11. What If The Pianist Gets Sick Or There Is An Emergency? In 30 years, Mr. Boise Queen has never missed any more than one performance and sub contracted with a professional colleague to take his place. There has never been an event where there was a “no show”. He has a networking of hundreds of the finest Chicago Professional musicians as a resource and will always have a “backup” in case of an unforeseen emergency. You will not need to find a replacement or be concerned with compensating the substitute. All details are taken care of by Talent Aid Promotions Entertainment or by Boise Queen personally.

24. Our Wedding Ceremony Is Outside And There Is No Piano. What Do We Do? Your facility must have an electrical outlet outside to accommodate a portable keyboard. Mr. Boise Queen will recommend a keyboardist w/equipment or a violin, harp, flute, etc. if requested. Many facilities have requirements that must be met ~ i.e. Cheney Mansion in Oak Park requires a certain length of green extension cords to be used. Please check with your facility regarding their policies on equipment.

Please Note* Boise Queen will only use a portal keyboard if its use is in conjunction with the following: Back-up a vocalist, part of a live duo, trio or band or using it as a pre-programmed rhythm instrument to accompany himself on a regular acoustic grand piano with bass and percussion tracks; a special feature offered to clientele desiring dancing at their event.

25. How Soon Should We Contract With A Pianist? If you find a vendor that you are confident will provide the best services for you, contract as soon as possible. Musicians often book one or two years in advance. It is a great disappointment to hope your date is “on hold” only to find out it is not available when you are ready to sign. Vendors cannot promise dates without signed contracts. Your date may be available today but that may not be the case tomorrow. Without a signed contract and deposit, your date will not be held for more than five days. Boise Queen never performs or promises a client he will perform for without a deposit and a “signed” contract agreement.

26. Why won’t you be willing to perform solo piano on a portable keyboard?

       There are several very good reasons for this as follows:

(1)    Cost and ease of transport

If a musician is going to use a standalone keyboard to perform gigs within his or her immediate local market then cost and ease of transport might not present that big of a problem. However, if he or her has to transport a portable keyboard out of state or on a long distance venture whereas they might not own their own vehicle and they have to rent a transport to carry it, then the out of pocket expense to do that gig is going to cost them their salary unless the client is willing to pick up the tab.  Keep in mind when a musician brings a keyboard they are also bringing an amplifier to drive the sound through a set of speakers or “floor monitors”.  They are also bringing in connectivity cables, ground fault multi outlets and the cases in which this equipment was transported in.  You cannot get on certain public passenger carriers with all that equipment. There are size and weight and a number of baggage restrictions to contend with.  Those carriers that have the tightest restrictions are the airlines.

Public passenger carriers that will allow transport of instruments like this will impose a hefty fee for each baggage exceeding over the limit in number, size or weight.   Unless a musician has their own vehicle and has to drive himself or pay to have someone of which the cost is picked up by the client then it’s not cost effective to do standalone solo portable keyboard.

Also,please be aware that pricing for a portable keyboard as a standalone solo instrument might potentially be at a higher rate than with an acoustic regular piano thats already in place at the event facility.

 Some customers are surprised at this!   When you consider that transport of some oversized acoustic instruments (eg. upright acoustic bass,drums etc.); especially electronic instruments on many public transport carriers that cannot go onboard as carry-on baggage will be at severe risk of damage due to handling,excessive heat or cold; then you can understand the potential risk involved for a musician to transport such equipment and getting to his destination and finding out only then whether his instrument is still functional enough for his/her performance.  With a keyboard a musician is not just transporting a single item  but everything else of vital necessity to drive the sound out of the instrument so it can be heard. (eg.floor monitors,amplifier, mix board,cables etc.)

Some musicians are able to get around instrument transport problems on long distance travel by renting their instrument at a local instrument rental retail outlet at the point of their travel destination. This may work out favorably and then again it might not.  First, there may not be such a retail rental outlet available within close proximity of the event site to make it cost effective to the client to be willing to pay for both rental and the musician's "out-of-pocket cost to travel to and from the rental site in many local circles.

Secondly, unless a musician is well familiar with the quality of the instruments that the rental outlet has available this might not be such a good idea, especially for electronic driven instruments such as a keyboard.  There has been  plenty of "unpleasant" experiences musicians have had whereas, they've tested the instrument in the store and it worked fine but then they took it to the gig and it didn't work.

One such recent occurence was that a musician rented a portable piano after testing it in the store and then found out that the a.c outlet amperage load in the ballroom where he was supposed to perform was not rated high enough to support enough power to drive either the keyboard nor the amplifier for sound output through the speakers.  He needed a special rated cord on both the keyboard and the amplifier which he did not have.  There were a.c outlets located in other meeting rooms throughout the facility that would work but they were all in use and he did not have an extention cord long enough to reach those outlets anyway.

Fortunately for both client and musician the facility had a regular well tuned upright piano available for rent that the client was trying to avoid having to pay for.

The musician had to take a serious cut in pay in order to accomodate his client on the upright piano. The musician was still stuck with the out-of-pocket rental charges for an instrument that was no longer functional.

(2)    Value in Performance sound quality:

This is usually left up to the individual musician and what the client expects for their guests satisfaction.

There are some clients who are very particular about the performance quality and the visual ambiance that a pianist performing on a regular grand piano or well maintained upright can contribute to their event.

From a pianist’s perspective, the type of repertoire as well as the style in which it is played has a lot to do with it.   As one recent pianist had put it: “If you paid to attend a piano performance having heard a cd of the pianist performing a work on a grand piano that you liked; only to discover he was about to perform that same work “Live” on stage using a standalone keyboard; would you feel you’d be satisfied with what you were about to hear?

Think of this as the standard SA 50.  (SA: Satisfied Audience 50%).

If you’re a musician and you feel that what you are about to perform and the way you perform it is not going to Satisfy at least 50% of your Audience; then you know it’s not going to satisfy you as a musician….then why do it?

        Boise Queen will not accept a personal check as payment .

        The preferred method of payment by most musicians is a “cash

        transaction, however this might not be possible in all cases.

        The next best thing to payment by cash is either a cashier’s check

        or a money order.  Many musicians have been known to have

        encountered some very serious problems with personal checks.

        Even cashier’s checks and money orders have shown to be at

        risk for forgery by criminal artisans who know “How to do it”!

      A prospective client can now be offered to pay by "ALERT PAY"

     if they do not care to reveal sensitive financial information.

    (See the "Alert Pay " logo below and on the musicians price page of this website) 

      For those who wish to pay by debit or credit card, we strongly

    recommend using our online booking resource "Gigmasters".

    They are easily accessible by clicking the orange colored

         If you feel you would like your guests to enjoy the ambience of the

         natural sound of an acoustic piano then it’s always best to select a

         facility for your event that has one available before you start shopping

         for a pianist.

         On the other hand, if this is not possible a good time to contact Boise

         Is about 1-2 months (for most local events)and 3-9 months for out of state events.

         One good thing to keep in mind, Boise’s responsibilities to you as a pianist

         does not begin or end when he sits down to play.  It starts when he

        receives that first telephone call or e-mail confirming his being selected

        to perform your event and that means helping you, if possible; with other

        concerns about your event e.g contract preparation, information gathering,

        generating ideas in helping you to decide what music should be performed

        or even securing the rental of a piano for your event; if you desire.

        These functions require time and expediency to make your event a success.