Mamma Mia! Local student quartet to play with ABBA tribute band at Washington Center

When the ABBA tribute “The FABBA Show” comes to Olympia on Sunday, there’ll be more than one foursome onstage.

A string quartet of local high school musicians will join the touring performers re-creating the sound and look of the Swedish supergroup’s Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, whose first initials gave the band its name.

News of the performance has traveled to Seattle, where violinists Alluzai Villanueva and Carol Gao, violist Michelle Hegewald and cellist Andy Gorrel were featured on KING 5’s “New Day Northwest.”

The musicians, who play chamber music together as part of Student Orchestras of Greater Olympia (SOGO), played to a recording of “Honey Honey,” one of the two songs they’ll perform at the Olympia concert. They’ll also play “Slipping Through My Fingers,” a ballad about a mother and daughter.

“It was nerve wracking but also really exciting,” said Michelle, 16, a rising junior at Olympia Regional Learning Academy who’ll start Running Start in the fall. “A lot of my friends and family have texted me about it and said it was super cool.”

“It was quite amazing to get on the show,” said Carol, 16, a rising junior at Olympia High School. “It was quite a privilege.”

“I’d never been on TV before, obviously,” said Andy, 15, an incoming freshman at Capital High School. “It was a really great opportunity.”

The musicians are also excited about playing at “The FABBA Show.”

“It’s a milestone in their lives,” said SOGO ensemble coordinator Mary Jo Rydholm, who provides weekly coaching for SOGO’s chamber ensembles, informally known as SOGO MOJO (Musicians Out Jammin’ Olympia).

“FABBA’s” production team got in touch with SOGO to request a quartet that could hold its own with a rock band in front of a big audience, Rydholm said.

“We have hired SOGO string quartets for our shows for several years, and they always play at a very high level,” producer Andy Nagle said in a press release.

“At first, I didn’t really know that this show was a big thing,” Michelle said. “I just thought we were going to play at a small private event, because that’s what we usually do as a quartet. I didn’t realize until later that it was a big tribute band and that they were really popular and doing a big concert. That really amazed me.”

Michelle and Alluzai, 16, a rising junior at River Ridge High School, have even more reason to be excited: They both enjoy ABBA’s music.

“My parents … always played good music for us when we were kids, and one of the big ones that Mom liked was ABBA,” Michelle said. “She would play it a lot in the car. She really loved ‘Mamma Mia’ because of ABBA, and we watched that.”

And Alluzai will get to play her favorite ABBA song, “Slipping Through My Fingers,” which Meryl Streep sang in the 2008 film.

‘The FABBA Show’

• What: The touring ABBA tribute’s Olympia stop includes accompaniment by a quartet of local high school musicians.
• When: 7 p.m. Sunday, July 23
• Where: The Washington Center, 512 Washington St SE, Olympia
• Tickets: $35-$65
• More information: https://www.washingtoncenter.org/event/fabba/

This story was originally published July 20, 2023 at 5:00 AM.