Busy Summer... Continued!

Hi Everyone!  I wanted to continue to share the events that we are so honored to be a part of, so far this summer! On June 16, I traveled down to Greenville, South Carolina to be a part of Marie Becer and Trevor Ilse's wedding ceremony.  Marie is my cousin, so I was sooo excited that she asked me to play for her wedding.  The pianist, Andy Welchel, and I performed some classical standards, but also some surprises for the guests!  Marie requested music from Star Wars and Harry Potter!! It was so much fun to incorporate some John Williams into the Prelude!  Here's me during the rehearsal--I think this was taken during "Hedwig's Theme"! 

George Kroner and Stephanie Lidstone's wedding was the same day, only 600 miles away at the lovely Hidden Valley Resort.  George requested a string quartet to perform for their ceremony and cocktail hour.  The ski lodge was the perfect setting for a wedding! 

Next was Briana Tsarnas and Dan Mahon's wedding ceremony at the amazingly beautiful Ashford Estate in Allentown, NJ!  This venue is one of my favorites so far.  Briana requested a violin and cello duet to perform for her wedding, and we performed works by Bach, Pachelbel, Debussy, and Purcell. Here's a picture of the estate: 

And here's a picture of inside of the barn, where the ceremony took place: 

The last event I'd like to share for this post is Valerie Moore and David Melilli's wedding, that took place on July 23rd.  Valerie had such a unique request for me: she asked that I precede her down the aisle while playing her processional, Cannon in D!  I thought that was such a great idea!  We had never done anything like that before, but I'm always open to a new challenge.  It kind of reminded me of the trumpeters that would precede a king or queen in Medieval times!  I was a little scared I would trip and fall while walking down the aisle, so it was a little nerve-wracking.  But don't worry, I didn't :) It went off without a hitch!  

That's all for now! Hope you enjoyed it :)

Busy Summer!

We have been crazy busy with our events this summer, and we couldn't be more excited about it.  In June, we did a record of five events in one weekend, spanning over three different states!!  It was a big milestone for us, and all five events went off without a hitch.  Thanks to our amazing clients and their kind words, we have achieved "Wedding Wire Rated" status on Wedding Wire!! Yayyy!!! :)  "Wedding Wire Rated" status is achieved after a business has received 3 5 star reviews on Wedding Wire.  And we are so excited to have this award!

In June,we had a really exciting opportunity to perform at an event for Sbarro Italian Eatery.(You know that pizza place usually found in mall food courts??) They were doing a fund-raising event in the Exton Mall, and put on a free Italian-themed dinner event for the community.They asked us to provide a violinist to serenade the diners with Italian music. It was so much fun to plan and to pull-off! Thanks Sbarro, your pizza is delicious!!

We also had the pleasure to perform at some of our fantastic clients' weddings this summer. Carisa Sirak and Ryan Griffin's wedding ceremony and cocktail hour took place on June 2nd at 3 PNC Plaza!  It was on a balcony with an AMAZING view of downtown Pittsburgh.  Check out this view!!

Next was Amy Leasure and Sean Ekey's wedding ceremony at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh.  Amy is such a sweetheart and wrote the best review for us. Here is some of what she wrote: "Our violinist was excellent. We had many compliments on how lovely the music was. Our minister even mentioned that out of the hundreds of wedding musicians he had heard she was easily one of the best." Thanks, Amy, we are so flattered!!!

Next was Caitlan Smith and Michael Wilber's wedding ceremony at the University Club on University of Pittsburgh's campus. Caitlan requested a harpist for her ceremony, and said that:"The harpist was very talented (several people commented after the fact about how good she was)". 

So far the summer has been awesome, and I can't wait to share more of our events with you!! More wedding posts to come soon!!

Sharon and John's Wedding!

Last Saturday, April 28th, Miss Musique musicians performed for Sharon Creeley and John Berry's wedding ceremony and cocktail hour at the stunning Sweetwater Farm and Grace Winery.  






