Brass String Chamber Ensemble

Category: Ceremony-only musician

Type: Brass ensemble, String ensemble

Genres: Bollywood or Bhangra

+6 genres

About Brass String Chamber Ensemble

Brass String Chamber Ensemble

Founders/Directors: Trumpet/Violin

Paul and Kris met in 1989 while playing in an orchestra in Wheaton, IL. They started the Brass String Chamber Ensemble in 1990 which quickly became very popular throughout Chicago and the suburbs. They have played over 2000 weddings and special events and have thousands of titles in their combined music library. The BSCE enjoys playing for ceremonies but also cocktail hour and during dinner. They are familiar with all traditional church ceremonies and also happy to play in banquet halls, country clubs, hotels, or even at a lovely home celebration. They are based in Naperville but travel throughout Chicago and the suburbs.

The BSCE is unique due to the wonderful combination of strings and brass - especially their signature ensemble of a string quartet with trumpet(s) which is perfect for all types of celebrations. They offer exciting arrangements covering many genres: classical, sacred, jazz, pop, rock, movie music, Bollywood, and many others. Paul manages most of the day-to-day logistics including musician communication, and Kris manages the library and writes arrangements - and they both love speaking to their clients so they can learn about their wedding day vision and make suggestions for music and musicians. Their motto is: Let Our Music Tell Your Story!

Performance samples

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Services

Services

  • Ceremony microphones and sound
  • Learning new songs
  • Multiple location support
  • Sound system capability audience <300 -
  • Sound system capability audience >300

Musical genres

  • Bollywood or Bhangra
  • Classical
  • Country/Folk
  • Jazz
  • Pop/Top 40s
  • R&B
  • Rock

Event types

  • Cocktail hour
  • Farewell brunch
  • Wedding ceremony
  • Wedding reception
  • Wedding shower

Reviews

Write a review
Rating: 5.0

5.0 out of 5

3 reviews

  • A

    Amber

    Rating: 5
    •Mar 7, 2026

    Best Wedding Ceremony Music Ever

    My husband Chris and I booked BSCE for our wedding ceremony music. Right from the beginning they were responsive, consultative and very flexible. They partnered closely with our officiant and wedding planner to ensure the entire ceremony went off without a hitch…it was very stress free. We had different genres of music from like six different decades and BSCE played them beautifully and transitioned them expertly. We are so happy with them and we received so many compliments from our guests! Thank you for bringing such beautiful music to our special moment!

  • JW

    Jennifer W.

    Rating: 5
    •Jul 24, 2023

    Wonderful and beautiful music

    Paul and Chris are fantastic. Easy to work with, professional and the music is incredible. The talent and knowledge that they have is insurmountable. They played for both are wedding and cocktail hour. They were one of the highlights of our wedding and the vendors I was most eager to work with

  • DK

    David and K.

    Rating: 5
    •Feb 25, 2021

    One of the best decisions we made for our wedding!

    The Brass String Chamber Ensemble (BSCE) are an absolute pleasure to work with and we 100% recommend that you hire them to perform at your wedding! The BSCE played our wedding in October 2019 at St. Mary Catholic Church in Mokena, IL. Our decision to hire them was one of the easiest and best decisions we made during the entire wedding planning process! We discovered the BSCE during a wedding showcase and were extremely impressed with their offerings across the board. The setup we saw during the showcase was a very professional one and the music that we heard matched it perfectly. We knew right away that these musicians were true professionals and that they take their craft very seriously. In addition to the classical music you'd expect to hear at a wedding, we also heard them play a lot of pop music during the showcase as well. We thought this was really cool because it shows that they are willing and able to play some more modern hits. Another big factor that influenced our decision to hire the BSCE was how comfortable we felt talking to them about our ideas and what our vision was. Shoutout to Paul and Kris for being so down-to-earth, friendly, and accommodating during the entire process! Once we gave them the contact information for our music director at the church they were able to work directly with her on all of the details. This was great for us because it was one less thing we would have to worry about coordinating ourselves. Fast forward to October 12, 2019, the day of our wedding - the music was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! The church sounded so full of sound which truly helped to create one of the most memorable and love filled experiences of our lives so far. All of the musicians played in perfect harmony throughout the entire wedding. One especially memorable part of the music during our wedding was the use of the trumpet. To be honest we were kind of on the fence about whether or not we wanted to include the trumpet in the ensemble. However, after going to the BSCE website and listening to their audio excerpts (http://www.thebsce.com/audio.html) we decided that we did want to include the trumpet and we were SO glad that we did! While the organ and strings create an amazing sound all on their own, adding a brass instrument like the trumpet definitely takes it to the next level and makes the music at your wedding especially memorable. My wife and I just celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary on October 12, 2020 and as is tradition we ate our saved slice of wedding cake and re-watched our wedding video. Let me tell you that hearing the music again during the ceremony instantly brought us both back to that very moment at the altar - we both had chills!

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Real wedding inspiration featuring Brass String Chamber Ensemble

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We are most often hired for a wedding ceremony and the cocktail hour, and sometimes dinner as well. We can also play for only the wedding ceremony, or only cocktails. You can mix and match however you like - we're flexible!
If no specific attire is requested, then the men will wear black suits with a white shirt and long tie and the women will wear all black. We are open to requests if you'd like us to wear something different.
Yes - we love adding new songs to our library! First we'll check to see if the song is available for purchase for the ensemble you have selected. If not we will determine if it something that we can arrange for you. Good arrangements (or shipping for existing arrangements) take time so please let us know early on in the process if you have a special request.
We are happy to take music requests from your guests at your wedding - and if we have the music with us that they are requesting we will enjoy playing it for them!
We enjoy playing many styles and genres of music including classical, sacred, jazz, pop, rock, movie music, Bollywood songs and others. Let us know your favorite style!
We do not charge any sales taxes.
We are a husband (trumpet) and wife (violin) team and we specialize in the wonderful combination of string and brass instruments. Kris's string quartet can be hired on its own, the same is true with Paul's brass quintet, but when you put them together in various combinations it's exciting and unique! We write many of our own arrangements which means your music will be unique, too!
In most cases, yes. Let us know what you are looking for and we'll do our best to accommodate your request.
It depends on the number of musicians and the venue, but generally we are on site more than an hour to get things set up. We don't have too much to set up, mostly just the chairs since our musicians bring their own stands, but we use that extra time to chat with your coordinator or whoever will be assisting with ceremony cues, etc.
We do not have a break down fee, and we only charge a travel fee if your wedding is outside the greater Chicagoland area.
Absolutely. Take advantage of our 30 years of experience to suggest what we've seen that works best and sounds best. Our website is very helpful with forms to guide you in selecting your music. We'd be happy to suggest all of your ceremony songs for you to review and you can change as many as you'd like. You don't have to select cocktail or dinner music - just let us know what styles you like.
A string trio is 2 violins and 1 cello, and a string quartet is 2 violins, 1 viola and 1 cello. All of our jazz, pop, rock, movie music, and Bollywood arrangements are written for string quartet because more contemporary music greatly benefits from having 4 musicians to cover the parts that are more commonly played by a band or orchestra. Our string trio library contains mostly baroque selections.
It depends on the trumpeter. :-) I wouldn't recommend asking your neighbor's son who's been playing for 2 years to play at your wedding, but in the hands of a professional a trumpet is majestic, ceremonial and quite lovely. Our most requested processional is Trumpet Voluntary - have a listen on our website and you'll see why it's so popular. Trumpet can also join the strings for cocktails/dinner.

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