SF Conservatory of Music - Music To Go!

We got a violinist from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. They have a program called Music to Go! in which current students perform for your occasion. Just because they are students does not mean they are mediocre. To get into SFCM, you have to be top notched. Since Fogarty had a single instrument musician requirement for a lawn ceremony, we chose a violinist. I only communicated with him through email and phone. On the wedding day, I didn't even meet him but only heard him play. It sounded great to me. He had a list of suggested songs. I chose 2 songs not on his repetoire but he still played it.

I think going through the Music to Go! program is very affordable. Their fee is $90 per musician, $30 booking fee, and travel fee depending on zone. Compare to other professional violinist, this is a great deal. For us, the ceremony needed some type of music but it wasn't the most important thing so we didn't want to pay hundreds of dollars for a short service.

Paid $140 for 1 hour

We found Lindsey Huff through the conservatory. She was a pleasure to work with. We met with her at the site, she tried the piano and played several selections. Within an hour, we had all the pieces picked out. She’s very sweet and easy to work with.

I was a little worried about them since communication wasn't so great,but they turned out to be great. The music at the ceremony was perfect. Well coordinated and played.

Our officiant broke up with his girlfriend, the harpist, so we had to look for a ceremony musician. Thanks, buddy! Anyway, we looked into getting an organist but I just didn't like how it sounded. We hired a pianist from the SF Music to Go program. Very easy and inexpensive. $150 for 1- 1/2 hours. ( 7.06)
Natsumi was our pianist and she's the sweetest girl. She was extremely patient in helping us select our ceremony music which we had no idea about. She played wonderfully and we gave her a generous tip. SF Music to Go is the way to go for an affordable yet quality music. ( 09.06)

What a disappointment! We hired the SF Conservatory for our June wedding in Healdsburg. Unfortunately for us, we did not acutally get to have the musicians we hired play on our wedding day! The violinist and guitar player showed up as planned to play. Then, about 10 minutes before the ceremony was set to begin (I am not exaggerating the time frame in the slightest!!) we were told they would be unable to perform due to the hot temperatures. They said the heat would hurt their instruments and they could not play over "78 degrees" and then promptly left. Luckily for us,our DJ Stefano from BIG FUN DJS saved the day! He managed to set up ceremony music and speakers in lightning time for our ceremony. whew!

Now, I am a reasonable person,and we were in fact having a heat wave and it was incredibly hot that day,so I don't discount it would have been uncomfortable. But, I do have a problem with being told only minutes before my wedding that suddenly one of my vendors is unable to perform as promised. Especially since the heat wave had been going on for about a WEEK at that point and not once did I have any idea that the weather would affect their ability to play. I would have appreciated a phone call earlier in the week when they saw the weather was not going to be mild or, at the very least earlier that day! Even a few hours ahead of time would have been better, so we could have made alternate arrangements. AND, when we booked their services, it would have been nice to have the weather conditions explained to us. Especially since--as anyone who lives in the bay area knows-- the Wine Country is HOT most of the summer! And DEFINITELY reaches temperatures above 78 degrees most days. The average temperature for Healdsburg is 85 on a June day. I recently attended a wedding this past summer in Napa with temperatures in the 80's (even reaching the 90's for part of the day), and wouldn't you guess it?-- they had musicians playing happily for the ceremony.

My husband and I hired a string trio from Music to go! for our wedding in January 2009.
I was not concerned with the level of their performance considering they all go to music school, but they turned out even better than I had expected! I talked to the group leader on the phone and he was very friendly. (I did not have time to say Hello to him and other members on the day of the wedding though.. sad!)

Musicians can be very costly, but the rate at Music to go! was very very reasonable. My friend who is getting married this month (Feb 2009) decided to hire them, too. Highly recommended!

We hired a trio through Music To Go! and loved them! Our contact was very easy to work with and was available to answer any questions we had.

They sounded great on the day of the wedding and were able to play all of the songs we requested. They're super cheap too!