Classical wedding and event music

Our Profile

As classically trained musicians working and living in the Vail Valley, we were thrilled to meet each other in 2005. Since this time, we have played together extensively throughout the Vail Valley. Following are some of our frequent venues:

The Beaver Creek Chapel
The Vilar Center at Beaver Creek
The Vail Interfaith Chapel
The Betty Ford Alpine Gardens
Donovan Pavilion
Larkspur (Golden Peak)
Lazy J. Ranch
The Lodge & Spa at Cordillera

Red Sky Ranch
The Sonnenalp

Splendidos

Spruce Saddle at Beaver Creek

Terra Bistro
Vail Golf Course (Clubhouse/wedding island)
Vail's Memorial Park
Vail's Wedding Deck
The Ritz Carlton in Bachelor Gulch

The Westin Riverfront

Saddleridge Restaurant

Allie's Cabin

The Lodge at Vail

Private residences

While we specialize in wedding ceremonies, we also play for corporate events, private parties, and engagements.

We have extensive musical training, teach music privately, and love to live and play in the mountains!

Outdoor Wedding Tips

While outdoor weddings can be breathtakingly gorgeous, mountain weddings can also be extremely difficult due to the erratic summer weather. Following are a few tips and considerations for an outdoor wedding in the Vail area:

1. July is the rainiest month of the year. Plan on beautiful sunny mornings and afternoon showers. If you survive after 1:00 pm without getting wet - the heavens have smiled upon you. June and August are also iffy regarding afternoon showers, but not to the extent of July.
2. Cover your musicians! Unless you can predict the weather and guarantee no sweltering sun, no music whipping wind, afternoon rain, or hail storms, you should provide covering your musicians. Generally an over-sized umbrella or a pop up tent is sufficient. While thousands of dollars are spent in the creation of a perfect wedding, consider that one of the most focal parts of your wedding involves setting the mood with prelude, marching down the aisle, and the celebration of the union as a couple is presented for the first time. These moments beg for perfection. While the musical costs may be insignificant in comparison with the costs of the reception, dinners etc, consider that for such important life events, you want your musicians to be playing at their best, not worrying about a raindrop ruining their expensive instrument.
3. Make back up plans. While summer outdoor weddings are spectacular in the Vail Valley, make sure that you have a back up plan. If the weather threatens, consider that neither you nor your guests will really want to sit outside in freezing wind or rain for 30-60 minutes.
4. Call it early. If the weather does look threatening, make the call early. If moving the ceremony indoors is an option, make the decision early in the day so that your florist and other wedding service providers aren't scrambling at the last minute to make your venue spectacular. With so many other things to think about, a last minute change of venue can throw off timing, and add undue stress to such a momentous occasion.
5. Mountain top. Many of our clients choose to ride the gondola to the top of Vail Mountain to photograph the wedding party prior to the actual ceremony. While in theory a fantastic idea, be aware that summer storms move in quickly. As such, Vail is very pro-active in keeping their guests safe. If there is any chance of lightning, all access to and from the mountaintop will cease until the storm dissipates. In other words, you may get caught on top of the mountain for several hours.

Best wishes as you plan your upcoming wedding, and may all of your skies be blue!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

October 10, 2009

Today marked our last summer wedding of the 2009 season. Our mountains are capped with snow, the golden leaves of the aspens are preparing to float away in the wind, and the air carries the definite nip of oncoming winter. Although it was beautiful outside today, we were grateful to be inside the Vail Interfaith Chapel and not battling the elements.

(10/10/09 3:20 pm)

While we often play for destination weddings, today we played for a local couple's wedding. One of the exciting aspects of a local wedding lies in the knowledge that we may actually bump into our clients at some future point here in the valley.

We enjoyed this couple's musical selections as they not only chose their ceremony and processional music, but also their prelude and postlude pieces as well.

All of today's pieces were strictly classical and we began our prelude with Bach's Air, Handel's Air and Andante from Water Music, Corelli's Pastorale, Bach's Ave Verum Corpus, and Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze.

The wedding party entered to Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, and the bride entered to Handel's Largo - a gorgeous and not so commonly used processional piece.

The ceremony ended with a recessional from Handel's Allegro from The Water Music, and the wedding party and guests exited to Vivaldi's Spring from the Four Seasons, and Handel's La Rejouissance and Hornpipe.

We were honored to play for this beautiful local's wedding as well as each wedding and event we've played for this summer.

Thank you to all of our clients - we've enjoyed working with each and every one of you, and are looking forward to the 2010 summer wedding season!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Vail Interfaith Chapel

This weekend we once again had an opportunity to play for a wedding at the Vail Interfaith Chapel.

When we arrived, a religious service was still underway and so the wedding was a bit delayed. Here are some of the flowers outside the chapel and some of the wedding party as they wait for the service to end.

(Photograph taken August 15, 2009 at 6:15 pm)

As we initially planned the music for this wedding, it became apparent that our clients wanted to use both classical and contemporary music. While there was some initial concern regarding the transition between the two genres, the pieces we used led into each other and transitioned very nicely.

Our prelude consisted of The Beatles' Yesterday, Ivers' Bygone Days, Cohen's Hallelujah, Webber's All I Ask of You, Presley's Can't Help Falling in Love, and Denver's Annie's Song.

For the processional, the family members entered to Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, the bridal party to Pachebel's Canon, and the bride to Wagner's traditional Wedding March . Finally Bach's Arioso was played for the lighting of the unity candle.

As the ceremony ended, we transitioned back to the contemporary genre as the couple exited the chapel to VivaLaVida by Coldplay, followed by Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles, Just Like Heaven by the Cure, Ungar's Ashokan Farewell by Ungar, and finally Enya's Only Time .

The planning and coordination of this wedding was done by a local business, Sassy Events, and they truly did an amazing job putting the chapel together in such a brief period of time.

It was an honor to play for such a beautiful wedding ~ Congratulations!

Testimonials

*'I'm not sure I ever got to tell you how beautiful your music was. It was incredible for me to hear you play as I waited downstairs, and then coming down the aisle. So many of our friends and family gushed about how perfect your songs and performance were. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!' - Bride

*'You all were amazing! Countless people could not say enough about the music. Thank you for making our special day perfect...' - Bride

*'Everything was great - couldn't be happier!' - Planner Lisa Vorce of 'Oh, How Charming'.

*'I for one, loved the music... Another daughter is getting married...hope we can have you again!' - Pam (Mother of Bride)

*As mother and father of the bride, we were only able to thank one of your quartet for the excellent contribution you made to our daughter's wedding...the pieces were lovely as the guests waited and the river rushed by below...the evening provided a perfect setting for our happy event. You helped make our dream come true of having a beautiful, solemn ceremony...Bob (Hansen), our vocalist, had nothing but glowing comments on your accompaniment...it was a gorgeous memory for all of us. Thank you so much." Pam & Dick (Mother and Father of Bride)

*'The music at the ceremony was beautiful and exactly as I wanted it. VVSQ is very professional. Very easy to plan with you before the wedding and perfectly executed on my wedding day without any worry from me!' - Bride

*'Thank you so much for the beautiful music...everyone loved it...Again, thank you for making the day so special' - Linda (Mother of Bride)

The Vail Valley String Quartet & Trio