SWING ORCHESTRA | JAZZ & ETHNIC | BLUEGRASS & FOLK | MANDOLIN | SOLO VIOLIN

Beautiful
and elegant
string music for
weddings and
special events
in Los Angeles
and Southern California!

String Musicians for Your Wedding

The Sparrow Lane String Quartet is a collective of the most accomplished string players in Los Angeles. They are graduates of some of the finest music conservatories in the country and they love to perform weddings!

Read more about our fantastic musicians below:

Chris Murphy

Chris Murphy, Artistic Director

Violin/Mandolin/Fiddle

Chris is a graduate of New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He has played professionally since 1993. He has studied classical violin with Peter Kaman of the Seattle Symphony, jazz violin with Matt Glaser and Julie Liberman, and Indian violin with L. Shankar. He is a composer and session musician, has eight solo albums of original music exploring jazz, bluegrass, blues, and ethnic violin music. In 2002 Chris started The Wine and Roses Wedding Band and has performed hundreds of successful weddings with that ensemble.

Edgar Sandoval

Edgar Sandoval received his Bachelors of Music from California State University Northridge and has been studying the violin since age 11. His most influencial teachers are Anita Thomason (Culver City), North Wood (Pasadena), Ludmila Adzhemova (West Hollywood), Barry Socher (Beverly Hills), Mary Kim (Northridge), Michael Ferril (Northridge) and Assa Drori (Hollywood). A native of Los Angeles, Edgar has been fortunate to get immediate attention from local orchestral and recording contractors after only 2 years of playing the violin. Alongside his gigging experience he has been featured on Disney’s 2002 reality television show “Totally in Tune” expressing the lives of students in a high school orchestra at a premiere music academy. Edgar’s orchestral experience includes: The American Youth Symphony with Kent Nagano conducting at Royce Hall (May 2005), Debut Orchestra with John Williams conducting at the Beverly Hilton (October 2004), Debut Orchestra with Michael Tilson-Thomas at Walt Disney Hall (January 2005), Pasadena “Pops” Orchestra, Santa Monica Symphony, Torrance Symphony at the Armstrong Theater, Southeast Symphony, Golden State Pops Orchestra at the Warner Grand Theater, Riverside County Philharmonic, San Bernardino Symphony at the Redlands Bowl, and tours with MESTO (Multi-Ethnic Star Orchestra). Edgar is an acclaimed chamber musician as well a composer for film and serious works. His most recent movie score credits include “Amercian Crude” with Rob Schneider and “The Book of Tomorrow.”

Matthew Witmer

Born in Ft. Lauderdale, and a Philadelphia native, Matthew graduated from the Boston Conservatory with a bachelor’s of music in viola performance, and began his master’s studies at the New England Conservatory. Matthew studied with Patricia McCarty and Ed Gazouleas of the Boston Symphony.

Relocated to Los Angeles in 2001, he has studied with Dale Hikawa Silverman, and currently studies wtih Jerry Epstein of the LA Philharmonic and Ray Tischer. Matthew is a member of the Dakah Hip Hop Orchestra, which has been invited to the New Orleans Jazz Festival and Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl. Other orchestras he has played with include: the Wild Ginger Philharmonic, Burbank Philharmonic Orchestra, Desert Symphony, AYS and Debut Orchestras. Matthew also attended the Henry Mancini Institute in 2005.

He has performed at such venues as: Boston Symphony Hall, NEC’s Jordan Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Zipper Hall, UCLA Royce and Schoenberg Halls, USC’s Bovard Auditorium, Skirball Cultural Center, Beverly Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas House of Blues, San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, and California Plaza.

He has shared the stage with such names as Tony Danza, Harrison Ford, Isaac Stern, Yefim Bronfman, Gil Shaham, John Novacek, and singers from the LA Opera. He has also played with names from the rock, hip-hop and jazz worlds including: Holly Palmer, Lili Haydn, Guru, John Tesh, and Diane Schurr.

Matthew has worked with such distinguished conductors as John Williams, Gunther Schuller, Joseph Silverstein, Michael Tilson Thomas, James Newton Howard, Alan Silvestri, Alf Clausen, Kent Nagano, Doc Severinsen, Ronald Feldman, Joana Carneiro, and Frank Fetta. Matthew has also been featured in music videos and on film trailers.

