String Trio for wedding in Hever, Kent

The String Quartet were recently hired to play for a wedding at the fantastic venue of Hever Castle near Edenbridge in Kent.

hever_castlevisit-britain2

As there were not a huge number of guests the bride and groom had decided that a string trio would be perfect for the ceremony and drinks reception. We were located by the side of the ceremony room as it was a very open plan part of the castle and this worked really well as we could play as the guests assembled as well as being able to have a good view of the bride as she entered, made her way to the front and got settled. She had chosen a piece that we knew well but in an arrangement that we had not heard before – Scala and Kolacny’s version of U2’s With or Without You:

We were more than happy to add this to our pop arrangements for strings as we knew it would work beautifully for her entrance, creating a really emotional atmosphere.

The other pieces chosen for the ceremony were fairly new music to our repertoire but ones that work nicely, Coldplay Sky Full Of Stars and a favourite uplifting piece for the exit, One Day Like This by Elbow.

For the remainder of the booking we continued with our modern music for string quartet as the guests enjoyed drinks and canapes.

After the date we got a lovely message from the bride, always nice to hear we have added something to a very special day!!

Hi Rachel and co, 

Sorry it's been a while, but just wanted to say thanks 
so much for the beautiful music you played at Hever for us 
on 28th April. 

We had lots of lovely comments about how nice it was to 
sit and listen to you all, and I'm truly gutted I got 
dragged round the grounds in the cold and missed most 
of your set! 

I've attached a couple of nice pics below which were taken. 
Thanks again, 

All the best 

Louise

img_0809 img_0958

 

 

2
0
October 29th, 2016|Ensembles, Events, Pop Music for Strings, Testimonials, Venues, Weddings|

String Trio for a wedding in Groombridge Place

  • setWidth800-Groombridge-pink-flowers
  • wedding-ceremony-venue-groombridge-kent

Premiere String Quartet were recently engaged to provide music for a wedding ceremony and reception in the beautiful surroundings of Groombridge Place, on the border of Kent and East Sussex. We are always pleased to perform at a venue local to us and as some of our members are based in Tunbridge Wells as well as London this venue is ideal for us to perform as a String Quartet, String Trio, String Duo or even a solo violin or cello!

Groombridge Place was voted South East England’s ‘Favourite House’ by Country Life Magazine and is world famous as the setting for the BAFTA award winning movie based on Jane Austen’s classic novel, ‘Pride and Prejudice’, featuring Keira Knightly.

The ceremony itself was held in the amazing Baronial Hall where we performed a selection of classical music for string quartet as the guests assembled.  The bride and groom’s choice of music worked really well for the ceremony, including Pachelbel Canon in D and the Flower Duet from Delibe’s “Lakme” (made famous by the British Airways advert). Often people want something upbeat for the exit but they asked for a more serene piece which worked beautifully – Haydn Serenade Op 3 No 5.

As the guests moved outside for drinks and canapes on the lawn we relocated to underneath the portico to entertain them with a mix of classical and lighter music, overlooking a couple of amazing vintage cars belonging to the relatives of the bride. After the guests returned to the Baronial Hall to continue the day we packed away and prepared for the 10 minute drive home – an unusual but welcome finish to the booking!

 

 

 

 

1
0
October 25th, 2016|Ensembles, Venues, Weddings|

Recording String Section in Kingston, London

The String Quartet were recently asked to work with a producer we know well, Jim Hawkins at his studio near London. We have done several projects with him previously and this was a very special one as he asked to provide a string section on a track for the Missing People Charity, involving singers from across the decades including The Missing People choir, which is made up of families with missing loved ones, Rick Astley, Chesney Hawkes, Nik Kershaw, Carol Decker, Lesley Garrett, Hayley Tamaddon, Jodie Prenger, Debra Stephenson, Kerry Ellis, Balsamo Deighton and G4.

The original song, ‘I Hope’ was inspired by the words of Kevin Gosden whose son Andrew went missing at the age of 14 in 2007 and highlights the heartbreak facing families with missing loved ones, and the often agonising hope of seeing them again.

