While some purists might scoff at the notion, there’s certainly an art to making a cover song. There are a couple different ways this comes across, either it’s done note for note in a somewhat generic way, or it puts the tune in a different light through a stylistic variation. Based in Los Angeles, Vitamin String Quartet pulls off the latter while translating various hits ranging from pop to rock to alternative to heavy metal to hip hop into classical arrangements. On October 10, locals will get to see the current lineup of cellist Derek Stein, violinists Wynton Grant and Rachel Grace and viola player Tom Lea perform at The Park Theatre at 848 Park Avenue. The show starts at 8pm and whoever attends is bound for a unique and entertaining experience.

Stein and I had a talk about growing up with a classical music education, Vitamin String Quartet’s record label having a major influence on their catalog and getting to play in a new area for the band.

Rob Duguay: For you personally when it came to getting into music, what came first? Were you raised in classical and then you got into contemporary pop and stuff like that, or was it the complete opposite?

Derek Stein: I started playing cello when I was four years old, my dad was my teacher and he was very much a diehard classical guy. My whole education was in the classical tradition, but I had always been interested in rock and pop music, so I kind of did my own stuff while playing in different bands. Sometimes I played cello, but I was often on guitar or electric bass, so I developed my ears for that music alongside the development of my classical chops.

RD: The group has amassed a vast discography over the past few decades, so when it comes to learning all of this material in a classical fashion while picking which songs you want to do, how does that process come about? Does someone bring an idea, and it just happens that way, or is it more of a democratic thing where you vote on a specific song, artist or band?

DS: Myself and the other players that are involved with the group don’t really have any say when it comes to those sorts of things. When we go out on tour, the setlists are determined by folks who work at the record label that manages us, and we do get input occasionally. For instance, on this tour, we’re playing a song from the Netflix movie “KPop Demon Hunters” called “Golden,” and it was blowing up when we went into our rehearsals for the tour. Wynton said that we should be playing that, so the guys at the record label agreed. We had one of our producers and arrangers make a version of it, and we had it by the next day.

As far as building the setlist and building a repertoire while choosing what music to play or what music to record, that’s basically done by our record label [at Vitamin Records].

RD: Does that same method go with having these renditions be part of television show soundtracks? I know you’ve had various covers included in “Gossip Girl,” “Westworld,” “The King of Staten Island,” and “Doctor Who” to name a few.

DS: Yeah, and it’s an incredible thing for us. We’ve been touring for two years now off and on, and all of that is because of the inclusion of our music in [the television series] “Bridgerton.” We’re all really happy, about it and it’s really exciting. Occasionally, I’ll meet someone, they’ll ask me what I do, I’ll tell them that I play in this group. They may not have heard of us, but if I ask if they watch “Bridgerton” and they say “Yes,” then their eyes light up.

We’ve met a bunch of people that after finding out that our music is being used in “Bridgerton,” they’ll look up the group and become fans based on that, but all of those requests are done through the record label.

RD: Very cool. What are your thoughts on coming to perform at The Park Theatre?

DS: We’re all very excited to be on the road and bringing our music to places who wouldn’t have experienced it otherwise. Every time we’ve played in a place that we haven’t played before, we think that it’s a huge deal and a very big opportunity for us. Playing in Cranston is going to be no different, we’re really excited about this second leg of our tour after coming back from Europe, which was really fun, and now we’re looking forward to playing a bunch of more shows.

RD: Outside of the Vitamin String Quartet, I know you have your own music ensemble called Gnarwhallaby and you’re part of the Wild Up Modern Music Collective. Going forward, do you have anything going on with these other projects or with yourself as a musician that you’d like to mention?

DS: I haven’t really done a lot of my own music making other than I have a friend who I met through another friend who is a filmmaker, and he has asked me to make music for two of his films, which is something I really enjoy doing. I don’t really have a lot of opportunities to do it, so when I get those opportunities, I jump at them. Gnarwhallaby is on indefinite hiatus, so hopefully someday we’ll get back together to play some music, but I currently don’t know about that. Wild Up is going really strong right now and I’ve been so involved with the Vitamin String Quartet that I’ve had to not do some of the Wild Up stuff, but they have a great group of people there with great cello players. It’s ok that I don’t get to do as much as I once did, so I’m really focused on Vitamin String Quartet right now and that’s where my focus is at.