About Celeste
Key Features
- Classically trained violinist with over a decade of professional experience
- Performs on both acoustic violin and five-string ‘spirit blue’ Violectra electric violin
- Bespoke backing tracks written and produced by Celeste herself
- Classical, pop, jazz, swing, Latin and an extensive Bollywood repertoire
- Battery-powered PA – up to 4 hours, so no mains electricity needed at your venue
- Ideal for ceremonies, drinks receptions, wedding breakfasts and evening sets
- Custom arrangements of your chosen songs, given reasonable notice
- Leader of the Wigornia String Quartet
- Experienced with weddings, civil partnerships, private parties and corporate events
Worked With
- English Symphony Orchestra
- Welsh Chamber Orchestra
- Wigornia String Quartet – leader
- Channel 4, ‘Come Dine With Me’
- The Four Seasons Hotel, London
- The Waldorf Astoria
- City Hall, Cardiff
- Blackpool Dance Festival
- Help for Heroes
- The Madeleine McCann Foundation
Biography
Celeste is a classically trained violinist with a wonderfully broad musical imagination – a performer who can play a flawless Pachelbel’s Canon as your guests take their seats, then return in the evening with something altogether more electric. As she puts it herself, she plays everything from Bach to Blur and most things in between.
Her training and orchestral background run deep. She has performed with orchestras and ensembles across the UK and abroad, including the English Symphony Orchestra and the Welsh Chamber Orchestra, and she leads the Wigornia String Quartet. Alongside that concert work she has built more than a decade of experience as a solo performer at weddings and private events, with credits including Channel 4’s Come Dine With Me, the Blackpool Dance Festival, Help for Heroes and the Madeleine McCann Foundation, and appearances at venues such as the Four Seasons Hotel London, the Waldorf Astoria and City Hall in Cardiff.
What sets Celeste apart is her electric violin. She plays a five-string ‘spirit blue’ Violectra, handmade in Birmingham by David Bruce Johnson – the same luthier who has built instruments for Nigel Kennedy and Escala. The fifth string gives her the combined range of both violin and viola, and a richer, deeper voice than a standard instrument. She writes and produces her own backing tracks, which means she can build a full, layered sound around a single violin, and can prepare bespoke arrangements of songs that aren’t already in her repertoire.
Practically, she is a joy to book. Her AER amplification runs on battery power for up to four hours, so she can play in a garden, a barn, a ruin or a marquee with no mains electricity anywhere in sight. Her repertoire spans classical and Baroque for ceremonies, jazz and swing standards for drinks and dining, contemporary pop and dance for the evening, and more than forty Bollywood arrangements. Book Celeste through Wedding Violinist UK and you have one musician who can carry the music through your entire day, in whatever style each moment calls for.
