Today we will try to find solution for very common question for people, who want to find a perfect musician (violinist, pianist etc.) for their event, whether it’s wedding, birthday party or some corporative event.
Where to start?
If you have already basic taste in music and common sense I believe you may find a good musician just by using Google search. There are many platforms that work as an intermediator between client (you) and musician. For example I got some gigs from the platform called GigHeaven, but you should understand that these platforms are taking percentage fee for their service and it can be as high as 20%, so expect to be the fee from musician higher, than if you would contact him or her directly.
I believe that nowadays it’s not a problem to find a good musician without any intermediator, just through the social medias like Facebook or Instagram. I will try to teach you now how to do it and what to pay attention.
As I told already in one of my previous post – the good musician should have many recordings online and I will repeat many, not just one, which was just made in studio and superedited, so you can’t tell whether it’s he playing or AI. Actually the most usfeul recording would be from some live performance and totally unedited. Yes, it could be worse sound quality, but at least you know that it’s a real playing.
The website is not cumpolsory to have, but it’s a good bonus, if you can find on the website some biography of the musician and some recordings. Biography itself is very important and the longer and clearer it is, better. If the musician using a lot of empty phrases like “prominent carrer” or “played hundreds of concerts everywhere in the world and received many positive feedbacks from the audience”, you should be careful, because if there are no names of places of where he or she worked or played the concerts it’s mostly means nowhere.
It helps a lot if you can find just by googling name of musician some newspaper articles or some other websites who mention this musician, for example some orchestra, some concert venue, etc. It’s not compulsory to have many, since musician might just start his or her career, but at least it will give you clearer image on what to expect from the musician.
Of course it always helps, if someone could give you a recommendation of musician, then it becomes much easier, but don’t rely just on recommendation, since someone’s taste could be much different from yours. You might want some more sofisticated musician, while someone else maybe feel good with an average musician or vice versa. Since it’s your event first of all, make sure to check as much as possible musician’s recording and be assured that it’s the musician you are looking for.
Conclusion
To conclude everything said above I must say that many people afraid, that their knowledge is not enough to evaluate and choose the right musician, but it’s not, if you want to get a musician to your event it means that you are already into music and just by using your taste and common sense I believe you may find perfect fit for your gig without any special knowledge or specialized website, called otherwise intermediator.
If you want to see example of the biography, you might want to check my own Biography
Also if you are looking for a good violinist, I think my Violinist’s Podcast might also help you.
Check my previous Posts and if you want to hear examples of the good recordings, you can check my Spotify