Ashley Baker and Russell Procopio:
A Contagious Party Event at Greenville County Club!
The Contagious Party Band made its first appearance of the year at Greenville County Club in Wilmington Delaware. Originally part of the “DuPont” estates Greenville County Club provided the perfect ambiance for the wedding of Ashley Baker and Russell Procopio. With a fun and rambunctious introduction song by U2 the couple then shared their first dance to Celine Dion’s “Another Year Has Gone By.” The lovely ladies who front the Contagious Band (KB, and Shake) did an awesome job performing that and the parent dances of ”I Hope You Dance” and “Wind Beneath My Wings”. With hugs and smiles all around it was a preview of the fun for the evening’s event.
The guest really took the band to task and the dance challenge was on. Contagious does this all of the time but Ashley’s and Michael’s guests came to celebrate with the lovely couple and really showed their stuff. Highlighting the evening is some video that I just must see. One is a guest that led the crowd though a rocking version of Sweet Home Alabama and finally one of younger guest of about 10 years old (or so) rocking out and “Hitting” the high notes to Journey’s “ Don’t Stop Believing.” Memories of a life time with family and friends for our blissful couple to start off their journey through life together. The Contagious Band was honored to be the entertainment for the evening’s events and offer our best wishes to Ashley and Russell. Thank you for allowing us to be there when it all began.
Best Regards
Doc
Contagious Party Band
This past weekend the band returned to Rivercrest Golf Club in Phoenixville, PA. It seems we’ve played at Rivercrest so many times just this year that it feels like home to us. It’s truly a beautiful facility, and we loved playing for Mike and Sarah’s reception. Their bridal party entered the room as we played the groove to “Superstition”, and then Sarah & Mike walked in to the chorus of “Gimme Three Steps,” with the crowd hollering and screaming. They chose Michael Buble’s “Everything” for their first dance, and I must say, the band did a great job with that song – our keyboardist, Vince Dimento, is really fantastic and played the piano parts just perfectly.
Great ending to the night – the guests all raised long sparklers out by the pool area at Rivercrest as we gave the bride and groom a sparkler send-off … just an awesome sight. Our best to Mike and Sarah, and our sincere thanks to them for choosing Midnight Hour!
For the third straight year, Jellyroll performed at Riverwinds Amphitheater in West Deptford, NJ. This is a great casual outdoor concert venue and Jellyroll performed for its largest Riverwinds audience to date. Thanks to Eventions Productions for the awesome concert level sound system and to sound engineers, Brian LaToche and Fred Beckel!
Click here for the Riverwinds site and THANKS to Mayor Anna Docimo for having Jellyroll again!!
BVT – 2009
Wow! It is amazing how time has flown and that we are now halfway through the year. BVT is looking forward to the future but I thought I would spend a moment reflecting on the progress that we have made, as well as the great performances that have taken place in the first half of 2009.
The great news is that Brandywine Valley Talent continues to be a leader in the Philadelphia entertainment field. In spite of a challenging economy, our clients understand the value of professional, dependable and overall excellent live entertainment, so our company continues to prosper. For example, since January 1st, BVT was nominated for an ISES Liberty Award and once again won “Best Of The Main Line”.
I am proud to say that BVT has supplied live entertainment at over 240 events this year. Our dance bands have performed at major high profile events. Here is a summary of some of our groups’ accomplishements:
Jellyroll continues to set the standard as the ultimate versatile and high energy dance band. Jellyroll has had the honor of performing at some amazing weddings at the Philadelphia and Delaware area’s most prestigious venues including the Crystal Tea Room, The Rittenhouse, Four Seasons, The Park Hyatt at the Bellevue, Ballroom At The Ben, Cescaphe, The Curtis Center, the Hotel du Pont as well as unique locations including F.U.E.L. and Urban Outfitters. Jellyroll has also helped to raise funds for Children’s Hospital by joining with the World Championship Philadelphia Phillies at the “Cheers To The Champs” event as well as the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation’s Hope Ball, at Wilmington’s Chase Center. Of course, Jellyroll also performed at the Philadelphia Flyer’s Wives Fight For Lives Carnival where BVT once again provided all of the live entertainment at the Wachovia Center.
The Sid Miller Dance Band rocked Philadelphia Auto Show’s Black Tie Gala for over 2,000 guests at the Convention Center’s Grand Hall while helping raise funds for Children’s Hospital Of Philadelphia. The Sid Miller Dance band covered a lot of territory, literally, as they engaged audiences from New England to Alexandria, VA where they performed for the WILD Foundation. Of course, this red hot premium dance band helped make many weddings successful with their dance music.
