My cousin got married last year in Philly, and she hired one of my favorite wedding bands. It was a 10 piece orchestra, with horns, 3 singers and a full rhythm section. They were simply amazing. This band has been voted Best Wedding Band for several years running by The Knot, Wedding Wire and NBC. As a professional wedding entertainer myself I couldn’t help asking my cousin how much she paid. She admitted to paying about $10,000. So then I got to wondering what other traditional wedding entertainment charges to play a reception. I went on to GigMasters, and asked for some quotes to see what some of those bands would charge. Here’s what I found:

I asked for bids for a 5 hour reception in NYC, including cocktail, dinner and dancing. I specified that the ceremony was in a separate room, and that I was expecting 100 guests. I put in a Saturday about 14 months out as my wedding date.

Charisma, a 6 piece band out of Newton, CT responded immediately with a price of $5,500. The Polka Brothers from NYC responded quickly with $3,000 for 4 polka musicians. Alchemy from Carmel, NY wanted $2,800 for 6 performers. Barynya, an 8 piece Russian/Gypsy band asked for $5,500. But that’s not the entire picture.

I asked around to several industry friends of mine that run established wedding bands and who DON’T advertise on GigMasters. They were telling me they charge prices of $10,000 – $14,000 for 7, 8 and 9 piece wedding orchestras. Some of them never found the need to advertise because their calendars were booked out 12-18 months just on word of mouth. Others had started advertising on GigMasters and similar sites, but at some point outgrew those sites. As they became more and more known, and were able to charge more for their Saturday nights, they found GigMasters less useful since they were now competing with bands that were willing to charge significantly less.

While you may get a good show from bands that charge $3,000-$4,000 (I’ve never actually heard the Polka Brothers), the bands that are able to charge $10,000-$14,000 are the ones that have nurtured and grown their reputations with each wedding at which they’ve performed. I’m sure that the brides and grooms that have hired them thought they were worth every penny.

I often receive calls or emails from charities looking for entertainment for their fundraisers. Many times this is accompanied by a request for us to donate our services. While I don’t mind being asked, it’s rare that I can accommodate such requests since I’m a relatively small business and my expenses running a NYC-based business are not cheap.

One thing I do to mitigate the charity’s costs is to auction off song requests. We do the normal song battles and tip wars that are typical to dueling pianos in which the guests can stop and start (and re-stop and re-start) song requests by bidding and outbidding with their accompanying tip money. We’ve made a fair amount of money for our fundraising clients using this mechanism.

The second thing I suggest, which is even more powerful, is for the group to seek corporate sponsors for the entertainment. If the entertainment costs $3,000, sell the entertainment sponsorship for $6,000 which raises $3,000 for your organization right there! With dueling pianos, we’ve had situations where one piano was sponsored by one business, while the second piano was subsidized by another. Each sponsor had their banner on the side of “their” piano, and the entertainers played off each other using the company names. One pianist would say that his side, the TD Bank side of the room could sing louder, and get them to sing. The other pianist would say, oh no, the Columbia Bank side can sing even louder than that. And so it went. We created real value for the sponsors, and they were thrilled to become part of the show.

Another possibility is to offer your perspective entertainment company free advertising or publicity to help defray their costs, in exchange for a discount. I’ve accepted these offers before, but for me to seriously consider such an arrangement, the advertising and publicity has to be legitimately something that would benefit me. Be careful to be clear upfront as to why you’re calling. I’ve had people reach out to me and impersonate a real client, asking for a quote, only to find out after 4 emails and a couple of phone calls later that what they really want is a donation of our time in exchange for something that I don’t want or need. I’d rather just be asked on the first communication so we’re having the right conversation, rather than be led on.

This is a current and comprehensive list of all dueling piano shows currently running in and around New York City as of June 2015.

New York City Dueling Piano Shows:

Bar Nine
807 9th Ave (at W 53rd St), New York, NY 10019
Bar Nine has a regular show every Friday and Saturday night at 9pm. There is no cover to enter, but if you want to reserve a table there is a cover and a drink minimum. Email BAR9ENT@GMAIL.COM

Frames NYC
550 9th Ave (at W 42nd St), New York, NY 10018
This bowling alley hosts Shake Rattle and Roll’s dueling piano show every Monday night from 6pm – 9pm. 212.268.6909

LOOKING TO HIRE DUELING PIANOS FOR YOUR NEXT PARTY? CLICK HERE FOR INFO

The Cellar (underneath GRAN MORSI)
22 Warren St.(btn Broadway & Church Sts.) New York, NY 10007
Another Shake Rattle and Roll bar show, it begins at 10pm every Saturday. Tickets are $20. They sometimes run discount deals on Groupon and Living Social, so check there too. As of this writing, they were offering a deal through Living Social for $19 for 2 tickets.

Ha! Comedy Club: Closed

Webster Hall: Dueling Pianos is no longer here

The Out NYC: Dueling Pianos is no longer here

Tobacco Road: Closed

New Jersey Dueling Piano Shows:

Oh Brian’s On The Green
1300 Raritan Rd, Clark, NJ 07066
(732) 669-9024
Every Saturday night from 9:30-12:30 New York, NY Dueling Pianos (that’s us!) bring in the very best duelers from all over the country to give NJ a rockin’ dueling piano show. You need to reserve early as the show frequently sells out. Call them at 732-669-9024

Long Island Dueling Piano Shows:

The Inn at Long Beach
943 W Beech St, Long Beach, NY 11561
Sundays at 5pm. Call (516) 432-9220 for more information.

Kodiaks: Dueling Pianos is no longer here

Black Forest Brew Haus: Dueling Pianos is no longer here

Shafers: Dueling Pianos is no longer here