In the middle of May Niche – The London String Quartet played at the beautiful wedding venue of Addington Palace (where earlier this year they appointed us as their ‘recommended wedding string quartet’ for their venue – fantastic news!) Addington Palace is one of the...
Niche London String Quartet had a very busy April travelling all over London and the Home Counties providing wedding music for beautiful and unique Spring weddings! We’ve been so busy we have only just managed to update the blog now it’s into May!
Our first wedding in April was in the heart of London City – The fabulous Conservatory at The Barbican to provide wedding music for the ceremony and reception of Helen and Andrew’s wedding. Helen had requested that we specially write and arrange 3 songs for her ceremony. As she made her big entrance into the luscious tropic gardens we played the hauntingly beautiful ‘No Surprises’ by Radiohead, which carried across the huge conservatory perfectly.
After the happy couple had become man and wife and were signing the register we played the romantic ‘There is a Light that Never Goes Out’ by the Smiths and then as they left the room to cheers we played the up-beat ‘Here Comes Your Man’ by the Pixes. A unique venue in the heart of London and equally unique ceremony music that was tailored specially by the Bride and Niche Quartet to make her big day unforgettable!
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That evening we then travelled out of London to Tythe Barn in Oxfordshire to provide Becky and Rob with music for the wedding breakfast. The setting was beautiful in the middle of the countryside. The most important part of our performance that night was to play ‘Cry Me a River’ by Michael Buble as members from the party entered dressed in surprise chefs outfits to carve the meat themselves. What nobody expected is that when Niche Quartet were cued to play the sassy jazz song arranged by ourselves, they would enter dancing hilariously down the hall dressed in their surprise outfits! It certainly was a special and unforgettable moment for all of the guests and Niche London Quartet too!
2012 was a fabulous year for Niche – The London String Quartet! We played for Surprise Engagement proposals, including the exciting proposal at London Zoo filmed for National TV. We played for beautiful Summer weddings as a String Quartet and String Trio at some of the most stylish central London Venues to weddings in country palaces out in the home counties and snowy winter weddings in Hertfordshire. We responded to special requests and created and learned arrangements of songs from scratch so each Bride and Groom could make sure their perfect moment was completely unique.
Niche Quartet recorded our first CD of pieces picked from our ever growing repertoire lists and we were chosen to be the recommended supplier of wedding music and corporate entertainment for It’s The Agency’s prestigious London venues. We provided entertainment for joyous birthdays parties and wedding anniversaries, and a sold out London Rock gig with The Elijah.
Towards the end of the busy year we were nominated and shortlisted as Best Live Wedding Music Entertainment in London and the South East and we finished the year with a successful, romantic surprise Christmas engagement proposal.
It has been such a pleasure to be part of so many beautiful moments and lovely to hear the wonderful feedback from our clients and their guests.
All of Niche Quartet are looking forward to all the Weddings and exciting events we have booked in the diary for 2013 – do contact us here to see what we can do for you!
Niche – The London String Quartet had an extremely busy time in this weekend rushing around London performing in all different settings! The 2 bookings that stand out the most were played within 24hrs of each other!
On Friday Niche Quartet travelled to famous London venue The Underworld in Camden to accompany The Eljiah as session musicians in their specially arranged full album gig. This gig had been months in the planning and fans from all over Europe would be travelling to experience this one of style concert. Also some of the Niche Quartet fans that had experienced our playing in entirely different wedding based events were coming along to hear the performance!
It turned out to be an amazing gig with nearly 500 fans filling the venue and creating an energised and buzzing atmosphere right from the start. The Elijah’s debut album ‘I Loved I Hated I Destroyed I Created’ is awash with lush and emotive string sounds, and therefore since July Kimberley from Niche Quartet had been working with the composer and band member Sean Harrison to get the scoring and music perfect for this highly anticipated gig. It went exactly as planned and the both the band, Niche Quartet and the fans were completely absorbed into the music throughout the whole set – a complete success!