The venue was absolutely breathtaking!! The ceremony took place in the vineyard behind a romantic old barn.  Sharon chose a violin and cello duet to perform.  Violin and cello duets have clearly been very popular this season!  They performed works by Bach, Pachelbel and Handel during the ceremony.  They lightened up the mood during the cocktail hour with some ragtime, Broadway hits, and cabaret style tunes. Thanks, David and Rajli!!

Nicole and Casey's Wedding!

Nicole Rizzi and Casey Holderfield tied the knot on Saturday, April 21st at a lovely ceremony in New Covenant Presbyterian Church, Monroeville, PA!  Nicole was such a pleasure to work with, and we were so excited to be a part of her ceremony!! 

Nicole requested a violin and cello duet to serenade her and her wedding party as they walked down the aisle. Nicole chose "Cannon in D" by Pachelbel for the processional and Nicole walked down the aisle to "Marry Me" by Pat Monahan.  It's such a beautiful piece, and a very unique choice! The Unity Candle lighting ceremony was "Yellow" by Coldplay and the recessional was "Trumpet Tune" by Purcell.   


I think the violin and cello duet is absolutely gorgeous!  The two instruments compliment each other SO well, and the repertoire available is endless!!!  Not to mention, it's a wonderfully budget conscious choice: With the violin being a soprano instrument, and the cello being the bass instrument, you get both frequency ranges covered, without the expense of paying for a string quartet!  Beautiful and economical :)


We had so much fun being a part of Nicole and Casey's wedding ceremony and we wish them the best!!  Congrats!!! :)

Cocktails and Connections Party!

Last night, my PR Representative Laura, and I attended The Knot's Cocktails and Connections Party for all of The Knot vendors in the Philadelphia area!  We had a great time and met lots of awesome people who all had amazing businesses.  

The entrance display

The party was at Philadelphia's Front and Palmer event site.  What an awesome place! A former barrel factory turned loft-style event 
space was the perfect location for an edgy cocktail party.   
  The decor was so cool!  That lamp was made out of a bunch of old electronics, pots, pans and even a mailbox!

The Bar!

Laura drinking her salad

They had delicious drinks for us too!  Rose with St. Germain liquor and edible flowers from the Alps!  Yum!! The food was amazing, but I had a cold so I couldn't really enjoy it :/ The salads were served in Martini glasses, what an awesome idea!!

 And of course we didn't miss the dessert tray!  They had every variety of cupcakes; my favorite thing!!

Cupcakes Galore!

Here are the photos of Laura and me testing out the Shutter Booth Vendor! They had all kinds of great props for you to use during the pictures.  What a great idea for a wedding!! (Or even to have in your house?) We had such a great time, and are really looking forward to next year's event!!! 

  

Wedding Season Begins!

Wedding season was kicked off last Sunday, April 1st with the ceremony of Celeste Overmiller and Joseph Gagnon Jr.  It was held at the gorgeous Cairnwood Estate where Celeste chose a violin and cello duo by Miss Musique to serenade her and her wedding party as they walked down the aisle.  Celeste walked down the aisle to Cannon in D, and my favorite part was her choice of the First Movement of Spring from Vivaldi's Four Seasons as her recessional.  It was so appropriate for the beautiful garden wedding on that spring afternoon. 


After the ceremony, the guests and musicians moved inside for the cocktail hour.  The violin and cello lightened the mood with some Beethoven Duets, Hornpipe from Handel's Watermusic, and Amazing Grace.  

It was a beautiful wedding, congrats Celeste and Joseph!!!!

Miss Musique won The Knot Best of Weddings 2012!!

We are proud to announce that Miss Musique is a winner in The Knot Best of Weddings 2012!!  The Knot Best of Weddings 2012 provides a “by brides, for brides” guide to the top wedding professionals across the country, and is a must-have when it comes to selecting the best-of-the-best wedding resources. From New York florists and Seattle bridal salons to DC makeup artists, engaged couples will find detailed feedback on local wedding businesses reviewed by thousands of newlyweds who had great things to say.
It is a very prestigious award, and we are so excited to be a part of the elite wedding professionals from around the country.