‘I Hope’ is available to buy now on Itunes, Google Play and Amazon following its release on Friday 20 May ahead of International Missing Children’s Day (25 May) with profits going to the charity Missing People’s ‘Find Every Child’ campaign. An average of 140,000 children go missing in the UK every year and the campaign is aiming to be able to reach every one of them.

As we have done before we used some layering of parts to create a bigger effect, enabling the charity single to get the full sound of a string section using less players. This is a technique which can be used to enable you to get a much richer fuller sound with fewer instumentalists, perhaps recording with a String Quartet.

We have recently finished working on another track for Jim, more details available soon.

If you need strings on your track or album don’t hesitate to contact us.

2
0
October 24th, 2016|About us, Pop Music for Strings, Recording|

String Quartet for Party in Eastbourne

It’s always nice to play some music to add atmosphere to a party – usually we are booked at the beginning of an evening event to prevent any “dead air” as the first guests arrive and create a transition to the later part of the evening with some of our lighter music and pop arrangements for strings. This particular evening was no exception – we were booked as a full string quartet to begin the evening’s entertainment for a 60th birthday party at the  Sovereign Harbour Yacht Club in Eastbourne, East Sussex.

intro-club intro-rss

As we arrived the band were finishing their sound check – allowing us to set up in plenty of time to begin as the first guests arrived. We had been asked to play the full range of our repertoire so began with some well known classical pieces. These included Pachelbel Canon in D, Mozart’s fantastic Divertimenti, and some of our new arrangements of Vivaldi Concertos. Moving through our repertoire we played Tangos, Show Tunes, Gershwin numbers and more, leading to some of our new contemporary songs arranged for string quartet. John Legend, Coldplay, Clean Bandit, Katy Perry, Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams all featured in our set. As the band got ready to play we played a special classical arrangement of Happy Birthday. The party was in full swing as we left – only wishing we could stay and enjoy the fun!

2
0
June 14th, 2016|Birthday Parties, Ensembles, Events, Pop Music for Strings, Venues|

String Duo in Syon Park

We were recently engaged to provide strings for a wedding at Syon House in West London. It is a venue we have played at many times and the Great Hall is fantastic to play in due to the wonderful acoustic (with guests in!).

Great-Hall-Main1

The-Great-Hall-set-for-a-wedding-ceremony-at-Syon-Park-a-unique-wedding-venue-in-Middlesex-near-London-featured-on-the-Gay-Wwedding-Guide

We accompanied the guests’ assembly with some well known music for strings. The Bride had asked for some special Processional music including an arrangement of Carrying You from Laputa – The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, a Ghibli animation with music composed by Joe Hisaishi:

Being a huge fan of Ghibli movies I was only too happy to oblige making an arrangement for strings of this wonderful piece!!

The end of the ceremony in Syon House is always extra special as family and witnesses go into a private room at the back of the hall for the signing of the register, allowing for the bride and groom to make a bigger exit.

Following the ceremony the guests were invited into the gardens for a champagne reception accompanied by the Wedding Strings. We played a mixture of classical music along with our latest contemporary music arranged for strings. The last piece was a special request from the bride for the Groom – the Theme from Game of Thrones! One of our new arrangements of music for strings.

Premiere String Quartet hope to return to Syon House very soon!

4
0
June 9th, 2016|About us, Ensembles, Pop Music for Strings, Venues, Weddings|

String Trio at Mountains, Hildenborough

Premiere String Quartet recently performed for a fantastic wedding ceremony and drinks reception at Mountains Country House in Hildenborough, Kent. It was a relatively local wedding for us as we are based in Tunbridge Wells. Hidden away behind Hildenborough station this is a really stunning venue with a permanent marquee to hold the wedding breakfast. We arrived very early to rehearse some special requests for the ceremony, including The Balcony Scene from Romeo and Juliet by Craig Armstrong which the bride really wanted to walk in to. We have been asked to arrange pieces especially on many occasions and the couple were great film music fans – more about this later!

