Vital Quartet

The four members of Vital Quartet, violist William Frampton, cellist Alberto Parrini, and violinists Philip Payton and Orlando Wells, perform with a multitude of arts organizations in New York City and indeed around the world.

When you go to the Met, a Broadway show or a chamber music concert in Harlem, it’s a safe bet one of the Vitals are playing. Vital Quartet sprung from the convergence of radical shifts in classical music during the summer of 2020. First, the pandemic disrupted everything about the way performers interacted with each other, with presenters and with audiences. Second, individual musicians were suddenly better equipped to adapt to real-time changes in the industry than were large institutions.

As society reckoned with the implications of the murder of George Floyd, the grim nine-minute video laying bare age-old inequities, Vital Quartet saw an opportunity to bring awareness through their art, and an opportunity to help larger organizations respond to current events with greater agility.

Vital Quartet came together out of a shared desire to present performances of timely and overlooked repertoire. At first, they played outdoors. Now, returning to the stage, they do so as part of a cultural landscape they helped shape.