String Quartets

jonnysbride2010

Hi Ladies,  I have been on Gigmasters searching for a string quartet to play contemporary and classical music for my ceremony. I am looking into "Boston String Quartet", "Boston String Ensemble" and "Stringcalm". They are all running around $800 for four musicians and travel to RI. The total playing time is just one hour. It just seems like a lot of money to me! Is this average for what you ladies spent? If you have any other recommendations I'd love to hear them! Thanks!!:) Stef

october010bride

I'm paying 600(ish) for a trio that didn't charge any travel fees. For a quartet + travel I think that sounds reasonable.

EKobrenski

Not totally applicable but I am using a brass trio from Occasional Brass and Strings for $600 for ceremony and cocktsil hour. They have strings too, might be worth checking them out on gigmasters.

Dawn425

I used a string quartet for my ceremony and it was over $1000 (250 per musician for the hour + tip). From the sounds of that, it doesn't sound unreasonable from the research I did...That said, you can get musicians for much cheaper if you look into some of the area music schools. My friend was able to hire a four muscians from the New England Conservatory of music and it was right around $400 for her ceremony.

eouellet

$800 sounds about right for what I saw when I was researching, but you can also definitely find quartets who will do it for less if you look around. I found that a lot of the groups were quite open to negotiation as well.

jonnysbride2010

Thanks!! Ekobs..I looked into Occasional and they gave me a great quote of $600 for the strings. Thanks for the recommendation!

CCBelle

I used Rose Wollman out of Cambridge.  She is a violist and performs as a duo, trio or quartet.  Depending on the size of your ceremony site, you may save money by using a trio.  I ended up just using her as a duet (viola and cello), and it sounded great.  She charged $375 for about 1.5 of playing (she started 30 minutes prior, and we had a full service Catholic ceremony) and travel to Cape Cod.  Her website is http://www.rosewollman.com/live/Good luck!

jonnysbride2010

Thanks! I just emailed Rose too!:)

jhdance111

I paid 700 (w a discount) for ours (review in bio)...loved them.