FAQs

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Wherever you want us to be! We are based in the North West, which is where most of our bookings take place. Travel is included within 50 miles of Manchester City Centre, and after this is charged at 45p per mile. 

We also have a base in London. For London events, travel is included within the M25. 

We all have passports and are extremely happy to travel abroad should you wish.

The string quartet is our most popular booking, and has 4 players: 2 violins, a viola and a cello. The trio has 3 players: a violin, viola and a cello and is a good compromise for a great sound but at a slightly lower cost. You can hear the difference on our YouTube Channel. For lower budget events we recommend our duo: a violinist and a cellist. Occasionally we have requests for a larger ensemble – this is also easily achieved, just get in touch!

Please contact us for our current rates and for an individual quote. As a guide, duo prices start from £399, trio from £499, quartet from £599.

We tend to wear either black formalwear or smart colourful (wedding guest attire), however you will have the chance to request an alternative on the music requests form if you wish. We will try to accommodate all requests (within reason!)

Of course! You are welcome to request anything already on our repertoire list which we will happily play for you. If your favourite song isn’t already on our repertoire list, we will arrange it for you for a small £30 fee which includes the writing and rehearsal time. Please note we need at least 6 weeks notice to be able to do this!

We are very low maintenance – just armless chairs, enough light to read in and some refreshments (a glass of water is fine!) It is entirely your choice whether you want to provide any food for us, however for longer bookings (over 2.5 hours) this would be much appreciated!

It depends. We are happy to discuss this possibility, however, due to the value of our instruments they cannot be exposed to direct sunlight, wind, rain or temperature extremes. We would need either a shady area or an adequate shelter (minimum size 3×3 metres), although unfortunately in the event of rain, we will be unable to play outside even with the shelter. Athena Strings will do everything possible to meet your request, however the decision of the group on the day is final.

We regret that the £150 booking fee is non-refundable in all circumstances. Any cancellations 8 weeks or less before the event will result in half of the total fee being due, and any cancellations 4 weeks or less before the event will result in the full fee (minus any travel) being due.

Firstly, we would like to stress that this has never happened. In the extremely unlikely event that we can’t make your event (such as severe weather conditions which make it impossible or too dangerous to travel) we would give you as much notice as we possibly could after doing everything in our power to get to you. In this situation you would not have to pay any of the agreed fee and the deposit would also be refunded to you. 

We cannot guarantee that it will be the musicians on the website who perform at your event – this is because all of our musicians are of the highest quality and have extremely busy lives performing with many professional orchestras throughout the UK. We are in the fortunate position of being able to call on a huge pool of exceptional professional musicians to perform. This is the way that all string quartets work – in fact, we all regularly perform with other string quartets too! 

Yes. We have Public Liability Insurance of up to £10 million.

Of course! You can also hear us on our media page, where we have recently uploaded some new videos!