Peter Kibbe

Cellist Peter Kibbe has lived his entire life in Los Angeles. He has studied the cello since age 8, taking private lessons from some of the most respected cellists in the country. In addition to his private training, Peter has been an active member and valued cellist of many local symphony orchestras and chamber groups, including the American Youth Symphony, which recently debuted at Carnegie Hall, and the Young Musicians’ Foundation Debut Orchestra, both highly respected and both groups with which he currently plays.

A regular attendee of the Gold Coast Chamber Music Festival in Calabassas, CA, Peter was picked as this year’s highly esteemed Emerging Artist, a position that includes performance with the faculty of the program and teaching responsibilities in next year’s week-long session.

Peter is currently furthering his musical studies by taking lessons, teaching lessons, playing symphonic works and playing chamber music. He is involved in pop bands, jazz combos, rock groups, awards shows, film scores and original compositions. Peter is a fan of science fiction literature and of tetris and can cook a really mean soufflé.

Benedikt Brydern

Benedikt Brydern is an award-winning composer and performer. His scores have been featured in film, television and on the concert stage in the United Sates and internationally. From the Miramax documentary “Rhyme & Reason” to independent films like “Dunsmore,” directed by Academy Nominee Peter Spirer, from Jon Voight’s children tale “The Tin Soldier” to the mysterious “Outpatient” (starring Justin Kirk), whether using traditional orchestral or electronic techniques. He contributed music to USA’s mini-series “Spartacus” and worked on blockbusters like “Entrapment” and “Urban Legend” with composer Christopher Young.

Having been a violin child protégé since age 6 he now holds a masters degree in performance and performs regularly with local symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles. He has concertized and recorded with Leonard Bernstein, Sir Georg Solti, Etta James, Sinead O’Connor, and many others.

He specializes in old time jazz and swing and performs on a historic 1910 Stroh-violin, introducing music from the 1910s, 20s and 30s to new audiences. He also pays tribute to the genuine music of legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt. Performances include shows with folk legend Jim Kweskin and British hit-singer Ian Whitcomb. His love for Argentinean tango manifested in engagements with Dino Durand, Coco Trivisonno, Esther Segovia, Jose Luis “Pepe” Motta for various tango shows in the Los Angeles area.

As an arranger, orchestrator and producer he has worked with John O’Hurley (“Seinfeld,” “Dancing With The Stars”), violin stylist David Wilson, electric cellist Marston and many others.

Alan Busteed

Alan Busteed studied violin at the Manhattan School of Music with the emminent Raphael Bronstein. He was professor at the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra in Lisbon, Portugal, from 1994 until 2001. Having performed as a violinist with the Pacific Symphony, as guest principal violist for the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, he has also served as visiting concertmaster for the Orquesta de Baja California in Mexico. He is an artist faculty member at the Orange County High School of the Arts and violinist for the Los Angeles based Trio Del Mar, a piano trio. His jazz study at UMASS Amherst was with Yusef Lateef and Billy Taylor and he currently performs with the Odyssey Tango Trio.

Hope Easton

Hope Easton — Cleveland Institute of Music (preparatory college); New England Conservatory (B.M.); Fulbright Scholar (U.K.), Royal Northern College of Music). Currently performing and recording in Los Angeles. Working with bands such as Bitter:sweet, Al Stewart and many others. Cellist, Singer, Songwriter, Teacher.

Emily Moore

Emily Moore, originally from San Diego, has been playing violin for 12 years. She started violin lessons as a four-year-old, studying classical music during the school year and learning fiddle tunes over the summer. Three years later, Emily discovered Valley of the Moon Fiddle School in California and has since continued to explore traditional fiddle, rock, and groove-based music using her classical technique as an increasingly solid foundation.

Although an avid fiddle player, Emily continued to study classical music and was admitted into the Thornton School of Music at USC as a Violin Performance major in 2004. She has performance experience with a number of groups including the San Diego Civic Youth Orchestra, the San Diego City Ballet performing “The Nutcracker” and “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” and opening for the Chiara String Quartet as a member of the California Institute of Music String Quartet.

Los Angeles wedding band The Sparrow Lane String Quartet
performs a variety of string music for weddings & special events.