Strings for a wedding in London

Last weekend we were asked to play as a String Duo for a wedding in central London. The venue was The Ned, a venue we had never played at before, but hope to go back to again! Inside the unassuming entrance it opens out into an amazing interior which was incredibly busy despite it being a Sundsay afternoon in the City. A 5 piece jazz band were playing in the centre of the enormous room while people were enjoying their Sunday buffet of oysters, lobster, roast dinners and amazing desserts!! As we were working we could only look on and think about returning socially!

We made our way to the 6th floor which was where Helen and Davids’s wedding was taking place. There were some lovely staff who were incredibly helpful, showing the String Duo for wedding ceremony and Strings for drinks reception where to set up and even moving an inconveniently placed Chez Longue so we would have enough space to play comfortably. The only music that had been specifically requested was Helen’s entrance music, Pachelbel Canon in D. She had requested that we play suitable music for a wedding ceremony before and then something suitable for the Bride and Grooms exit, before moving on to some of our modern music on strings for the drinks reception. We chose lots of our favourite pieces, some of which you can hear originals of below as well as some of our arrangements….

If you need Strings for a wedding in London, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we will do our best to help you create a beautiful atmosphere for you special day.

CONTACT US!

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April 20th, 2019|About us, Ensembles, Pop Music for Strings, Venues, Weddings|

String Duo for a wedding in Buxted Park, East Sussex

Premiere String Quartet recently returned to one of our favourite (and most local!) venues, Buxted Park in East Sussex to play as a String Duo for a Wedding Ceremony and Reception Drinks. Buxted Park is a fantastic venue in some amazing gorunds with a lovely chapel taht is sometimes used for weedding ceremonies. However often couples choose to hold their wedding ceremony inside the house as it is such a stunning venue.

As is the case with a lot of our bookings, Suzie and Tom wanted music for the arrival of their guests, music for a wedding ceremony and some music for their drinks reception before their guests moved into the wedding breakfast. Often couples leave it to us to decide the mix of music to play however the bride and groom gave us a lovely list of music to play, the reception playlist involving lots of our modern songs for strings.

Marry you by Bruno Mars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xdyRsGOl6U

At last – by Etta James

Can’t take my eyes off of you – Frankie Valli

Girl from Ipanema- Frank Sinatra

Fields of Gold – Sting

Music of the night – Andrew Lloyd Webber

Viva La Vida- Cold Play
Crazy little thing called love – Queen
Music of the Night – Andrew Lloyd Webber
Love on Top – Beyonce
We go together- Grease
Bitter sweet symphony – The Verve
Mr Brightside – The Killers
Blue Moon – Frank Sinatra
New York New York – Frank Sinatra
All I ask of you – Andrew Lloyd Webber
Dancing Queen – Abba
Dog days are over – Florence and the Machine
Chasing cars – Snow patrol
English man from New York – Sting
Sky full of Stars – Coldplay
Clocks – Coldplay
Toxic – Britney Spears
Simply the best – Tina Turner
Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
Time to say Goodbye – Bocelli
I dreamed a dream – Les Miserables
Billie Jean – Micheal Jackson
Think of me – Phantom of the opera
Can’t help falling in love with you – Elvis Presley
Some where only we know – Keane
Sky Fall – Adele
For once in my life – Stevie Wonder
Happy – pharrell
Nessun Dorma
Memory – Cats
Bitter Sweet Symphony – The Verve
Nothing else really Matters – Metallica
Isn’t she lovely – Stevie Wonder
All you need is love – Beatles
Buxted Park is a great venue for us as we can be inside or outside depending on the weather and as the guests had moved around to near the fountain to have some pictures taken we were able to move on to the terrace beofr emoving back inside as the weather was not the warmest and most guests enjoyed being back in the bar!
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March 22nd, 2019|Ensembles, Events, Pop Music for Strings, Venues, Weddings|

Wedding Strings in Alfriston, East Sussex

Lat weekend we returned to Alfriston to perform at our first wedding of 2019 (January is always a nice quiet time to catch up, sort out new music for strings and generally recover!). We were asked to play as a String Trio for a wedding ceremony and drinks reception.

Deans Place is a lovely hotel and wedding venue on the edge of the village of Alfriston. The ceremony room looked fantastic with drapes and extra lighting and we are often told that having a wedding string quartet or one of our smaller ensembles at the front of the room can add even more atmosphere to the occasion. Before the ceremony, as the guests were being seated we were asked to play some of our more traditional classical music for strings which included music by Vivaldi and Bach. One of our favourites is the Vivialdi Double Concerto:

The bride had requested to walk in accompanied by her favourite piece of music – Gabriel’s Oboe from the Mission by Ennio Morricone:

 

During the signing of the register, when we always suggest having at least 2 pieces of music, we played our version of Pachelbel’s Canon in D as well as How Long Will I Love You by Ellie Goulding:

To exit, the couple had asked for All You Need is Love by the Beatles which we have again made a special arrangement of for weddings. Modern Music for Strings is really popular now and we have an absolutely enormous selection of pop covers for string quartet, string trio and string duo.

