A fun evening of dressing up in a coat and tie or cocktail dress and listening to great live music in McDonough Square is on the way next week as Story on the Square hosts a fundraising concert. funds to benefit a local high school orchestra.

The event is scheduled for Friday, November 4 at 7 p.m. in the popular bookstore event space on the square. Tickets are $50 each and include the concert, beer, wine and light meals. These items were all donated so that 100% of ticket sales proceeds will go to the Eagle’s Landing High School Orchestra program.

Only 100 tickets are sold, and about half had already left by Oct. 24, according to Story on the Square owner Stephanie Gordon.

The featured musical guest is the Edgewood String Quartet, which has gained a number of followers over the past two years. The band formed in the fall of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and began playing “safe” events such as outdoor and masked concerts when no other live music was played anywhere. .

They not only perform classical music, but also a variety of other genres, so concertgoers can expect to hear covers of many of their favorite songs. The music will be at least partly what Gordon has called the “Bridgerton Effect”, named after the popular Netflix series which is set in the early 1800s but features many ballroom and dance scenes in which the instrumentalists strings perform modern pop. hits that viewers easily recognize.

Gordon said she wanted to do something for a local high school fine arts program and contacted the district office for instructions, at which time she was directed to Eagle’s Landing High. “The young conductor there, Joshua Hernandez, was very helpful and is very excited about the event and what he will do for his students,” Gordon said.

“He actually graduated from ELHS and Clayton State. He just started the program there,” she said. “They don’t have a booster club and right now they have around 20 students. We are really trying to give it a boost. He could do more if he had more sheet music and instruments.

When she first heard the ESQ in Atlanta, she was extremely impressed and knew she wanted to bring them to Henry County for some event. After some thinking, they all agreed that was the way to go.

“They’re very committed to arts education,” Gordon said of the quartet. “They were all told by their parents that they couldn’t make a living doing this. But they play all kinds of events and they just recorded an album. One of the messages we want to convey to participants and parents is that it is possible to be a working musician.

This event is only open to attendees 21 and older due to alcohol service.

“There aren’t many events like this in Henry County where people can really dress up,” Gordon said. “It won’t be suffocating. It’s gonna be fun.”

For tickets, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sots-presents-edgewood-string-quartet-a-benefit-for-henry-county-orchestras-tickets-403198496557