Following the ceremony we moved through to the bar area as guests milled about both inside and outside but with a lovely acoustic the music carried very well. At this point we moved on to some of our more popular songs for string trio. We have recently updated out repertoire list to include a lot more contemporary string arrangements and could include something for everyone! As the drinks reception due to a close we relocated to the marquee to play some music for the wedding breakfast. We played the guests in and then accompanied the bride and groom’s entrance with All You Need is Love. It was now time to focus on the couple’s requests for Movie Music arranged for Strings including Star Wars, Jurassic Park and some Disney arrangements. It was a really lovely wedding and a chance for us to try out lots of our new pop songs for string quartet mountains@2x2. mountains_country_house_marquee_country_wedding_venue_kent_3

2
0
May 25th, 2016|Ensembles, Events, Pop Music for Strings, Venues, Weddings|

Your Kent Wedding – Wedding of the Year

We were delighted to find out recently that one of our couples from 2015, Lucie and Steve have beaten off hundreds of other entries, for their wedding to be judged as UK Wedding of the year 2015!

Their wedding was held at Lympne Castle in Kent in May last year. Although we were not performing at the ceremony we were ready to entertain the guests when they arrived at the venue for drinks. We then moved to the dining hall for the meal which had experiments, a skeleton and petri dishes galore!

A video available here featuring Premiere String Quartet:

 

1
0
May 9th, 2016|About us, Events, Weddings|

String Quartet in London – Venues

Having recently taken a new booking at Syon House in West London we have been looking back at some of our favourite venues we have played in London. Our smaller ensembles can suit different venues better, for example we played a smaller wedding for only 20 people at the Dorchester Hotel where only a string duo would have been able to fit in the space. Of course if you are having a very large number of guests you may prefer the sound of the string trio or full string quartet for a wedding or corporate event.

Here are some of the venues we have performed at in London:

The Ritz, Piccadilly

The Dorchester, Park Lane

Syon Park, Chiswick

Stationer’s Hall, London

Plaisterer’s Hall, London

Vintner’s Hall, London

Tower Bridge, London

Vinopolis, London Bridge

 

Syon ParkThe RitzThe_Dorchester_Hotel_in_London_Mayfair,_England_United_Kingdom_(4579989922)
1
0
March 28th, 2016|About us, Ensembles, Venues|

String Duo in Kent

On Sunday Premiere String Quartet were booked to provide a String Duo for a special birthday lunch at one of our favourite venues, the Spa Hotel, Tunbridge Wells. A total of 35 people attended this lovely occasion which was held in the Yorke Suite. The string duo provided ample sound for the numbers in attendance and a larger ensemble may have been too much sound for the occasion. We had been asked by the client to provide a mixture of music from across our entire repertoire as there were people of all ages attending so we began with some of our classical arrangements for Viola and Cello including Massenet’s Meditation. As the party moved over for lunch changed to some of our new pop music for strings, concluding with some modern pop arrangements for strings including music by John Legend and Clean Bandit.

  • 20160313_130610
  • Premiere String Quartet Kent
1
0
March 14th, 2016|Birthday Parties, Ensembles, Events|

Pop Songs for String Duo

We have added some more arrangements of pop music for string duo ensemble. Included are the following string arrangements of pop songs –

Eric Clapton “Wonderful Tonight”
Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne “Rather Be”
Coldplay “Clocks”
“Viva la Vida”
Goo Goo Dolls “Iris”
Ellie Goulding “Love Me Like You Do” (from the movie Fifty Shades of Grey)
John Legend “All of Me”
Jason Mraz “I’m Yours”
Muse “Starlight”
Katy Perry “Unconditionally”
Ed Sheeran “Thinking Out Loud”
Sting “Fields of Gold”
FILM SCORE John Williams Jurassic Park Main Titles
FILM SCORE Star Wars Main Titles

 

Check out our videos of the String Duo

Please do have a look at our main site, Premiere String Quartet to think about hiring a string quartet for your wedding, party or corporate event. We have one of the largest collections of repertoire available so can  tailor our setlist to suit your event.

1
0
March 11th, 2016|About us, Corporate Events, Ensembles, Events, Pop Music for Strings, Weddings|