Following the ceremony the guests and ourselves relocated to another room for the drinks reception, and the weather was nice enough for the bride and groom and their guests to go outside to get some nice pictures in the grounds of Deans Place, overlooking the East Sussex countryside.

It was really nice to get to chat to the couple as their guest were seated for the wedding breakfast and we hope the rest of the day was as enjoyable as the time we spent at this lovely wedding.

A few days later we received a lovely email thanking us for being part of the wedding:

Hi Rachel,

Now that things have settled down, we wanted to take the time to thankyou for your hard work playing at our wedding at Deans Place last weekend.
Your skills and professionalism were second to none and really helped make the day special for us. To walk in to Gabriels Oboe was such a special moment for me and one I will always remember, and the combination of both classic and modern really helped create a fantastic atmosphere among our guests.
Our guests were truly blown away by the music and couldn’t stop talking about how beautiful you sounded and your expansive repertoire.
We would have no hesitation in recommending you to others as we really were blown away.
Once again, a massive thankyou!
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February 25th, 2019|Ensembles, Events, Pop Music for Strings, Testimonials, Venues, Weddings|

Wedding Ceremony Music in Preston Court, Canterbury

We recently returned to Preston Court in Canterbury (we have been here a lot as we are preferred suppliers at this amazing venue!). It was an amazing wedding, involving camper vans, vintage cars, and the incredible pipe organ at Preston Court. The venue is part of a farm but has a real vintage fairground feel with a carousel. The string trio began on the banks of the lake while the wedding party took their places on the small island. We began with a selection of our music for string trio, more classical in feel before moving on to the wedding ceremony music, which included McFly – It’s All About You (which seems to be really popular at the moment!) and How Deep Is Your Love by the Bee Gees. Following the ceremony we moved across the lawn to play some of our pop music arranged for string trio. As we got ourselves settled in the barn we were surprised when the organ started up – it’s the first time I have heard it and it was a really fantastic way to greet the guests. Playing throughout the meal, Jo the bride wanted us to keep an upbeat feel and had requested we include sons such as Always Look On The Bright Side of Life and Everybody’s Free from Romeo and Juliet, which I had previously arranged for another bride. It was a great day and we can’t wait to return to Preston Court.

Everybody's Free - Romeo and Juliet

All ABout You - McFly

Preston Court Organ!

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February 4th, 2019|Ensembles, Pop Music for Strings, Venues, Weddings|

Wedding in Penshurst, Kent

Back from a fantastic day in Penshurst, Kent! A longer booking than usual – the usual choice for our Wedding String Quartet is for the ceremony and drinks reception but sometimes when the ceremony is at a different venue we are asked to move between venues. Today we began in the beautiful St John the Baptist Church, dating back to the 12th Century.

http://www.penshurstchurch.org/the-church/

We ran into the Rector, Tom as we got to the church so could discuss arrangements for the wedding ceremony. It’s always important for us to establish the format for the ceremony as there are many different ways this can happen. He was really helpful throughout, giving us really clear signals – not always the case!! On this occasion the Bride and Groom had chosen 2 separate pieces for the entrance of the Bridesmaids and the entrance of the Bride:

and our version of Pachelbel Canon in D

Among the couple’s other choices were their chosen exit music, God Only Knows by the Beach Boys, which you can listen to in our arrangement of pop music for strings on our website:

LISTEN

 

Following the ceremony we made our way to the reception venue, Penshurst Place and began our music for the drinks reception in the fantastic setting of the Barrons Hall, a beautiful room with a circular open fire in the centre and suits of armour on tables around the outside. The couple had asked us to play a selection from our repertoire for String Quartet so we began with some classical pieces including Vivaldi Concertos, moving on later to music from films and shows and more contemporary pop music for string quartet. How about this?

 

After a break we moved to the marquee for the wedding breakfast, the guests were seated on long tables all joined together rather than seperate tables which was lovely and the flower arrangements were incredible! We continued with our pop arrangements, including some of our newest ones. How about a bit of Metallica for String Quartet?

Overall it was a tiring but ultimately rewarding day and we hope the addition of a wedding string quartet added to what was a really lovely wedding in an amazing setting.

Penshurst

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April 12th, 2018|Ensembles, Events, Pop Music for Strings, Venues, Weddings|

String Quartet for Party in Tunbridge Wells Hotel

We were recently contacted by one of our previous brides, Rachelle. We had played as a string quartet for her wedding back in 2012. She was planning a birthday celebration for her mum in Tunbridge Wells and as she had enjoyed the music at Rachelle’s wedding so much Rachelle thought it would be a lovely idea to surprise her with some string quartet music for the party. As there weren’t going to be too many guests and the room wasn’t too large she thought a string duo would be perfect. A mixture of our repertoire for string duo from classical to pop music for strings was requested with one particular piece being special – the theme from Downton Abbey. Luckily we had made an arrangement of this for another client previously so it was no problem for us to dust it off and play it at an appropriate moment. It proved as popular as Rachelle had thought it would be so we were asked to play it again later on.

