Aquila is a classically trained, finely tuned live strings group that features some of Perth’s most up and coming players – bound by a passion for performance… Boasting completely original arrangements and reinterpretations of artists spanning from the Beatles to Gotye and from Metallica to Amy Winehouse, it would be fair to say no stone has been left unturned in building Aquila’s ever-expanding repertoire of future classics
Aquila is a classically trained, finely tuned live strings group that features some of Perth’s most up and coming players – bound by a passion for performance.
The members of Aquila have spent most of their lives refining their chops on the likes of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart – only listening to and playing more contemporary music as a fan or as a hired gun, never truly exploring the potential of applying their passion to the greatest songs written this side of the millennia.
Aquila have set out, led by first violinist and arranger Rachael Aquilina, to bring about somewhat of a change to the commonly held perception of what a night out to see a string quartet might look, sound and feel like. If you’re not sure what Daft Punk, Radiohead or Britney Spears would sound like played by two violins, a viola and a cello, you’re not alone… add one of Perth’s most respected drummers, Ben Vanderwal, and you’ve got something close to an idea of how cool some of the best songs from the last 50 years could sound – rethought and rearranged on instruments that have ruled popular music over the last 500 years.
Boasting completely original arrangements and reinterpretations of artists spanning from the Beatles to Gotye and from Metallica to Amy Winehouse, it would be fair to say no stone has been left unturned in building Aquila’s ever-expanding repertoire of future classics – reimagined for classical instruments. Aquila’s live performances smash the two worlds of classical and contemporary music together in a way neither would expect, making for renditions and re-imaginings that bring out the rock in classical and the baroque in pop.
A Hard Days Night- The Beatles
Africa- Toto
Airbag- Radiohead
All I Want Is You- U2
All My Loving- The Beatles
All Of My Love- Led Zeppelin
All The Small Things- Blink 182
All you Need Is Love- The Beatles
And I Love her- John Lennon/McCartney
Angie- The Rolling Stones
Another One Bites The Dust- Queen
Are You Gonna Go My Way- Lenny Kravtiz
Beautiful Day- U2
Bennie and the Jets- Elton John
Better Together- Jack Johnson
Bittersweet Symphony- The Verve
Bohemian Rhapsody- Queen
Break On Through- The Doors
Can You Feel The Love Tonight- Elton John
Can’t Take My Eyes off of you- Frankie Valli
Can’t Feel My Face- The Weeknd
Changes- David Bowie
Chasing Cars- Snow Patrol
Clocks- Coldplay
Come Together- John Lennon/McCartney
Come On Eileen – Dexy’s Midnight Runners
Creep- Radiohead
Dance Dance- Fall Out Boy
Daughter- Pearl Jam
Do I Wanna Know? – Arctic Monkeys
Don’t Stop Me Now- Queen
Eleanor Rigby- The Beatles
Enjoy the silence- Depeche Mode
Everlong- Foo Fighters
Every Breath You Take- Sting
Fall At Your Feet- Crowded House
Fat Bottomed Girls- Queen
Feeling Good- Muse/Michael Buble
Fields of Gold- Sting
Fix You- Coldplay
Follow You Follow Me- Genesis
Fragile- Sting
Get Back- John Lennon/McCartney
Get Lucky- Daft Punk
God Only Knows (slow version)- The Beach Boys
Gold On The Ceiling- The Black Keys
Good Day Sunshine- The Beatles
Good Riddance (time of your life)- Greenday
Hallelujah- Leonard Cohen
Happy Together- The Turtles
Have I told You Lately- Van Morrison
Heartbeats- Jose Gonzalez
Hello, Goodbye- The Beatles
Here, there, everywhere- The Beatles
Hey Jude- The Beatles
Hey Now – London Grammar
Hey You- Pink Floyd
Ho Hey- The Lumineers
Holocene- Bon Iver
Hoppipolla- Sigur Ros
Horses- Daryl Braithwaite
Hotel California- The Eagles
House Of Cards- Thom Yorke
How Deep is Your Love- The Bee Gees
How To Disappear Completely- Radiohead
Hysteria- Muse
I Believe in a Thing Called Love – The Darkness
I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing- Aerosmith
I Will Follow the Sun- The Beatles
I Want to hold your hand- The Beatles
I’ll Stand By You- The Pretenders
If I Fell In Love With You- John Lennon/McCartney
Imagine- John Lennon/McCartney
In My Life- The Beatles
In My Place- Coldplay
Just- Radiohead
Karma Police- Radiohead
Kashmir- Led Zeppelin
Kids- MGMT
Killer Queen- Queen
Killing In The Name Of- Rage Against The Machine
Let It Be- The Beatles
Like A Rolling Stone- Boby Dylan
Livin On A Prayer- Bon Jovi
Love Is All Around- Wet, Wet, Wet
Love Song- The Cure
Master of Puppets- Metallica
Message In A Bottle- The Police
Michelle- John Lennon/McCartney