Feedback from the fans and the band has been excellent and Niche London Quartet were so glad we could be involved – A DVD is soon to be released of the performance: See The Trailer Here
Within 24hrs Niche – The London String Quartet were heading to the heart of the city to provide wedding reception music at Haberdashers’ Hall. The couple had already been married in a luxury wedding in Barbados and had returned to their hometown London to have their wedding reception. They used Niche Quartet’s complimentary arrangement service to have the wedding music they walked down the aisle played at the beginning and end of the reception.
After much work and rehearsing we arranged Debussy’s enchanting Clair de Lune (famously used in the last scene of Ocean’s 11) and it is now a firm favourite in our classical repertoire! For the remainder of the reception we entertained guests by creating a jovial atmosphere with classical favourites mixed in freely with our modern wedding songs. See what Paul had to say about Niche Quartet and our performance here!
A highly exciting and varied way to spend a weekend for Niche – The London String Quartet!
At the very end of September Niche – The London String Quartet were asked to entertain guests with all our wedding music favourites at the Sassi Holford 2013 Couture Bridal Collection launch! This event was particularly special as it lead to us being nominated for...
For September Niche were back in London and providing events entertainment at some very exciting venues for weddings, launches and parties!
A September London wedding that stood out from the crowd was a late night affair at The Landmark London Hotel. Niche were hired as a String Trio to provide wedding music from 11.30pm onwards for the couple’s first dance, family dancing and the cutting of the cake. Viyan and Mikkel had travelled all the way from Denmark to have their wedding in one of London’s most luxurious venues and they had asked Niche to write and arrange two special songs for their big moment.
The first was a beautiful traditional Danish Bridal Waltz ‘Brudevalsen’ for the couple’s first dance – as tradition dictates as Niche played the lilting and gentle music the couple waltzed round the dance floor surrounded by their guests. As the bridal waltz continued the circle of guests began to clap to the beat and drew closer and closer to the couple and then finally picked them up! This was a new experience for Niche, but it was great to witness and provide the music for a totally different wedding tradition!
The second song that Niche Trio arranged for the wedding was ‘What a Wonderful World’ for the Father, Daughter dance. The soaring melody and flowing cello notes were the perfect accompaniment for this touching and special moment. For the rest of the set and as all the guests joined in dancing we played modern wedding music from our selection of favourite pop songs such as Marry You and Moondance. The final song of the night was to coincide with the cake cutting, and Viyan and Mikkel chose the wedding song favourite At Last to make the first cut into their gorgeous cream, tiered cake.
Throughout the summer Niche – The London String Quartet have been busy travelling here, there and everywhere to play for gorgeous weddings out in the British countryside! The past two August weddings were perfect examples of why it is worth considering travelling out to the sticks to hold your wedding.
On the hottest day of the year Niche were playing wedding music in a beautiful church and wedding venue in Hertfordshire. This wedding was the perfect example of a musical mix with the bride and groom choosing wedding quartet music from our repertoire that was classical, from musicals, jazz based and popular. After they had taken their vows and their first kiss as man and wife they moved to go sign the register – for this we played our unique Beatles Medley which aptly starts with those famous ‘Love, love, love’ chords everyone in the world must recognise! Their aim was to create an atmosphere of joy and triumph through the music – perfectly epitomised by their exit to Handel’s famous Water Music to smiles and cheers.
The weekend just gone we travelled out into the green fields for the Sussex wedding of Chris and Marty based at the regal Newick Park. For the fashionable and stylish wedding this London string quartet played classical music punctuated by the famous Queen of Sheba as Marty arrived by horse-carriage. Niche quartet then relocated indoors to play the grooms’ special request Sweet Disposition – arranged by ourselves for their big entrance. The ceremony was beautiful with personal poems written by friends and small highly personal speeches passed between the happy couple. With their vows complete we played Marry You as they signed the register to make their vows official and then Paradise as they left the room to cheers.
We then moved to play popular music as the drinks reception commenced and the guests enjoyed the delightful fairground on the lawn. It was good to the see the guests enjoying our renditions of Adele and Coldplay as they sang and danced along! It was a perfect wedding and the such a delight to see the happy couple enjoying themselves so much on their unforgettable wedding day.
