February 26, 2011 - Beaver Creek Chapel

Today we had the opportunity to play for a wedding at the Beaver Creek Chapel.

It was great to see all of the guests and family for this wedding who came from all over the world.

We began our prelude music with contemporary pieces, eventually working our way into the classical genre just before the ceremony.

We began with The Beatles' 'I Want to Hold Your Hand', followed by John Denver's 'Annies Song', Cohen's 'Hallelujah', Ungar's 'Ashokan Farewell', and Titanic movie's love theme, 'My Heart Will Go On'.

We then eased into the classical genre with Puccini's 'O Mio Babino Caro', followed by Beethoven's 'Pathetique', Handel's 'Allegro' and 'Andante' from the Water Music, 'Winter' from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and finished up with Bach's 'Arioso'.

The wedding party entered to Bach's ' Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring' and the mothers then lit the unity candles.

We were very excited to play the bride's processional piece 'I had a Farm in Africa', which was a custom arrangement from the movie, 'Out of Africa'.

After a beautiful ceremony, the couple exited down the aisle to one of our favorite celebratory recessionals, 'La Rejouissance' by Handel. As guests exited and awaited their their shuttles to the reception, we played Clarke's 'Trumpet Voluntary', Santori's 'Con Te Partiro', Coldplay's 'Viva La Vida', the Beatles' 'Here Comes the Sun', and ended with the bride's special request, 'New York, New York'.

Beaver Creek Chapel July 10, 2010

We played for a wedding this evening at the Beaver Creek Chapel.
Honestly, we were so thrilled it was indoors. We've been having rain every afternoon for the month of July and nothing stresses us out more than worrying about what the weather will be like.

 

The wedding was beautiful and Molly, the bride was very involved with the musical selections.

Molly contacted us over a year ago to check our availability for today. When she booked us, she explained that she really wanted to walk down the aisle to Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring". I didn't think it would be a big issue and I began looking.

I learned however that the piece she wanted was from a ballet with 14 or so movements. Molly sent us a recording that she loved and I realized it was the "Simple Gifts" melody which wound through the music.

Long story short, we found several versions of Simple Gifts, recorded them and sent them for her to hear. Unfortunately, they fell short of the mark. Finally, we contacted a fellow musician who does custom arrangements, and she was able to put together an amazing arrangement for us!

As such, tonight we started our prelude with Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" playing the Serenade, Romanza, and Menuetto. From there we went into Vivaldi's "Winter" from the Four Seasons, and just as we were finishing Handel's "Largo", they told us they were ready to start the processional.

Because of the importance of this piece to Molly, everyone entered to "Appalachian Spring/Simple Gifts". It was beautiful and memorable.

As the ceremony ended, we played Handel's "Entrance of the Queen of Sheba" as the recessional and as the guests exited.