Morning Has Broken- Cat Stevens
Motion Picture Soundtrack- Radiohead
Never Tear Us Apart- INXS
New Slang- The Shins
Nights In White Satin- The Moody Blues
Nightswimming- R.E.M
Nothing Else Matters- Metallica
Numb- Linkin Park
One Love- Bob Marley
Octopus’s Garden – Ringo Starr
Paradise- Coldplay
Paranoid Android- Radiohead
Radioactive- Imagine Dragons
Rebellion Lies- Arcarde Fire
Resistance- Muse
Riders on the Storm- The Doors
Roxanne- The Police/Sting
Satisfaction- The Rolling Stones
September- Earth, Wind, Fire
Shyer – London Grammar
Skinny Love- Bon Iver
Smells Like Teen Spirit- Nirvana
Somebody I Used To Know- Gotye
Somebody To Love- Freddie Mercury
Somebody Told Me- The Killers
Somewhere Only We Know- Keane
Stairway To Heaven- Led Zepellin
Stand By Me- Ben E.King
Starlight- Muse
Summer of 69- Bryan Adams
Sunburn- Muse
Sweet Child of Mine- Guns n Roses
Sweet Dreams Are Made of This- The Eurythmics
Sweet Home Alabama- Lynrd Skynyrd
Take A Walk- Passion Pit
Take Me Out- Franz Ferdinand
Tears In Heaven- Eric Clapton
The Best Of Queen- Queen
The Scientist- Coldplay
The Show Must Go On- Queen
The Quiet Things No One Ever Knows- Brand New
There is a Light that Never Goes out- The Smiths
Thunderstruck- ACDC
Time Is Running Out- Muse
Time To Pretend- MGMT
Tiny Dancer- Elton John
Use Somebody- Kings Of Leon
Violet Hill- Coldplay
Viva La Vida- Coldplay
Wake Me Up When September Ends- Greenday
We Are the Champions- Queen
Who Am I – Counting Crows
With Or Without You- U2
Wonderful Tonight- Eric Clapton
World Without Love- The Beatles
Wonderwall- Oasis
Wouldn’t It Be Nice- The Beach Boys
Yellow- Coldplay
Yesterday- The Beatles
You and Me- Lifehouse
You’re My Best Friend- Queen
Zombie- The Cranberries
1,2,3,4 – Feist
A Thousand Years- Christina Perri
Ain’t Nobody- Chaka Khan
All of Me- John Legend
Alejandro- Lady GaGa
Applause- Lady GaGa
Baby One More Time- Britney Spears
Back to Black- Amy Winehouse
Bad Romance- Lady Gaga
Breakaway- Avril Lavigne
Bring me to life- Evanescene
Call Me Maybe- Carly Rae Jepsen
Careless Whisper- George Michael
Chandelier- Sia
Crazy- Gnarls Barkley
Feel- Robbie Wiliiams
From This Moment On- Shania Twain
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!- ABBA
Frozen- Madonna
Halo- Beyonce
Happy- Pharrell Williams
Hey Soul Sister- Train
Hot Stuff- Donna Summer
I Feel It Coming- The Weeknd ft. Daft Punk
I Gotta Feeling- The Black Eyed Peas
If I Ain’t Got You- Alicia Keys
If I were a boy- Beyonce
I’m Yours- Jason Maraz
Just The Way You Are- Bruno Mars
Killing Me Softly- The Fugees
Love Story- Taylor Swift
Love Is a Loosing Game – Amy Winehouse
Mamma Mia- ABBA
Medley- Daft Punk
Moves Like Jagger- Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera
Never Let me Go- Florence and the Machine
Over The Rainbow (Hawaiian version)- Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
Rather Be- Clean Bandit ft Jess Glyne
Rolling In the Deep- Adele
Royals- Lorde
Runnin (lose it all)- Beyonce
Skyfall- Adele
Smooth Criminal- Michael Jackson
Summertime Sadness- Lana Del Ray
Supreme- Robbie Williams
Take Me To Church- Hozier
The Call- Regina Spektor
This Love- Maroon 5
Thriller- Michael Jackson
Thinking Out Loud- Ed Sheeran
Time After Time- Cyndi Lauper
Titanium- David Guetta ft Sia
Toxic- Britney Spears
Turning Tables- Adele
We Found Love- Rhianna ft. Calvin Harris
Without You- David Guetta
Wrecking Ball- Miley Cyrus
Young And Beautiful- Lana Del Ray
You’re Beautiful- James Blunt
A Whole New World- From the movie ‘Aladdin’
A Day In the Life of a Fool – Arr. Bert Ligon
All of You – Cole Porter
At Last-Etta James
Begin the Beguine – Cole Porter
Blue Moon – Arr. Matt Turner
Bye Bye Blackbird – Arr. Bud Caputo
Cry Me A River- Arthur Hamilton
Everything- Michael Buble
Every Time We Say Goodbye – Cole Porter
Fly Me to The Moon – Frank Sinatra
Gabriel’s Oboe (from the soundtrack ‘The Mission’- Ennio Morriconne
How High The Moon – Arr. Thom Sharp
I Concentrate on You – Cole Porter
I Get a Kick Out of You – Cole Porter
It Had To Be You – Arr. Martin Norgaard
It’s All Right With Me – Cole Porter
It’s Only a Paper Moon – Arr. Bert Ligon
I’ve Got You Under My Skin – Cole Porter
I Love You – Cole Porter
Night and Day – Cole Porter
La Vie En Rose- Edith Piaf
Libertango- Bond
Let It Go (from the movie ‘Frozen’- Kristen and Robert Lopez
Moon River- Henry Mancini
Over The Rainbow- Harold Arlen
Pirates Of The Caribbean- Klaus Badelt
Take Five – Arr. Bert Ligon
Unchained Melody- Alex North
Up Where We Belong- Joe Cocker
We Go Together- From ‘Grease’
What A Wonderful World- Loui Armstrong
What Is This Thing Called Love? – Cole Porter
You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To – Cole Porter
