MINNEAPOLIS — As string quartets go, this one has done a lot. Recorded with Belle and Sebastian and fellow indie-rock darlings Lucius. Shared the stage with Father John Misty and Semisonic. Appeared on the “Late Show with David Letterman.” Performed at rock festivals. Backed more Minnesota singer/songwriters than you can name.

So it was funny to hear what the Laurels String Quartet’s members were nervous about on March 1, as they loaded their instruments into Berlin nightclub for the start of a monthlong residency there.

“I realized we’re going to have to talk onstage,” cellist Jacqueline Ultan said with a slight shiver.

After 16 years of mostly performing in corners and shadows, LSQ is moving into the limelight for at least the four Sunday gigs left in its Berlin residency. Or at least the members are nearer to the front of the stage in this case, and their name is on the sign out front.

For each week of its run in the intimate Minneapolis jazz club, the LSQ crew has invited one or two guest singers — mostly artists it has collaborated with before, plus one more it has long eyed as an enviable candidate.

The series is basically a showcase of what the group does best: fleshing out and lathering up songwriters’ melodies without any stuffy, highbrow classical musician attitude.

“Early on, the group established a reputation for not just being reliable to work with, but also comfortable to work with,” Ultan said.

True to their stick-to-the-shadows inclination, the idea for the Berlin residency didn’t come from the LSQ members. It originated with the club’s programming manager Cecilia Johnson, who said the Sunday residency shows are all about artists who “have some other depth or spark to their playing that promises each night will be unique and exciting.

“They’ve had such rich careers as individuals and an ensemble, yet they’re usually in a supporting role,” Johnson explained. “What if we could bring them to the forefront and invite people to celebrate them?”

The quartet happened to be preparing for a big all-star concert in February with some of the same guest singers and more at MacPhail Center for Music, where Ultan is a staff instructor. So the Berlin residency became an extension of that performance, albeit with new challenges.

“The curatorial part was the easier part, deciding on who to ask and getting a yes from them,” Ultan said. “Now, we’re going to be rehearsing week by week on that weekend’s particular show.”

‘Reluctant’ beginning

Original members Erica Burton (viola) and Josh Misner (violin) formed the Laurels String Quartet with two former members in 2010, after Jeremy Messersmith hired them to back him at the release party for his lushly morbid album, “The Reluctant Graveyard.”

“We sort of volunteered ourselves to play with Jeremy again at his Grand Old Days gig, and he said, ‘OK… ,’” Burton recalled. “We just kept going. Partly because it just seemed to work well. And partly because we all really liked each other.”

The quartet’s members all came from classically trained backgrounds, including newish member Laura Harada (violin). Ultan even has a master’s degree in performance from Yale. However, their personal music tastes lean toward rock, pop, hip-hop and other musical styles invented after electricity.

“You have Laura playing Arabic music,” Burton listed off, “Laura and Jacqueline playing in a Brazilian music ensemble, Josh being really into pop and indie, me being really passionate about rap music.”

The icing on that musical cake, Ultan added: “We all love to improvise, too. We’re willing to try new things and wing it, if we need to.”

After the Messersmith collaboration, the quartet started getting recording sessions and live performances with a steady string of local songwriters. Then came invites from touring artists, too.

A dream job came in 2015, the first of two times Scottish twee-pop group Belle and Sebastian hired LSQ to record on one of its albums, “Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance,” arranged by local composer/producer/sideman Andy Thompson. That led to the quartet also performing with B&S at Walker Art Center’s Rock the Garden festival that year.

“It was amazing just to get to play with them, and then they turned out to be the sweetest guys,” Misner remembered.

Among their other, more high-profile live gigs have been stints every year with the New Standards’ holiday concerts at the State Theatre.

Another regular in that annual show, Aby Wolf is one of the guest singers LSQ recruited for the Berlin run. She called it a privilege to perform onstage with the quartet but said her favorite part is “watching them get granular with tricky arrangement spots in rehearsal.”

“They investigate potholes and ideas with openness and consummate professionalism,” Wolf said. “Their capacity for nuance is remarkable.”

She will join LSQ at Berlin on March 15 with Eric Mayson, who also sings in Champagne Confetti. Before that comes Messersmith on March 8 (the artist who took them to Letterman’s set, by the way). After that, folk/Americana vet Chastity Brown will share the March 22 bill with rapper/singer Alexei Moon Casselle, aka Crescent Moon.

Lastly, the quartet will pair up for the first time March 29 with Soul Asylum frontman Dave Pirner, who will revisit the orchestral arrangements from his band’s “MTV Unplugged” appearance in 1993.

“Having seen that long ago and doing this with him now is pretty exciting,” Burton said.

At the opening night of the Berlin residency, the Laurels performed with Ojibwe folk troubadour Annie Humphrey and ’90s rocker Barbara Cohen (of Little Lizard and Brother Sun, Sister Moon). In each case, the singers and their poetic lyrics led the show, but Humphrey and Cohen both leaned into the Laurels’ supportive arrangements and let them cut loose at times, too.

“This is one of the reasons I’m happy to be back in Minneapolis,” said Cohen, who recently moved back from Los Angeles.

And yes, the members of the string quartet also wound up talking to the audience. Near the start of the show, Ultan explained the idea for bringing out different guests each week to the residency series.

“It’s mostly all people we’ve worked with before,” she said. “It was pretty easy to come with a list.”

Sure, it’s easy when you have a list as long as LSQ’s, one that continues growing by the month.

Laurels String Quartet

When: 6:30 & 8:30 p.m. every Sunday in March.

With: Jeremy Messersmith (March 8), Aby Wolf & Eric Mayson (March 15), Alexei Moon Casselle & Chastity Brown (March 22), Dave Pirner & Ryan Smith (March 29).

Where: Berlin, 204 N. 1st St., Mpls.

Tickets: $20-$40, berlinmpls.com.

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