What's the Idea Behind The Strings & Why Are They A Great Choice For You?

Established in 1999, The Strings were put together specifically with the idea of providing exceptional classical string ensembles for any event and doing it at a price that would stay within the budget while not sacrificing quality. At Professional Entertainment Consultants™, an agency booking local talent for parties and special events since 1983, we knew what it would take to provide our valued clients with the right music for their events. Some of the challenges we had run into in booking top string groups included both budget and quality of performance. Many of the groups had a 2 hour minimum when our clients really needed only an hour at, for instance, a simple wedding ceremony. This would bring the starting price in hundreds of dollars higher than many of our clients may have expected to pay or had budgeted, especially when the smallest group available may be a full quartet. We did not blame the musicians of course since it didn't make any sense for them to come out to a performance and be paid half their normal fee for a very short performance, especially if they were professionals who made their living playing music. It also didn't make sense for us to recommend a non-professional "hobby" or student group, who played part time for fun and would work at a nominal fee. Booking a group simply based on price seemed to often have the result that the quality and experience was lacking. Certainly they would work very hard to do a good job, but they often did not possess the skills or musicianship to play at the level our clients expect and deserve. Our experience over more than 30 years of providing entertainment told us that saving a few hundred dollars on music at such important events as weddings usually was something the clients would later regret. And there are never any "do-overs"allowed. 

Our solution was to put together a team of skilled performers who were committed to providing a service customized to what our clients were looking for. It did not need to be the cheapest service in the area, but it needed to be affordable. We started with trio and quartet prices for an hour that was fair and reasonable to the musicians, but still affordable for the clients, with additional time available at an even better rate, less than half of the rate for the first hour. And we made it so that the groups would be able to pro-rate additional time in as little as half hour increments, rather than a full hour. For repertoire, the group did not need to be able to perform every piece of music under the sun, but it needed to be able to play a wide variety of music that works well for the string group genre from classical to popular. Our musicians needed to be versatile in instrumentation, offering both trio and quartet options to fit the needs of the client with standardized repertoire that could be played with either trio or quartet while still producing a full, rich sound. Our team was made up of highly trained professionals who hold bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees in music performance from some of the top music schools in the United States. We set out to put together a lineup of some of the area's top players who were versatile enough to play in a number of settings and who could do it with both skill and style. 

Our solution became the Phoenix String Quartet, now for over 10 years a popular and affordable choice in string music for almost any event! 

String Quartets, Trios, Duets, Solos, String Octet, String Orchestra, full Philharmonic Symphony Orchestras.