears by the music and the stories. “Creating these opportunities is very important,” said Deck, pointing out that a concert like these would typically cost about $100 per person. “It ultimately builds more empathy between people and humanizes all of us.”

The makeup of the quartet varies — UBG Strings maintains a deep roster — and each concert includes American Sign Language interpretation.

The library’s next concerts, “Spooky Music” on Oct. 30 and one themed “togetherness” on Dec. 18, will each have two programs, at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. While admission is free and a library card is not necessary to attend, ideally people will sign up and reserve seats via the library’s webpage. Deck promises more concerts to come in 2025.

This story was funded by the City of Sacramento’s Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to Solving Sacramento. Following our journalism code of ethics and protocols, the city had no editorial influence over this story and no city official reviewed this story before it was published. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Observer and Univision 19. Sign up for our “Sac Art Pulse” newsletter here.