Brandywine Valley Talent Band Blogs

Inspired Emotions Blog

Blends and Odds and Ends

The Blend has become one of BVT’s and Inspired Emotions most popular offerings.  The ability to have multiple pieces moving and working together to show different aspects of a couple’s tastes and visions for their special day is quite appealing to a great many people.  Here are a few that we have done…

On June 4th at Winterthur, we sent out The Christopher Bohn Gypsy Jazz Ensemble and our wonderfully diverse DJ Bob Balan for Bennett Grizzard and Barrett Thornton’s wedding reception.  Christopher and Bob have worked together before and that is always helpful.  Christopher’s group had two guitars, acoustic bass, and violinist Monique Canniere.  They wanted gyspy jazz/swing for their cocktail hour and they got what they wanted in spades.  For Bob, he had to mix obscure 70’s and 80’s rock, alternative, and new wave with dance mixes.  Not an easy task for any DJ especially with an eye for keeping the folks up on the floor.  Bennett said that “a really wonderful time was had by all. Thank you and your collaborators for lending their talents and all of their help. We feel very fortunate to be able to carry the memories of such a great weekend on with us. “  That’s music to our ears.

Anna Resek and Gabriel Chung chose Memorial Day weekend to get married at Aldie Mansion in Doylestown.  Aldie is a venue that is perfect for The Blend.  Three moving parts were on board to man this ship.  For the ceremony, Beth Dzwil, one our wonderful vioinists, and John Arnold, and exceptional classical guitarist, played a prelude, ceremony, and postlude of just the most beautiful classical selections.  As the happy couple and their guests left that area, they were greeted by The Larry McKenna Quartet (Larry plays sax like Stan Getz, only better) playing standards and cool jazz for the cocktail hour.  For a half hour, Bob Balan spun tunes in that vein as the musicians moved into the dining area.  They started again and played romantic jazz throughout dinner.  Bob finished up the rest of the evening by getting the people up to dance.  I checked in with Anna to see how things had gone, and she said, “Thanks Lou. The wedding went wonderfully and everyone loved the music!”

Now for some odds and ends…

Stephen STARR Events is one of our favorite companies to collaborate with.  They have such unique events and allow us to really customize to fit their client’s taste.  On March 12th, Scott Barnes presented one of our excellent classical musicians at the Villa Colina (a private residence owned by a renowned local banker) for a private party.  Charlene Angelini played nothing but Chopin, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and Brahms came to life over the four hours that she played for the hosts and guests.  As you would expect, the food and the music provided the perfect ambience for an evening enjoyed by friends in a beautiful setting.

Inspired Emotions Blog

Ceremonies Designed for You…

Hello from the Inspired Emotions Division at BVT…I know, I know, long time, no read, but we have been tremendously busy.  Because of that we are going to highlight a few different ceremonies that were customized for special days.

Two of our wonderful individual artists on the Inspired Emotions roster were paired for Laura Krakosky’s special day.  Leah Schade, an extraordinary harpist, and Beth Dzwil, a great violinist, were paired for a Catholic wedding mass at St. Isidore’s  in Quakertown.  They mixed classical with liturgically correct hymns in addition to working with cantors from the church.  Laura said, “Leah and Beth did an amazing job! The wedding music was perfect!  Please feel free to use me as a referral, both you and Leah helped me out so much and I would definitely recommend your services going forward."

At The Mendenhall Inn on June 10th, Melissa Faughnan and Geoff Cope were tying the knot.  For their reception, they had a great BVT dance band, Midnight Hour.  They wanted something elegant and almost exclusively classical.  I myself played this wedding personally with my father, Louis Lanza, Jr., longtime member of The Philadelphia Orchestra violin section.  The pieces ranged from the Meditation from Thais to Bach’s Celebrated Aire to the Schubert Ave Maria.  Among the contemporary pieces mixed in were Vangelis’ Hymn, The Prayer, and The O’Neill Brothers’ Canon in F.  Pat Faughnan, the mother of the bride, said that we did a “ lovely job, & sounded wonderful!  I wish I could throw a party like that every couple of years.....one never knows!”

On July 2nd at The Paoli Baptist Church, a Group Therapy  client named Gail Conner  was sending her daughter off to be married.  They had specific tastes and requests.  One was multiple strings with piano mixed in.  The other was everything from classical to traditional Baptist hymns to contemporary secular music.  Beth Dzwil and her trio fit the bill.  The instrumentation was two violins and piano.  In addition to requesting atypical repertoire, they also had to incorporate the bride’s uncle for a few songs.  They were able to seamlessly work him in as well pieces like Simple Gifts from Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, the hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, the Patty Griffin contemporary Christian piece Heavenly Day, and U2’s Beautiful Day.  Not a typical ceremony, but it all turned out beautifully!!!

There are many more coming up, so till next time, so long for now…

Inspired Emotions Blog

Jazz, Swing, Smooth & Hot…

We take pride at BVT, and in particular in The Inspired Emotions Division, of having world class musicians throughout the roster.  Well, none are better than the jazz and commercial musicians that we have available to play all types of events.

On January 11th, Swing Easy played a surprise 10th wedding anniversary for Margie and Kevin Kraft at La Massaria at Bella Vista .  First of all, what a beautiful venue!!!  The co-conspirator, Marianne Durnall had me and a guitarist sing several hours of love songs for her wedding reception (which was just the groom and bride) several years prior.  We had to keep the folks mingling, eating, drinking, and being merry, as well as dancing to our mix of jazz, standards, and reworked contemporary tunes into our style.  Here’s what Marianne said:  “I cannot tell you how many comments I heard about the job you did. Wonderful! People really enjoyed your voice and the band. I will always keep you in mind.”

At The Four Seasons on March 11th of this year, we sent out two groups for The Wills Eye Hospital Society Annual Dinner Dance.  For cocktails, we sent out pianist extraordinaire, Tom Lawton.  He is capable of blending classical and jazz in such unique ways that they become one for most listeners.  For the dinner/dance portion of the evening, we needed a band that could go from big band to Motown to oldies to 80’s without any trouble.  Lavender, fronted by Ellen Lebowitz, was the band that was suggested and selected.  Maureen Holcombe was apprehensive because she had had difficulties finding a band that could please the varied tastes of a crowd ranging in age from 30’s to 80’s.  Maureen reached out to Ellen to say, “Early returns are terrific.   It seems from those I've heard from you were a success.  Thanks.   I won't miss the complaints I always get.   For now, I don't know what the  plans are for next year, but the event is the weekend of February 23-25 if you would like to tentatively put that on your calendar.”  FYI – Lavendar will be playing next year’s event at The Union League.

Bentley Systems was throwing a Be Together Welcome Reception at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on May 24th.  They wanted a smooth jazz band and none is finer than Andrew Neu in the Philly area.  Andrew is nationally known and plays regularly with stars such as Bobby Caldwell, Diane Schuur, and The Philly Pops.  On this particular night, he played for about 1200 people for three hours.  Chrissy Stelutti, Bentley’s Events Planner, had this to say about Andrew:  “It was truly our pleasure having you.  The music was great on Tuesday night.  The perfect entertainment for the welcome reception.  Thank you for all that you did to make the event a success.”
There is more on the books in the coming months, so please stay tuned…