As this award is based upon client reviews submitted to The Knot, we received this award largely because of all the nice things former clients have said about us.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to write such nice reviews!  Also, this award definitely wouldn't be possible without the talent and professionalism of the musicians.  They are the real recipients of the award, and deserve most of the credit!  Without the wonderful musicians, there would be no Miss Musique; so thank you to all the musicians--this award is for you!!!

More Pittsburgh Weddings!

This post is a little overdue, but I'd like to write about a fantastic wedding I played for my friends Kelly Burk and Andrew Rowland, who got married on 10/15/2011.  The ceremony was at the lovely Park Presbyterian Church in Beaver, PA.  We had a string quartet serenade Kelly and her dad with Cannon in D as they walked down the isle, and Vivaldi's beautiful 'Largo' from The Four Seasons was played as Kelly and Andy lit their unity candle.  The recessional music was Handel's 'Hornpipe' from The Water Music Suite. Thanks for playing, Melissa, Matt and Mike! 

The ceremony was perfect, and it is obvious that there is so much love between Kelly and Andy.  As always, crying and trying to play was a challenge, but totally worth it ;) Thanks for the honor of having Miss Musique perform at your wedding, Kelly and Andy! 

3 For 3!

This past weekend was our biggest success story so far.  We had THREE events on Saturday!! One of our events was at the GORGEOUS Oakmont Country Club, for the wedding of Cara Spisak and Dan Smiczek.  Our violin and cello duet played a breathtaking ceremony, with "Clair de Lune" as the bride's processional.  It was perfect!  Thanks, Becky and Paula for being fantastic!!


Another fabulous event was a wedding ceremony in beautiful Raccoon Township. We had a string trio performing, and Juan, JJ and Mike were flawless. The groom, Buddy Smeltz, very creatively requested "Yellow" by Coldplay for the recessional, and it was a GREAT idea!  It sounded beautiful and everyone loved it!  Congrats Buddy!


Looking forward to the event next weekend!!  More details to come; stay tuned!

Expansion to Philadelphia!

I'm proud to announce the official expansion of Miss Musique to the Philadelphia area!  Most of the expansion work had to be done in the Miss Musique website.  This meant redoing the SEO so that the website could be recognized in Philly, and adding a bunch of keywords specific to the Philadelphia market.  We also added two pages of SPAM to the website!  I was stunned to learn that this was something the site needed, but apparently it's not for anybody to read, just for the search engines to pick up. So if you see two pages of what looks to be junk information, (hopefully only the spam pages will look like this!) just ignore it and proceed onto the good stuff!

Now that we're located in Philly, I'm looking for more musicians to add to my roster.  Philadelphia is a BIG market that will offer lots of performance opportunities, so if anybody knows a musician who is interested, please send them this way!  Miss Musique will also be embarking on new advertising campaigns for the Eastern side of the state; check back soon for updates!

Moving Forward

Business has been great recently!  Summers are generally more performances than planning, but I'm fortunate in that both have been keeping me really busy.   Most recently, I did a performance for my childhood friend, Katrina Asciolla's (now Katrina Hunt's) wedding.  It was such a beautiful ceremony!  You can see a video of it here: Katrina's Wedding.  I'm in there somewhere in the middle ;)  It was so special to be able to play for a longtime friend, but crying and trying to see music is a challenge!  Congrats Katrina and Tim!!


Things are piling up for the fall, and October is shaping up to be a really busy month for Miss Musique, so book us now! Stay tuned for more information on awesome upcoming events. 

66th Anniversary

I'd like to share my experience from an awesome event I was asked to play last week. I got a call from Les Concierges on a Wednesday afternoon, asking me to play for an anniversary dinner in a couple's apartment on Friday. Of course background dinner music is very standard for me, so I gave them the usual shpeel about pricing, performance practice, dress code, etc. However, upon further investigation into this event, I discovered that I was being asked to be the main attraction for an hour following dinner.  This was a much different situation than I had anticipated.   They were asking me to perform a full SOLO RECITAL, and had requested the Bruch Concerto in G minor!  This presented a problem, since I had already agreed to it, and gave them a standard price--not to mention the event was two days away.   


