It’s always nice to play some music to add atmosphere to a party – usually we are booked at the beginning of an evening event to prevent any “dead air” as the first guests arrive and create a transition to the later part of the evening with some of our lighter music and pop arrangements for strings. This particular evening was no exception – we were booked as a full string quartet to begin the evening’s entertainment for a 60th birthday party at the  Sovereign Harbour Yacht Club in Eastbourne, East Sussex.

As we arrived the band were finishing their sound check – allowing us to set up in plenty of time to begin as the first guests arrived. We had been asked to play the full range of our repertoire so began with some well known classical pieces. These included Pachelbel Canon in D, Mozart’s fantastic Divertimenti, and some of our new arrangements of Vivaldi Concertos. Moving through our repertoire we played Tangos, Show Tunes, Gershwin numbers and more, leading to some of our new contemporary songs arranged for string quartet. John Legend, Coldplay, Clean Bandit, Katy Perry, Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams all featured in our set. As the band got ready to play we played a special classical arrangement of Happy Birthday. The party was in full swing as we left – only wishing we could stay and enjoy the fun!