So despite our name of ‘The London String Quartet‘ we do travel to provide event entertainment and wedding music throughout the South East and further afield! This year we have covered Weddings in Hertfordshire, Weddings in Buckinghamshire, Weddings in Surrey, Weddings in Oxfordshire, Weddings in Berkshire, Weddings in Sussex, Wedding in Hampshire, and of course Weddings in London!
Today the sun shone on the string quartet again as we visited Wimbledon just before the Wimbledon Tennis Championships 2012 begin!
Today the quartet were providing live music entertainment for a private party in London‘s leafy borough. The quartet set up on the decking under a picture-perfect weeping willow and got to work entertaining the guests. We filled our two hour set with 1.5 hrs of delightful classical music and the remaining half hour we filled with songs from our upbeat popular sets. By the end people were dancing and we’d been showered with compliments!
From Bach to The Beatles – through 300 years of music – in just 2 hours!
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It’s the beginning of June and the weather has been shocking so far, but today we got to enjoy the sun and this wedding string quartet were sheltered from the wind in the delightful Great Conservatory at Syon Park!
Today Niche – The London String Quartet played wedding music picked only from our latest Popular repertoire and the Bride and Groom also took advantage of our professional arranging skills by requesting us to create 5 wedding songs specially just for them. For the ceremony the popular song A Thousand Years from the Twilight Saga was picked for the Bride and her gorgeous bridesmaids, all in white, to make their entrance. For the signing of the registers Niche picked the romantic and dreamy Portugese Theme from the film Love Actually to set the perfect wedding atmosphere. As the Bride and Groom left to cheers Niche Quartet played At Last by the late Etta James – A perfect end to a romantic and stylish ceremony.
Then it was straight onto the cactus house to entertain for the wedding reception. We kicked the party off with Marry You, another of the couple’s special requests, and after visiting Adele, Coldplay and other favourites in-between, we finished with the upbeat Don’t Stop Believin’.
Everyone always loves to hear songs played everyday on the radio and TV in an entirely different and new way through our instruments and busy fingers – we can tell by all the beaming smiles we receive! A successful day for Mr & Mrs, guests and Niche String Quartet!
It’s been a busy start to March for Niche – The London String Quartet as we provided gala ball entertainment and released some big news!
For the first weekend we travelled down to leafy Surrey and the beautiful Savil Court Hotel to entertain at the Tasis Gala Ball and Silent Auction. For this the girls were wearing our favourite red dresses and playing a full one and a half hour set. For the first 45 minutes as the guests arrived we kept it sophisticated and relaxed with our classical set.
Once the reception was really on its way (and after a quick break to indulge in a sip of champagne!) we returned to play another set filled with our contemporary songs and favourites. It was the first outing for our Beatles 12 Song Medley which is an arrangement unique to Niche – we saw smiles as the guests recognised strains of their favourite songs across the venue. As the silent auction hotted up and the guests were vying to place the final winning bid we finished our set with the vibrant and exciting Pirates of the Caribbean Soundtrack, from which you can hear extracts from our recording in the player on the left.
As we left many of the guests came over to thank us and tell us how much they appreciated our work – this is always the best part of the evening for Niche, as we love playing, but even more so we love to hear that others have enjoyed it too! A successful double set for Niche and a very successful fundraising Gala Ball for Tasis!
For the second weekend in March we were back to London and the gorgeous venue 8 Northumberland right next to Trafalgar Square. This time we were dressed in black and white ball gowns to play for The Children’s Trust Spring Ball. For 30 minutes we set the ambience with pieces from our classic set list as the guests arrived and mingled downstairs.
Our next half hour set was to take place in the grand ballroom upstairs to accompany the start of dinner and the silent auction. Once again the recognisable melodies of the Beatles and ‘Holding out for a Hero’ had everyone’s toes tapping and we finished with the humorous ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ leaving the guests in high spirits as Phil Tufnell took to the stage. Find out what the host and double World Record Holder Sally Kettle said about Niche – The London String Quartet’s performance here.
We have two more massive news releases to write about but for now we have got to dash; they will be covered in the next blog post. Subscribe on the left to be the first to find out about the next update!
