Jazz Pianists & Classical Pianists for weddings

Query: find a pianist for my wedding  ceremony;     or find a pianist for my civil partnership ceremony;  or find a pianist for my church wedding.

People may contact with us who are trying to find a pianist for their particular event. Unless you're in the music business it can be very hard to know where to start looking. If there somebody in the family who is having music lessons from a piano teacher, then that's a good place to start. The piano teacher may well perform for parties and weddings, or if they don't they will almost certainly know somebody who does.

Whilst this is a good place to start, it does make one rather beholden to that person, and if you're looking for some choice and a bit of leeway to decide which pianist you like the look and sound of, they are a little bit stuck. So even if you ask your favourite piano teacher, it may well be a good idea to look at a music agency site like Midsummer music, where you can get a selection of pianist to browse through.             

Request: Pianist hire;   book a pianist:     Show me a list of pianists in my area.

These are all typical requests we get, even though it's really quite clear that our website is about booking musicians, in other words hiring a musician for an event. People often email us or phone asking, "can we hire a pianist from you?" Or "are you somewhere where we can book a pianist for a party?" I ask whether they have looked at the mid-summer music website, and they often say yes they are looking at it right now, so I have to tell them to select appropriately from the drop-down box.

Request:  Show me pianist for my wedding and the best pianist for my wedding;  pianist for wedding ceremony;  Find a pianist to play for my recessional;  I want a pianist for my wedding in wherever it is.

These are the sort of queries we get about pianists for weddings. This shows that there is uncertainty about whether a pianist is suitable for a wedding ceremony. Sometimes it is suitable, sometimes it's not, and this depends very much on the venue and whether there is room for a pianist and whether there is time for the pianist to get set up and taken down again. These issues are covered above.          

Request: find a pianist to play during the wedding photographs

one has to be very careful about this, as most photographers take the bride and groom and guests away from the wedding reception room to take photographs in the garden, or in different rooms of the venue, or run the stairs at his grand stairway in a stately home type venue. The pianist can't move around to follow the photographer, so normally having a pianist especially to play during the photos is not practical, but if it is to play during the wedding reception and one accepts the guests will be taken away from the pianist on occasions, then that's absolutely fine.

Request: How much does a pianist cost for my wedding;

it's common for people to ask what is the price of a pianist for a wedding. Some people think that because it's only one person is going to be dirt cheap. Good pianists don't go out dirt cheap, but they are low-cost compared with something like a string quartet, simply because there's only one person. However they do have to take their instrument with them and there is effectively the cost of the instrument hire built-in to any booking, and this is very much a matter of transport costs.

So don't think in terms of, I want a low-cost pianist for my wedding ceremony and breakfast; where can I book a cheap pianist; as you're only likely to get some amateur is going to hammer away the keys, just ask what a  wedding pianist cost and compare it with perhaps a string quartet or a harpist, and see whether it is within your wedding budget.

More...............