Event & Wedding Performance Solo Violin, Duos, Trios, Ensembles
Besides performing in concert, violinist/violist Laurel Thomsen enjoys helping make the special moments of her client's lives even more memorable and unique. Since 1998, she and her colleagues have provided sweet, soulful, and sassy music for events and venues around her home base on the California Central Coast (Monterey, Santa Cruz, Big Sur, etc.) and the San Francisco Bay Area, including weddings, cocktail hours and receptions, marriage proposals, memorials, art gallery openings, parties, corporate or holiday/themed events, and house concerts.
Laurel's event repertoire features diverse genres and can be performed on solo violin or accompanied by a variety of duo, trio, or ensemble configurations. We look forward to helping make your event a success!
Laurel's event repertoire features diverse genres and can be performed on solo violin or accompanied by a variety of duo, trio, or ensemble configurations. We look forward to helping make your event a success!
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With choices ranging from Classical, Pop, Rock and R&B, to Jazz, Latin, Country, Bluegrass, Celtic, and Folk, Laurel prides herself in selecting music to fit the atmosphere of an event, moment to moment.
However, beyond the setlist and the performance are other elements that help make hosting live music a success. Performing professionally since she was a teenager, Laurel Thomsen creates a focal point of not only beautiful music, but of professionalism and poise, marrying her decades of performance experience with her sweet, intuitive, and accommodating personality. Clients and promoters can rest assured that they are in good hands!
However, beyond the setlist and the performance are other elements that help make hosting live music a success. Performing professionally since she was a teenager, Laurel Thomsen creates a focal point of not only beautiful music, but of professionalism and poise, marrying her decades of performance experience with her sweet, intuitive, and accommodating personality. Clients and promoters can rest assured that they are in good hands!
Choosing Ensemble Type
It’s nice to have options! When deciding upon the instrumentation of a new song or piece, songwriters and composers consider the style of the music they’re writing in, the inherent sound of each instrument, the roles each instrument typically plays within an ensemble, and the playability of a part on a given instrument. Along with considerations like venue and guest list size, budget, event length, and whether or not the group will be acoustic or amplified, it’s helpful to think like a composer when booking a musical act. A violinist can perform solo or be accompanied by a range of instruments, however, not all songs will sound as rich or convincing with every type of ensemble.
Rather than book the ensemble and choose the music later, Laurel prefers that clients identify at least a few key songs or the genre they wish to feature at the start of the booking process. From there we’re able to arrange the instrumentation that will be best suited to make your favorite songs come to life.
Please click a topic to learn more.
Choosing Music
Many clients identify a genre or range of genres, an era of music, or a feel they wish to convey at their event, and beyond that we work our magic. If clients want to make their own music selections, Laurel's event repertoire page lists popular event and wedding music currently available. If you don't see a piece you'd like to include at your event, with enough notice most any song can be learned, though an extra fee may apply. If you aren't sure where to start, Laurel is happy to help with any part of the music selection process.For weddings and other personal occasions such as marriage proposals, memorials, and birthday parties, there are no set rules for the selection of music. Whether we choose traditional Classical music, contemporary Pop, or something strikingly unique, most important is how the music will set the mood for your special occasion.
For a truly exceptional experience, clients booking Laurel as a solo violinist, her violin-guitar duo, or her violin-guitar-double bass trio, Laurel and her colleagues are also available to compose an original instrumental song in the genre of your choice for your event. Please contact Laurel for more details, samples of our work, and a quote, and allow at least three months lead time to write and prepare the piece.
Outdoor Event Considerations
Weather by the coast is always changing. For as many beautiful locations as we have for events and weddings around the California Central Coast, from the beaches, wineries, and private estates of Monterey, Carmel, and Big Sur, to the ocean view terraces and redwood groves of Santa Cruz, to San Jose's Rose Garden and San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, there are just as many weather patterns.Please be aware that stringed instruments are made of fine wood and may be ruined if exposed to extreme weather conditions; this includes precipitation, hot sun, and cold temperatures. Windy conditions also make it hard to keep the bow on the strings and the sheet music on the stand!
For outdoor events we require a shaded performance space (canopy, umbrella, tree, overhang, etc.) to protect the instruments from sun damage and/or drizzle, and we reserve the right to cancel services if an indoor location is not possible in the event of inclement weather.
Laurel ThomsenViolin, Viola, Vocals
Performance, Instruction, Recording
Based in Santa Cruz, California
"After the Fire" - released January 21, 2022!
We began recording this album in late July 2020, under California’s Covid–19 stay-at-home order, in Dan’s Bonny Doon home studio, The Shed. We were wrapping up by mid-August, but then a heatwave and extremely unusual lightning storm sparked a fast-moving forest fire. Completed after our evacuation to the safe haven of a friend’s home, After the Fire marks the end of an era and a fresh start; Dan’s little studio burned the morning after he’d rescued the rough tracks, studio equipment, and a range of instruments we play, yet rarely have the space to bring with us on the road. Highlighting them on this album helped us feel the joy of performing again and to know that despite the setbacks of the past year, our music will thrive in new ways.
Each song portrays a facet of the journey from setback to reclaimed hope - finding faith in the possibility of LOVE in “Make Me Come Alive,” HOME in “Beale Street,” COMMUNITY in “Together Again” and “Money Shouldn’t Talk That Strong,” and one’s own STRENGTH and FORTITUDE in “If A Wave” and “Hey, It’ll Be OK.”
Each song portrays a facet of the journey from setback to reclaimed hope - finding faith in the possibility of LOVE in “Make Me Come Alive,” HOME in “Beale Street,” COMMUNITY in “Together Again” and “Money Shouldn’t Talk That Strong,” and one’s own STRENGTH and FORTITUDE in “If A Wave” and “Hey, It’ll Be OK.”