As it turned out, the anniversary party was for a couple, let's call them John and Joan, who were celebrating their 66th year of marriage.  Their daughter wanted to do something special for them as they were both over 90 years old and couldn't leave their apartment.  Both of them loved classical music, but they didn't have a piano in their apartment, so they needed the performer to be a soloist. John's favorite piece of all time was the Bruch Concerto, and his daughter requested I play it as a surprise for him.


I was in quite a pickle since I had two days to prepare, and solo violin music is REALLY hard!  (Plus, the Bruch Violin Concerto is meant to be performed with orchestral accompaniment!)  And who was I to deny this 90 year old couple of an hour of entertainment with their favorite piece of music?!?  So long story short, I pulled it off.


When I arrived at John and Joan's apartment, they were so surprised and excited to see me there.  I would perform a piece, and then tell them about the significance of the piece to me, and why I chose to perform it for them.  (They were crying after Salut D'Amour!)  I talked to them about my career as a violinist, how I got started, and how I purchased my current instrument.  I could tell how much they were enjoying it! 


The hour actually flew by, and I was having so much fun that I thought I could have gone on for another 3 hours!  When I finished, everyone thanked me for a beautiful performance and asked when I could come back!  Their daughter told me I was the perfect person to play for her parents :)


I honestly felt bad for charging them, because making people that happy should be free!  John and Joan probably won't have a chance to see another live musician like that day, but I was really glad to be able to be a part of such a special occasion!  I have the best job :)

Google Analytics

I would like to use this post to talk about ridiculousity of Google Analytics.  I have found myself mesmerized by this website for an unspeakable amount of time.  For those of you who are as clueless about website design as I am, this website can be completely overwhelming.  It basically allows me to analyze every aspect of my site from the visitor's perspective.  My favorite thing to do is to see how many new people have visited, and what the most popular pages are for that segment.  And I'm really happy to report that the pages I worked on the hardest are usually the most visited!


I can safely say that by all accounts, standpoints and reports, the Miss Musique website is very popular :) 

Onward and Upward

I realize I haven't updated in a while, but that's only because I've been so busy with the day-to-day challenges of running the business!  (Honestly, Excel has been giving me the biggest headache!)  Most days I find myself chained to my computer from 8-5!  That schedule does NOT leave me with enough practice time.  Maybe I'll use my lunch break to practice my scales :) 

So far, I've been having a LOT of fun talking to my clients and helping them plan the perfect music for their events.  It's really fulfilling to hear them say how our music made their event so much more fantastic! Lot's of phone calls to make tomorrow...

Busy!

Wow, running a business is a lot of work.

Success!

So far, Miss Musique has been a complete success.  I've been super busy trying to keep up with work and trying to learn how to use Excel!  I've been accomplishing little milestones like business cards, bank accounts, payment policies etc. and everything has really been coming together.  I foresee that next year at this time I will be hiring!  I've been able to make a few girls really happy so far and that has been the most fulfilling part of the job.  Anywho, you guys can help by spreading the word about Miss Musique to anyone you know!! :)

LAUNCHED

After a lot of blood sweat and tears, my website has finally been launched!  Check it out at http://missmusique.com/ :) There is still a lot to be done, but I'm so happy with the way it turned out. We are still going to add more photos and bits of color here and there so it doesn't look so pasty.  We are also looking into invoicing with Paypal, and sharing music files.  Now I'm getting excited for the really fun part--running the business!

Time Crunch

We're a few days behind schedule and now I'm in a bit of a pickle.  I'm doing an email blast this weekend through The Knot to god-knows-how-many brides, and my website is still not 100%.  It's close; we're at 90%.  But that last 10% involves some REALLY important things!  E.g. a payment function, downloadable sound clip folders and a musician video upload function!  I have faith that it will all come together but with only one day left it's hard to sit back and relax!

The good news is that it's REALLY coming together, and once everything is finished it will be gorgeous.  But then the real work begins...