Ok, well the easiest way for me to rec music would be to point you to the music player on my user info page, cause I have too many favorites. But here's a start:

Spoon. You need Spoon. I rec "Mathematical Mind".

Damian Rice. Uses cello and occasionally violin. Very mellow though, not very rock.

Johnathan Rice. I find his lyrics amusing. Very folky sounding.

And...um...depending on how indulgent of emo rock you are feeling, you could try 30 Seconds From Mars, which is Jared Leto's band, and my new guilty pleasure music. Rec would be "The Kill", which is more-emo-than-thou. Watch the music vid of this song on YouTube, as it is based on "The Shining" and is made of awesome and win, then pray for the salvation of my immortal soul for ever enjoying a movie star's music. XD

Apocalyptica? Four cellos playing hard rock songs.

There are also a lot of CDs that are orchestra accompanied favorites - I particularly like the Scorpions and Queen ones. I think Kansas did one, too.

Azure Ray uses a bit of cello. Specific songs would be 'Displaced' and 'November'. Rufus Wainwright tends to use full orchestrations on his tracks. I'm currently obsessed with A Fine Frenzy; they're pretty folky.

The End.

laura viers, guster, sia, brandi carlisle (maybe), kaki king, mimi fox, rocco deluca and the burden... pinback, stars, joanna newsom, noe venable. ok, yeah... that seems good. i'll let you know if i think of anyone else...

:D

I don't know if you like Broadway at all, but a good soundtrack is from "Spring Awakening" - which won the Tony for best musical in 2007 plus various other Tonys along with it. The soundtrack is fantastic with rock, strings, and some pop-ishness to it sometimes. The musical is also fantastic, and I highly recommend seeing it if you ever get the chance. :)