Cara-C Pop Violinist

You are welcome- we gave you 2nd hour for free. And gave you free extra 20 min. for the fun, extra Spanish songs.

If you had the budget, we could have brought a sound man who can level each song to tailor to your space. Under the violinist's ears, where she was standing, the mix sounded balanced. Did you want a soundman for $275? You received 2.5 hrs of live music with your bare boned low budget.

We congratulate the couple for their shower. Sweet couple and nice guests. Nice energy. Older guests were bored with your song selection. Older guests requested Spanish songs on the spot and had to use youtube audio for their unusual song requests that were NOT ON YOUR CONTRACT. We obliged.

Good thing that the violinist has perfect pitch and can improvise to foreign songs that are pushed upon her.

The pizz. is in the song, in sections D & E, (breakdown and outro section). Artist Rufus Du Sol and producer programmed E string pizzicato notes for a reason. Our Violinist played the same pizzicato notes as the Rufus Du Sol's record version. If Rufus hired a violinist, he would probably have the same pizz notes played the way it is on his record. To get accused of wrong doing when a musician follows the original Artist's arrangements? Ignorance is bliss. Forgive the child.

The talent buyer picked / asked for 15 random songs, classical, Italian, French and Spanish songs. Violinist played the songs she picked. If she called the songs awful, well, she picked the songs.

Strings do not play over the vocal melody. Strings play when vocalist doesn't sing. If otherwise, strings play 2-3 octaves higher than the lead vocal line with whole or half notes, to stay out of the vocalist's melody range. Strings don't play during the verses. Strings play in chorus, breakdown and outro. If this civilian talent buyer accuses the violinist of not playing, hadn't she realized the instrumental songs that were being provided? Does she even know what an instrumental is? Such ignorance displayed with her review here.

No one needs your/her recommendation. On behalf of all musicians who get blamed, insulted and disrespected on this site, having to deal with ignorant talent buyers ( bypassing agents & managers and their fees), you are/ she is barking up the wrong tree.

We've never had a civilian talent buyer telling our violinist to not play the prepared set list (which she dictated), and play another musician's playlist, DURING a job. She takes the cake on this one. Her orders during the job was a big faux pas. What she wrote here was mean. Musicians are not impervious to hurtful words. Lucky for her, our violinist has perfect pitch and can improvise to unknown songs, finished the job with a smile, holding back her tears. We provided all that she & her wife to

1. On the spot, Elle changed her mind and asked for a different genre. We couldn't use our prepped set list and automation. However, we did provide 1 hr. of bill board charted, most requested 'romantic' songs, even though we were instructed to play 'soft music but latest'. Thank God we have a wide repertoire.

Talent buyers, do not change the performer's set list on the spot. This is an absolute NO-NO. Performers practiced for hours for your job. This is HUGE ignorance & carelessness on the talent buyer's part. Performers are not robots. However, we jumped when she told us to jump. Is she against saying thank you? For us being able to adjust quickly?

2. Cuing and timed play is not hard. This goes smoothly when wedding planners provide ; entrance song name, timing of the entrance, hand/body signal to the musician, photo of the bride. We are not psychic. Elle HAD NOT given us any instructions- written or verbal. NOTHING. Is she against providing instructions? Is it a ridiculous idea that the performer gets some kind of instructions?

3. We also provided extra 15 min. OVER TIME as bonus courtesy. Did she not notice?

4. It takes 10 sec to manually call up the next song on our equipment. Since Elle changed the genre DURING the job, we couldn't use our automation, which only has 3 sec sound pauses.

5. Civilians watch TV & Film. They try to mimic the same production look as the shot & edited media pieces for a few hundred dollars. This is prevalent fantasy civilians try for. We recommend using a wedding planner.

6. We thought she did a good job with her party. She thanked us for providing beautiful, live violin. Then she did a 360 turnaround on this review. This hurt our feelings. We will regard this punch as a freshman effort of a best friend of the bride, trying to make the bride happy.

We offer 15 min complementary within a reasonable distance as a pea

We agree- as we bent over backwards, worked twice as hard, jumping in, on the eleventh hour, as last minute fill in. Even gave her a $400 discount. We provided 3 custom requests, and complementary extra 15 min postlude of Mexican songs. Did she forget this part?

