What to look for when hiring Toronto Wedding Musicians.
Toronto is a very big city and has a large number of talented artists and musicians across the GTA. Many of these musicians and artists perform regularly at weddings and events either as solo musicians or in bands. Today we are going to be talking about what to look for in a wedding musician to be sure you will be getting a high level of talent, entertainment and professionalism.
The first thing to be sure of is whether the musician/musicians sound great live. You can either go and see them perform at a concert, ask for a prviate showcase at their rehearsal studio or request an un-edited video of a recent live performance.
Once you have confirmed that the musician/musicians can actually play to your liking then you can start diving deeper. One question is whether or not the musician/musicians have a degree in music performance? Most professional wedding musicians in Toronto have bachelors or masters degrees in music performance from either humber college, university of toronto, york university or mohawk college. Having a degree in music usually means that the musicians are competent on their instruments, can read music well, play a variety of musical styles and interact well with other musicians. That being said, many musicians without degrees in music can do all of this well but the piece of paper and minimum 3-4 year minimum commitment in school helps legitimize that.
The next thing on the list is to make sure the musician/musicians have experience playing weddings. Many musicians play live gigs across the city, tour the country and play in 5 different bands but if they haven't played many weddings then they don't really know the deal. Most musicians who have played a large amount of weddings know the ins and outs of the wedding business. For example, they know to usually show up extra early to ensure a proper sound check and leave extra time in case anything goes wrong on the big day. They also should have a repertoire list that is catered towards weddings. They should have a list of classical wedding ceremony songs or a list of jazz/pop music that works well for cocktail hour etc. This list not only ensures that the musician/musicians will choose the appropriate music but will also be able to make recommendations to you if you don't know what specific music you want to hear.
Another thing that the musician/musicians should have is a competent substitute musician in case they get sick or are injured the day of the wedding. Imagine the musician was in a tragic car accident and could not make it for your ceremony? Finding another competent wedding musician day of would be almost impossible and a headache to say the least. Things happen and you have to make the best of a situation so why not plan ahead and have a substitute musician or even a small list of sub musicians? That is one of many reasons why we recommend hiring musicians from a music entertainment company because they usually have a large amount of musicians in their roster that can easily sub in if something came up.
Toronto Jazz Collective is proud to have a large collective of professional musicians that can easily sub in for one another with any of our fabulous in-house bands. Our minimum requirement when hiring our toronto wedding musicians is to have a degree in music performance, a strong reference from another pro, live video and live performance.
The last thing to look at is price. If you want quality it's going to cost you! Expecting to find a fabulous, professional musician for your ceremony for $100 is not going to cut it. Getting a student who lacks experience is also a bad idea that we have seen time and time again. Expect to pay anywhere from $300-$600 for a competent, experienced wedding musician for an hour or two. Usually if you are booking other musical services as well through a music entertainment company then you will recieve some sort of a discount for bundling them together for the big day. TJC offers discounts when bundling any two or more of our services for your wedding. You can check out our list of services and price ranges by clicking on the link Toronto Wedding Music Services.
If you have any questions or comments about hiring wedding musicians in Toronto feel free to write us on facebook, twitter or send us an email at info@torontojazzcollective.com. We are always happy to help and can recommend toronto wedding musicians from our extremely talented roster.
You can also check out our Toronto Wedding Musicians page by clicking on the link.