Midnight Hour was busy performing at the most beautiful Philadelphia weddings as well as being selected to perform at the Annual ISES Liberty Awards event where they kept the dance floor full of Philadelphia event planners and specialists. Midnight Hour is committed to community service and is very proud to have been part of Autism New Jersey’s major fund raising gala which was held in East Brunswick, NJ as well as The American Cancer Society’s gala at the Hyatt Regency Penn’s Landing. Midnight Hour continues to represent BVT well as one of its most in demand dance bands.
Contagious is a super high energy dance band that electrified the crowd at Alex’s Lemonade Stand’s annual “Lemon Ball” where the band donated their time and lent their talents to this great cause. The Lemon Ball was held this past January at the Philadelphia Marriott. Contagious was a regular at the Crystal Tea Room, not only performing at Philadelphia weddings but also for the “Crossing The Finish Line” Philadelphia charity gala. The band also rose to the occasion by making me, as president of BVT, very proud at my Alma Mater, West Chester University, where Contagious performed for 500 guests at WCU’s Annual President Scholarship Gala. I had the rare opportunity to attend an event as a guest dancing all night to one of my favorite bands!
City Rhythm (speaking of one of my favorite bands) continues its long history of successful performances as well as musical creativity. City Rhythm is a great representative of what BVT is all about! City Rhythm is the sophisticated, energetic private event band, performing at weddings from the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia to the Annapolis Marriott. City Rhythm performs regularly for charities including the Jewish Community Center of Atlantic City, Children’s Home Society of NJ and the Elwyn Foundation Gala where they performed at Longwood Gardens. The band also rocked the annual Philadelphia Restaurant Association’s Bartender’s Ball at the Radisson Valley Forge as well as many Philadelphia public concert events held throughout the Spring of 2009.
Strangers continues to develop into a premier Brandywine Valley Talent dance band. In just the past 6 months the band has performed at such interesting venues as Valley Forge Military Academy and the Phoenixville Foundry for amazing weddings. The band is also a regular on the private club scene, performing recently at Waynesborough Country Club, as well as a repeat performance at a member event at Old York Country Club. Strangers is a shooting star on the BVT team.
Deja Groove started the year with a performance at one of our favorite venues, the Hotel du Pont for a terrific wedding where the guests danced all night long. With solid performances such as this and others this year, including another wedding at The Westin Philadelphia and a corporate event at The Union League, Deja Groove is poised to become another of BVT’s most sought after dance bands.
Back2Life exploded onto the Philadelphia event entertainment scene with a performance at The Crystal Tea Room early this year for the Main Line Magazine’s SAVOR event, where they performed for over 800 people. Back2Life is a departure from the large high energy dance band concept that many people recognize us for. With the demand for ‘80s rock, we saw the opportunity to develop this fresh new group, Back2Life, into a polished slick dance band with an emphasis on rock dance music made popular largely in the 1980’s. Now, with the recent addition of a saxophonist the band has become extremely versatile as a 6 piece band. In just the first half of 2009, the band has performed at 23 events at locations including Philadelphia Country Club, the Ritz Carlton, Aronimink Golf Club and the Desmond Hotel.
Stringsations continues to se the standard for excellence, not only in ceremony music, but also for cocktail entertainment. Stringsations provided the live sound track for many weddings already this year at weddings in just about every premier Philadelphia location. Stringsations Wired, BVT’s unique rock violin group is now rehearsed and ready to provide truly unique, (and literally) electrifying performances.
In addition to these exclusive Brandywine Valley Talent groups, we continue to supply the Philadelphia private club, hotel, corporate, social and hospitality markets with all types of quality entertainment. From the Cariibbean Authentics’ performance at Manufacturers Golf Club to our Dueling Pianos at the Desmond Hotel, the first half of this year has been a busy one for all of our entertainers.
As to the future, we will continue to work hard for all of our clients as well as our prospective clients. We will continue to set the standard for excellent showcases at the Waterford Ballroom in Valley Forge, Drexelbrook, the Crowne Plaza Valley Forge as well as other unique locations. Ou staff, and all of our bands are committed to the success of BVT, one event at a time!
A Weekend of Fireworks for Midnight Hour
Happy Fourth of July, everyone! We just logged another full weekend of gigs, fun and special moments with some great people, and we wanted to tell you all about it.
