One of 2016’s highlights Niche London String Quartet provided music for the Duchess of Cambridge and her entrance to SportsAids 40th Anniversary Charity Event!

The string quartet has been enjoying performing and providing the best quality entertainment for a whole raft of wonderful Summer parties, corporate events, and July has broken a new record for the number of wedding music performances our London musicians have played!

But one particular highlight in Niche Quartet’s busy calendar this year is being asked to play our classical and modern string quartet music for SportsAid’s 40th anniversary event at Kensington Palace hosted by their patron HRH The Duchess of Cambridge.

We were thrilled to hear we had been highly recommended to SportsAid by a previous client of ours and excited to accompany their big event celebrating 40 years of their wonderful charity work. The string quartet provided an ambience of light and energetic music to match the sports displays of some of our country’s newest Olympic athletes and the arrival of famous sports-stars to the front of the palace.

As the guests gathered the string quartet started to play a favourite classic, Vivaldi’s 4 seasons, to accompany the entrance of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge – Experience the big moment with Niche London String Quartet’s live music & watch the video below!

VIDEO: HRH The Duchess of Cambridge arriving at this evening’s 40th anniversary celebration @KensingtonRoyal pic.twitter.com/N5cPUFq1Ue

— SportsAid (@TeamSportsAid) June 9, 2016

A photo posted by Kimi @ Niche String Quartet (@kimi_nichelondonquartet) on Jun 12, 2016 at 5:11am PDT

Niche London String Quartet are looking forward to a busy December of Christmas events and we also have 10 Winter Weddings booked for the 3 weeks leading up to Christmas!

Now the winter nights are drawing in and you are thinking about musical entertainment for your Christmas event or Corporate party we thought we would share some ideas for Christmas event music to help with ideas for your event…

One Day In the Life of a busy Christmas Events Musician!

The Boston Consulting Group hired Niche String Quartet to come in to their offices just off Oxford Street as a big surprise to treat their workers to a morning of fabulous classical music – It was great to see the surprise on everyone’s faces as they entered the building and we kept the music upbeat and light hearted throughout the morning as they enjoyed their celebration of a great year.

BCG’s Sandra wrote to us afterwards saying,

“I just wanted to say a massive ‘thank you’ to you, Antonia, Michael and Gabor for such a wonderful performance on Friday. Everyone I have talked to mentioned your quartet and how beautifully you played. Such a lovely way to start a morning in the office! I sincerely hope we get the opportunity to work with you again in the near future.”

Later that same day we travelled into the city to the Museum of the order of St John to play a mix of Modern Christmas music for Alpha Consulting’s Christmas champagne reception.

After their delicious dinner and speeches we played a 2nd set of Xmas music for their event – this time we were playing Traditional Carols to go with the mulled wine and mince pies and providing our Niche Live Jukebox package guests were encouraged to request their favourite carol and even to sing along – It was huge fun for us and the guests were absolutely thrilled, singing favourites like We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Deck the Halls!

Click play below and you can hear the string quartet play some favourite Christmas tunes!

Niche London String Quartet has been so busy these past 3 months, not only playing for weddings, parties and the hugely exciting NHS Awards Ceremony (More on that below!) but also preparing for a big list of spring and summer booking by writing and rehearsing all the new music requests!

At the end of February Niche – The London String Quartet travelled to the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre to provide the London entertainment for the NHS Awards and the NHS Leadership Academy. For this evening the string quartet were providing our special amplified musical performance for corporate entertainment and were plugged into the ballroom room holding the champagne reception and the gorgeous star filled hall for dinner so the whole venue was filled with music and an atmosphere of anticipation from the very beginning.  

As more than 500 guests filled the venue they stopped to take photos with Niche London Quartet and also to make some special requests. The mood was electric and Niche Quartet kept the energy going all evening with performances of the latest chart hits and classical favourites. Just before the awards ceremony was due to start, as the string quartet’s big finish, Niche played “We are the Champions” and the excited guests filled the room with applause which set the scene perfectly for the award winners to be announced!

******

These past months we have added lots of new modern wedding songs like Bruno Mars ‘Just The Way You Are’, which was written as the special request for Niche String Trio’s performance at Warren House in March. Niche played for 2.5hrs at the intimate and lovely wedding reception on a beautiful sunny day in Surrey. The children and guests were thrilled with the bride’s choice of mainly modern wedding songs with some classical favourites mixed in. By the end of the wedding reception the guests and all the children were dancing away and making requests for their favourite songs to be played. A throughly enjoyable performance for us.

It has been a busy summer for Niche String Quartet and Trio with lots of different corporate clients hiring us to entertain at their exciting corporate events! We are currently looking forward to the Corporate Christmas Entertainment we are providing for those fun Christmas Events in December!

Some performances were at venues with fantastic views such as the Berkley Homes’ One Tower Bridge launch at the top of City Hall where Niche Quartet played 3 hours of classical repertoire to entertain guests as they perused the luxury flat plans and enjoyed the sunset across the river. We had quite a few guests come to us and make requests and it was such a joy to thrill them with their favourite pieces by Mozart and Handel!

After the event Rebecca wrote,

“Dear Kimberley & team,

 Thank you for helping to deliver a beautiful evening last night.  We would certainly book you again if strings were required.  Your music received many compliments and a few request I understand!  Well done to all of you!”

Another wonderful corporate event towards the end of summer was at one of Niche London Trio’s favourite venues, Haberdashers’ Hall. Niche String Trio took over the entertainment for the corporate dinner after Kimberley had provided entertainment as a solo pianist during the reception. Niche played a mix of our upbeat modern and classical favourites to entertain the diners and help them celebrate the amazing milestone of 100 billion transactions in between the speeches. At the end of our performance we received so many compliments and thanks from the guests we were blushing! So lovely to know everyone appreciated and enjoyed our work!

The beginning of Summer was filled with providing entertainment for corporate events for Niche – The London String Quartet. Some of the best were in unforgettable venues with magnificent views of London!

At the beginning of June Niche London Quartet played for events specialists ITA’s Secret Garden Party and 3rd birthday hosted at the grand venue Stationers’ Hall hidden away in the heart of the St Paul’s area. As their recommended supplier of entertainment for all of their 40 fabulous venues across London it was an especially exciting reception hosted out in the private courtyard. The sound of Niche Quartet carried across the luscious expanse perfectly, with our popular music repertoire adding to the excitement and anticipation of the specially invited guests.  We are looking forward to working further at our other ITA venue bookings and with the team once again later this summer!

Later  in summer Niche, as a String Trio this time, travelled to the St Paul’s area again to entertain for a fantastic corporate party on the roof of The Grange Hotel’s Skybar. The view was unforgettable as we entertained guests for 5 hours as the sun set across panoramic views of London city and of course beautiful St Paul’s Cathedral.

For the reception and dinner Niche London String Trio played upbeat and lively classical music to keep the energy of the evening building. Then as the evening moved on after the Charity Auction we sat down to provide our highly unique and fun NICHE LIVE JUKEBOX show.

This is our fun service where we provide the music and guests can come up at any point and request their favourite songs to hear all through the night. The guests were completely engaged and thrilled by this idea, and as an added bonus to the charitable feature of the evening each song request required a donation. By the end of the evening, as St Paul’s struck 11, the guests were absolutely delighted they got to hear exactly what they wanted all night and the large charity bowl was completely full!

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...