As always we hoped that the addition of live string music would lift an already special occasion and it seemed to do the trick! IN fact Rachelle’s mum emailed us a few days later-

I cannot tell you just how much your attending my Birthday Gathering on Saturday evening meant to me! It was the most wonderful surprise gift from my husband and daughters and I am still smiling with the memory of your beautiful sounds filling the room…….thank you so very much.
 
Sincerely, Yvonne
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March 5th, 2018|Birthday Parties, Ensembles, Events, Pop Music for Strings, Venues|

String Trio for wedding in Hever, Kent

The String Quartet were recently hired to play for a wedding at the fantastic venue of Hever Castle near Edenbridge in Kent.

hever_castlevisit-britain2

As there were not a huge number of guests the bride and groom had decided that a string trio would be perfect for the ceremony and drinks reception. We were located by the side of the ceremony room as it was a very open plan part of the castle and this worked really well as we could play as the guests assembled as well as being able to have a good view of the bride as she entered, made her way to the front and got settled. She had chosen a piece that we knew well but in an arrangement that we had not heard before – Scala and Kolacny’s version of U2’s With or Without You:

We were more than happy to add this to our pop arrangements for strings as we knew it would work beautifully for her entrance, creating a really emotional atmosphere.

The other pieces chosen for the ceremony were fairly new music to our repertoire but ones that work nicely, Coldplay Sky Full Of Stars and a favourite uplifting piece for the exit, One Day Like This by Elbow.

For the remainder of the booking we continued with our modern music for string quartet as the guests enjoyed drinks and canapes.

After the date we got a lovely message from the bride, always nice to hear we have added something to a very special day!!

Hi Rachel and co, 

Sorry it's been a while, but just wanted to say thanks 
so much for the beautiful music you played at Hever for us 
on 28th April. 

We had lots of lovely comments about how nice it was to 
sit and listen to you all, and I'm truly gutted I got 
dragged round the grounds in the cold and missed most 
of your set! 

I've attached a couple of nice pics below which were taken. 
Thanks again, 

All the best 

Louise

img_0809 img_0958

 

 

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October 29th, 2016|Ensembles, Events, Pop Music for Strings, Testimonials, Venues, Weddings|

Recording String Section in Kingston, London

The String Quartet were recently asked to work with a producer we know well, Jim Hawkins at his studio near London. We have done several projects with him previously and this was a very special one as he asked to provide a string section on a track for the Missing People Charity, involving singers from across the decades including The Missing People choir, which is made up of families with missing loved ones, Rick Astley, Chesney Hawkes, Nik Kershaw, Carol Decker, Lesley Garrett, Hayley Tamaddon, Jodie Prenger, Debra Stephenson, Kerry Ellis, Balsamo Deighton and G4.

The original song, ‘I Hope’ was inspired by the words of Kevin Gosden whose son Andrew went missing at the age of 14 in 2007 and highlights the heartbreak facing families with missing loved ones, and the often agonising hope of seeing them again.

‘I Hope’ is available to buy now on Itunes, Google Play and Amazon following its release on Friday 20 May ahead of International Missing Children’s Day (25 May) with profits going to the charity Missing People’s ‘Find Every Child’ campaign. An average of 140,000 children go missing in the UK every year and the campaign is aiming to be able to reach every one of them.

As we have done before we used some layering of parts to create a bigger effect, enabling the charity single to get the full sound of a string section using less players. This is a technique which can be used to enable you to get a much richer fuller sound with fewer instumentalists, perhaps recording with a String Quartet.

We have recently finished working on another track for Jim, more details available soon.

If you need strings on your track or album don’t hesitate to contact us.

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October 24th, 2016|About us, Pop Music for Strings, Recording|

String Quartet for Party in Eastbourne

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.

intro-club intro-rss

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!

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June 14th, 2016|Birthday Parties, Ensembles, Events, Pop Music for Strings, Venues|

String Duo in Syon Park

We were recently engaged to provide strings for a wedding at Syon House in West London. It is a venue we have played at many times and the Great Hall is fantastic to play in due to the wonderful acoustic (with guests in!).

Great-Hall-Main1

The-Great-Hall-set-for-a-wedding-ceremony-at-Syon-Park-a-unique-wedding-venue-in-Middlesex-near-London-featured-on-the-Gay-Wwedding-Guide

We accompanied the guests’ assembly with some well known music for strings. The Bride had asked for some special Processional music including an arrangement of Carrying You from Laputa – The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, a Ghibli animation with music composed by Joe Hisaishi:

Being a huge fan of Ghibli movies I was only too happy to oblige making an arrangement for strings of this wonderful piece!!

The end of the ceremony in Syon House is always extra special as family and witnesses go into a private room at the back of the hall for the signing of the register, allowing for the bride and groom to make a bigger exit.

Following the ceremony the guests were invited into the gardens for a champagne reception accompanied by the Wedding Strings. We played a mixture of classical music along with our latest contemporary music arranged for strings. The last piece was a special request from the bride for the Groom – the Theme from Game of Thrones! One of our new arrangements of music for strings.

Premiere String Quartet hope to return to Syon House very soon!

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June 9th, 2016|About us, Ensembles, Pop Music for Strings, Venues, Weddings|