Music for a Corporate Dinner
December is always a full month for string quartets when it comes to Christmas parties and corporate events. Last week, we had the pleasure of playing for a company who had booked us previously in the year and invited us back again for their Christmas party. The event was held in the Royal Berkshire Conference [...]
The cost of being the best string quartet? £295 + VAT
Today we received a gushing telephone call from a wedding magazine informing us that they were running a special feature about the ‘top twelve’ suppliers of classical music for weddings in the UK. After “careful consideration”, they wanted to recommend the Manor House String Quartet (yes us!) to represent the South East of England – [...]
Concert at St Michael at the North Gate - 20th July 09.
On Monday we returned to the church of St Michael at the North Gate in Oxford to give a lunchtime recital as part of their ‘Music on Mondays’ concert series.
The concerts are an opportunity for ensembles and musicians to perform works of their own choice, so we chose to give the first airing to the [...]
Cost of a String Quartet - what it costs us
A quick half hour spent on the internet will turn up hundreds of different wedding string quartets, all charging a wide variety of prices - from just a few hundred pounds to over a thousand, superficially it appears for providing the same service. In the same way, calling around wedding venues will also reveal big differences [...]
Which classical pieces to choose for a wedding ceremony?
Very often clients book us for weddings and functions with a clear idea of what they’d like playing. Many people enjoy spending hours looking through the repertoire choices on our playlist page and constructing lists of favourite pieces, including the order in which they’d like them played on the day. There are other couples who give [...]
Music for University Graduation Ceremonies
One of our most rewarding regular engagements is playing for a series of graduation ceremonies at Oxford and this is the third year in which we have been invited to provide music. As we’re usually booked for a whole block of playing work over several days, we give a special ‘tied rate’ to the University so that it’s [...]
Classical Concert at the Swiss Gardens
Last night we were very privileged to return to give another open air concert in the Swiss Gardens in Bedfordshire. Although we play for quite a few weddings in the Swiss Gardens, we particularly look forward to giving these evening recitals as the audiences are always really lovely and it’s wonderful to be playing in such beautiful [...]
Pachelbels Canon in D for Weddings
No matter how large the size of a string quartets repertoire, or how many other music choices there are on offer - it’s probably true to say that 99% of brides who book a string quartet choose to walk up the aisle to Pachelbel’s Canon in D.
So this week - in response to popular demand, we have recorded and [...]
Playing for outdoor weddings and events
Just had another busy weekend where we played for two weddings and a birthday party. Despite the weather being a bit unsettled, we still managed to play outdoors on Friday when we returned for another wedding at Notley Abbey near Aylesbury.
Although the wedding ceremony was outdoors, by law the registration process (signing the register etc) has to be conducted under a [...]
Last minute weddings…..
Whereas over the last few years, we’ve usually found couples enquiring about a string quartet for their wedding several years in advance, with 2009 a year of financial uncertainty for many people, it seems that there’s a real trend at the moment for couples to put off booking a wedding until a few weeks beforehand- [...]