FIVE FOR FIGHTING

John Ondrasik doesn’t just perform songs — he curates moments. Whether backed by a rock band or framed by strings, his voice still cuts straight to that universal space where melody meets memory. This fall, the Grammy-nominated, platinum-selling artist better known as Five for Fighting brings that intimacy west with his String Quartet Tour — a run through Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington that reimagines 25 years of songwriting through the lens of four world-class Broadway musicians.

Among the California stops is a special performance at the historic Golden State Theatre in Monterey on October 25.

By the time I sat down with Ondrasik for a Vibes Drop In, I already knew the storylines — the hits, the viral moments, the humanitarian performances from Ukraine to Tel Aviv. But what struck me most in person wasn’t the résumé; it was the calm. There’s a centeredness about him, the kind of presence that comes from years of watching songs travel farther than you ever planned them to.

He talks like he writes — measured, sincere, a mix of humility and curiosity. What I learned over that hour was less about the business of music and more about its quiet endurance — how a song, once written, takes on its own life and keeps finding people who need it.

That’s where this current tour fits — not as a nostalgia trip, but as a reset. A chance to strip everything back and meet the audience where they are now.

“I started doing orchestra shows about fifteen years ago,” Ondrasik told me. “Thirty-two pieces behind you — it’s exhilarating. But these string-quartet shows are different. They’re more precise, more human. I can see faces, reactions, even tears.”

Each night, he’s joined by Tony Award-winning concertmaster Katie Kresek (Moulin Rouge!), Melissa Tong (Post Malone), Chris Cardona on viola, and Peter Sachon on cello. Halfway through, Ondrasik sometimes steps aside and lets the quartet take over — maybe Rachmaninoff, maybe Zeppelin — proof that virtuosity and joy can live in the same bar. “They’re elite musicians, but they’re kids in a candy store when they get to play pop,” he laughed.

The result isn’t spectacle — it’s communion. A room where stories breathe, where melody is conversation.

Sitting with Ondrasik, it’s clear his music has become more than career or catalog — it’s a language for empathy. Over time, the songs that began as personal reflections have grown into public bridges, carrying meaning between generations, between divided worlds, between people who might otherwise never meet.

In recent years, that bridge has led him into places most artists never go. He wrote Can One Man Save the World? for Ukraine, performing it amid the wreckage of Kyiv’s Antonov Airport with the Ukrainian Orchestra — a single piano surrounded by the remains of war, music threading through what was left standing. And after the October 7 attacks in Israel, he penned OK (We Are Not OK) and later reimagined Superman in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, performing it for families still waiting for their loved ones to come home.

He doesn’t present these moments as grand gestures. If anything, he deflects attention from them. In conversation, he returns again and again to the same point — that art, when it’s honest, isn’t about taking sides. It’s about showing up with an open heart and bearing witness. “A song can do more than ten-thousand speeches,” he told me. “It opens hearts first — that’s when people start to listen.”

BEYOND THE STAGE

That same instinct shows up in how Ondrasik moves through the rest of his life. His commitment doesn’t end when the lights go down. He’s long been a champion of music education, partnering with Let Music Fill My World and the Music Matters Challenge, a national program aimed at reigniting creativity in schools.

“It’s not about making another record,” he said. “It’s about purpose — doing something that gives me a reason to write.”

Three decades in, there’s still a youthful current in him. He laughs easily, looks people in the eye, and talks about touring like it’s a privilege, not an obligation. “After COVID, there’s a new humility,” he said. “We’re lucky to do what we do. Every night, there’s someone hearing a song for the first and only time. You owe them your best.”

That’s the quiet philosophy that runs underneath everything he does — a reminder that connection is the real measure of success.

That same spirit extends to the stage, especially through the four musicians who’ve joined him on this tour. Each night, Katie Kresek leads a small but mighty ensemble — Melissa Tong, Chris Cardona, and Peter Sachon — and together they create something that feels equal parts classical precision and emotional release.

Watching them live, you can feel that shared pulse — a flicker of eye contact here, a small smile there. “They’re elite musicians,” Ondrasik said, “but they’re kids in a candy store when they get to play pop.”

It’s chamber music with a heartbeat, a reminder that virtuosity and vulnerability don’t cancel each other out — they deepen each other.

“These shows let me tell stories,” he said. “You can talk about where you were when you wrote the song.”

And that’s what these concerts become — a kind of communion. The audience isn’t just listening; they’re participating. The strings don’t just fill the air — they hold it, carrying the weight of every lyric until the last note dissolves into silence.

At its heart, the Five for Fighting String Quartet Tour isn’t just a celebration of songs — it’s a reminder that connection still matters. When the lights dim and the first notes rise, you can feel the room exhale — hundreds of strangers sharing one heartbeat, one song, one moment that might just last a hundred years.

TOUR DATES

Oct 21 – Tucson AZ | Fox Tucson Theatre
Oct 22 – Scottsdale AZ | Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts
Oct 23 – San Juan Capistrano CA | The Coach House
Oct 24 – Fontana CA | Stage Red
Oct 25 – Monterey CA | Golden State Theatre
Oct 26 – Napa CA | Uptown Theatre Napa
Oct 28 – Salem OR | Elsinore Theatre
Oct 29 – Kirkland WA | Kirkland Performance Center
Oct 30 – Bend OR | Tower Theatre