What Am I Paying For?

People spend thousands of dollars renting halls for their ceremony and reception. Consider the cost of groomsmens' tuxedos and bridesmaids' dresses, not to mention the wedding gown itself! Several hundred into the thousands of dollars are spent on flowers. Other pricey items include a wedding coordinator, DJ, limousine and photographer. No wonder the average cost for a wedding in this country is over $25,000! (ref: costofwedding.com*)

So is it a lot to pay an organist $300 to play for your wedding?

Everyone knows you don't just pay a doctor for services rendered, but indirectly for his or her many hard years of medical school and internship. In a similar way, you pay live musicians for all the work it took to reach their level of skill. When you hire a classically trained organist such as myself, you get my expertise derived from decades of discipline and experience.

Just briefly consider what it took to gain this ability:

v   Piano lessons from the age of 5 to 17

v   College tuition to study as a music major--

w    5 years undergraduate school (175 semester hours)

w    3 years grad school (while working full-time)

w    All 8 years with private organ lessons

v   Music books purchased over a span of 30 years

v   Countless hours of continuing practice to maintain skills

I wouldn't even try to put a dollar figure on all this. But I do know it was—and still is—a lot of work requiring time and energy. When I play for your ceremony or reception, I'm not casually waltzing in and having an easy time dashing off some tunes. It's highly skilled, technically demanding work! If that's not worth a few hundred bucks, I don't know what is.

The organ is a complex machine. It takes years to learn how to operate. The player must attain competence to properly handle multiple keyboards and a pedalboard, plus dozens of switches, buttons, tabs, knobs, toe pistons and expression pedals. And then this skill must be applied to the interpretation and performance of organ literature. Just look at this instrument...would YOU want to try to perform for an audience without the kind of training I've had?