On Saturday July 4th, Midnight Hour performed for newlyweds Seth & Calli Alberts at Appleford Estates in Villanova, PA. Our keyboardist (Vinny Dimento) and guitarist (Gerry “Rooster” Corrado) performed the music for the wedding ceremony on the grounds of Appleford, and it was really beautiful. Later, the bride and groom were announced to “Bittersweet Symphony” under the tent, and shared their first dance to Kenny Chesney’s “Me & You”. It was a marvelous night, topped off by some fireworks that some locals set off around 9:30 … and then the band closed out the night at 10:00 with a full dance floor. Special thanks to that guy who got up with us and performed “Satisfaction” by The Stones … that guy was great. Thanks for having us, Seth & Calli!
On Sunday night July 5th, we performed for another wedding at The Chase Center in Wilmington, DE. Rachel & Hal Ossman were married on site, and once again Vinny performed for their ceremony, preparing special Jewish traditional music that they had requested. Later we performed an extended Hora for their families, including “Hava Nagila”, “Artsa Alinu”, “Ose Shalom”, and “Havenu Shalom Aleicham”. When our music for the Hora ended, the dancing just kept going and the crowd stomped and clapped and sang other traditional songs, having a wonderful time. Later, the bride and groom danced to the song “Amazed” by Lonestar, and the dance floor was full all night long.
We also celebrated the birthday of our own Tom “Tiny” Callan this past week – Tiny is a great guy, and boy does he love birthdays! He made sure everyone knew it was his birthday, and we had lots of fun with him this week.
Also wanted to mention we premiered our new light show this past week, and it looks great – it was kind of like having our own little fireworks show on the 4th of July. We can size it to fit any room and it adds great color and motion when the band is playing. We’re excited about it, and we hope you get to see it some time soon.
Take care,
Pepper & The Midnight Hour Band
In September of 2007, I received a call from Amy Zantzinger, White House Social Secretary, inviting Jellyroll to perform at The White House in the East Room for the 2007 Congressional Ball. The Congressional Ball is arguably the most prestigious gala event held in the United States, and is attended by members of Congress (both parties), Supreme Court Justices as well as many other dignitaries. The Congressional Ball is hosted by the President and First Lady.
On December 3rd, 2007, in the historic East Room, Jellyroll delivered one of its greatest performances at the Congressional Ball. The event was so successful that Jellyroll was invited to perform for a second time on March 29, 2008 for a private event for 400 guests hosted by First Lady Laura Bush.
Here are some official White House photos experience:
From the impeccable Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia service to the high energy, yet elegant sounds of our Philadelphia dance band, Jellyroll, it was truly an event that set the highest standard for exclusive Philadelphia weddings.
Getting to know Lauren and Pete was a true pleasure. Lauren’s parents, Dr. Frank and Lorraine Briglia, wanted the best for Lauren and Pete’s wedding, and therefore recruited the best of the Philadelphia wedding and event professionals. BVT’s own Stringsations supplied the ceremony music at the The Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter & Paul, Tim Sudall of Video One was the videographer, Cliff Mautner was the photographer. Evantine transformed the already beautiful Four Seasons Ballroom into a fairytale setting with the lighting provided by Eventions Productions, while Philadelphia wedding planner, Lynda Barness of I Do Wedding Consulting and the Four Seasons staff, led by Eric Allen, tended to every detail.
Jellyroll was honored to perform continuously on this evening and was even joined on stage by popular New York Saxophonist, Lanny Ward. The energy level was high from beginning to end, with the exception of the meal service. Lauren and Pete entered to Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love” and then danced to Jellyroll’s rendition of “Endless Love”. Jellyroll performed material from Sinatra to Lauren and Pete’s request of “Viva La Vida” by Cold Play. Simply put, I was once again extremely proud of Jellyroll for providing the soundtrack at one of the most elegant, beautiful, high energy weddings that I have ever attended.
Here is an email that Dr. Briglia so thoughfully sent to me after his daughter’s wedding followed by one of Cliff Mautner’s amazing images:
Kurt-
I am sure you hear this often but for Lorraine and I, Jellyroll made our daughter’s wedding a spectatcular event. I truly appreciate your listening to what we wanted for that night, and the high energy created by the muisic was sustained far beyond our expectations. Our guests are still talking to us about the greatness of the band!
Special thanks for making my father-daughter dance most memorable and allowing Lanny Ward, our out-of-town sax, to be with you during some of the sets. We thouroughly enjoyed the entire night dancing, listening and watching everyone having a great time.
Jellyroll is beyond terrific!
FABFrank A. Briglia, M.D.