The young bride, as stated, scrambling& desperate, tried to produce her low budget wedding.

We recommend wedding couples to use wedding planners. Planners do their job well. Things go smoothly. We can bill our normal rates. There is no finger pointing afterwards.

As a peace offering, we can offer a complementary 20 min within reasonable distance.

Fellow performers, use your contract for: lighting, electricity, proper shield from excessive cold, hot, wind, rain, moisture, noise, every 15 min breaks, volume levels, safe performance area, overtime, taking social media video, merchandise, hospitality and parking cost. Watch out for pot shots from civilians expecting champagne taste on a beer budget.

Talent buyer wrote: "even though this is above budget - I am desperate - and she seems to be fabulous - I will book her". Buyers go above their budget and complain afterwards. What one sees with our promo package videos costed thousands to produce. If she wanted the exact same staged look & sound, our rate would have been in thousands. Not hundreds.

We gave CONTINUOUS 3 hrs. of background music WITHOUT taking a customary 15 min break every hour. Violinist worked hard continuously.

Lili's words hurt our feelings terribly.

This job was for 3 hrs background music with 8 hrs of road travel. We were NOT booked to put on a sit & watch concert with a stage, lights, PA & sound. Our rate would be 5 times higher for a 3 hr concert. If she wanted to create a dynamic, attention getting performance, why wasn't there a stage? soundman? PA? lights? But placed the violinist under a tree? in the dark?

It was a freezing cold April night with NO HEAT LAMPS or a cup of hot water offered. Inhumane. Violinist put on a white cardigan- she was freezing cold, shivering and shaking. No casual gig is worth catching a cold.

We obeyed the event's white color scheme and wore glittery, bling white skirt and red top. We were not instructed to wear their costumes. Nor did she instruct us for a specific stage wear. If she wanted a specific stage costume worn from our promos, she could have told us. Some event planners provide costume. Some provide PA, if it's crucial to them. She said the space was small, therefore, a small PA was used.

As a peace offering, we offer a complementary 15 min within a reason

We provided FULL 2 hrs of background music from the start time. If we start late, we end late, after putting in full 2 hrs. We DID NOT even take our customary 15 min breaks every hour. We provided their requested songs. We let him use our DJ at a 40 % discounted rate. The DJ also had to drive 3 hrs for this job. For this alone, for getting the DJ, Tommy should have been grateful.

We didn’t complain about adverse work conditions: No electricity, no bathroom, no chair. Ants, spiders and bees swarming at the spot.

Small talk was made about 3 hour traffic - sorry Tommy took that as a complaint. It wasn't a complaint. It was only small talk. We were not instructed to wear a costume. We had his permission for CDs. We don't socialize with guests unless it's music related. Musically, generally, intro, breakdown/bridge and outro (depends) is tacet for the lead. If anyone thinks the lead musician is cheating, by not playing in those sections, out of spite, they can go to hell. Backing tracks have synth string patches- as do all music productions worldwide. His guests were barking up the wrong tree.

We thought Tommy was a nice man, who gave a tip. We liked him. He can call us for a complementary 20 min job, if the job is within 20 min drive.

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The audience was so appreciative of having a pop violinist- something different- out of the ordinary. They loved hearing the sound of the violin, played well. Host & Hostess were so warm & courteous. DJ was super nice. Thank you.

Thank you. You are very welcome. You were also a gracious host. We felt your graciousness and reciprocated with lovely violin music.

Thank you for noticing. It takes one to notice one.

Your event was a success from beginning because you had hired the best vendors/providers. We noticed your caterers and decorators were fantastic. We thank you for including us in your entertainment endeavors.

Most talent buyers don't know the logistics of music production and think anything and everything is possible by one performer/musician. But one has only 2 arms and 2 legs.

CARA can provide vast variety of pop violin repertoire.

Thank you for noticing and giving CARA credit.

She did put in more than usual time for the arrangements and rehearsals. She said you were thoughtful and nice, so she felt good about contributing her time and experience for your service.

The audience also made her feel welcome and appreciated. We could tell by the way they went up to her and thanked here for her performance.

CARA had to pick up the slack for the other player who were not up to par, struggling with playing and sight reading. We had to make the best of it, and pulled it off.