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!

To see more photos visit https://www.facebook.com/nichelondonquartet

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!

This weekend Niche were out and about in the heart of London playing for Camilla and Gary’s wedding at the grand and instantly recognisable St Pancras Renaissance Hotel. For this wedding we had been hired as a string trio, our two violinists and our cellist, to play for the ceremony and to provide entertainment and modern songs for the drinks reception in the champagne bar.

For her wedding ceremony music Camilla had asked us to play the romantic In My Life by The Beatles to set the mood just before her big arrival – her husband-to-be was absolutely beaming! Then as we were given a nod from the registrar Camilla made her big entrance into the regal gallery to the wedding music favourite Pachelbel’s Canon. Once the couple had said their vows and moved on to sign the register we played the gorgeous One Day Like This by Elbow and also another jubilant and classical wedding favourite The Queen of Sheba. Lovely choices of music from the bride and groom and a perfect example of how modern and classical wedding music can be married (!) together so well. Congratulations Camilla and Gary!

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!

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.

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!