FAQ
Questions we are asked before every booking
If your question is not here, email us and we will answer. contact@b-rdv.com
General
Three weeks before the date is a good guide. If the players we need happen to be free, much shorter notice can work, so do ask even at short notice and we will check availability the same day.
It depends on the number of players, the playing time, the travel and the rehearsal. Tell us the kind of occasion and roughly its scale, and we will give you a range first, then propose what is possible within it.
Making that choice is our job. Tell us what the occasion is for, where it is and how many guests there will be, and we will compare two or three suitable ensembles with their budgets.
No. We can use an ensemble that needs no piano, such as a string quartet, or include hire and tuning of an instrument suited to the space.
Yes. Costs vary with travel time and whether an overnight stay is needed, so give us the location and the quotation will include it.
Register your instrument, where you are based and a link to your playing on the musicians page. We will be in touch when a programme matches. There is no fee and no exclusivity.
Corporate and brand events
About this occasion →For a reception of around fifty guests, a piano trio or string quartet is the usual choice. Above two hundred guests, or where there is a proper stage, a piano quintet or larger carries the room better.
Background music during a reception is typically 30–60 minutes split across two or three sets. A performance that is the centre of attention is usually 20–40 minutes in one block. Send us the running order and we will place the music against it.
Tell us what you need and the proposal will include sound, lighting and staging. Acoustic music behaves differently in every room, so we visit once the venue is fixed and design from there.
State and public ceremonies
About this occasion →At least three weeks before the date. Even before the order of proceedings is fixed, the date, venue and expected attendance are enough for us to set out the ensemble and a budget range.
Yes. We work with private contracts, tenders, supplier registration and tax invoicing as required by public bodies. Send us your forms and we will prepare the quotation and proposal in that format.
Yes. Music before the opening, between items and as guests leave can all be arranged as separate short sets against the running order. Share the schedule and we will build the cue sheet with you.
Arts festivals
About this occasion →Yes. Galleries behave nothing like concert halls, in both acoustics and circulation, so we look at how the works are hung and how visitors move before deciding where to play and with what forces. Where a piano cannot be brought in, we move to strings.
This is the part we care most about. Give us the theme, the artist and the period and we will build the programme around it, with short spoken links between work and music if you want them.
VIP and private occasions
About this occasion →Yes. In a small room the quality of the playing matters more, not less. We would suggest a duo or trio and plan the seating around the distance between the players and the guests.
Privacy is the default. Ask in advance and we take no photographs or video and use nothing afterwards; confidentiality can be written into the contract.
Lecture concerts
About this occasion →Most often the artistic director. Depending on the occasion we also bring in a specialist speaker or professional host.
That is the most common case. Rather than playing a work straight through, we play a short phrase, explain it, then perform the piece — which keeps first-time listeners with us to the end.