Believe it or not, it is surprisingly easy to find classical musicians. It seems like it must be a tough life for all of these incredibly talented individuals. They train their entire lives to pursue an art, and they have a lots of competition for relatively few jobs. Lets face it, brilliant classical musicians are about as hard to find as quality rock and roll bands. Although a great deal of these musicians make some money playing in concert halls as part of symphonies, most have to go out and find other means of support.

Many must work outside their field, but most of them don't. Music is a passion, a way of life. A classical piano musician might work three or four different jobs at a minimum, first in the orchestra, then as a private piano instructor, than as a session musician helping composers record their tracks, and finally as perhaps a high school or even elementary school band teacher.

Classical musicians do something else quite a bit: they work private parties. It is not at all difficult and reasonably priced to hire classical musicians to entertain yourself and your friends for virtually any event you can think of. We recently had my daughter's graduation from college and hired a classical string quartet to entertain. How is that for class? They were really quite lovely. My daughter Erin has always loved string music, as have the rest of us, and it provided the perfect accompaniment to her evening. The classical musicians even showed their versatility when they played some modern numbers for us to dance to. It was very enjoyable.

Of course, we knew those particular classical musicians through a friend of the family. They actually had grown up with my daughter, although back in those days they didn't really know each other that well. That string quartet actually formed from a rival clique of girls from my daughters middle school. As you might imagine, or as the stereotype has it, in those days, they were kind of bookish and geeky, not at all concerned with what others thought of it to the degree that their burgers were, like the friends of Erin, but who would have known that they would have grown up to do something so wonderful. As classical musicians they furnished a wonderful ambiance for our party, and stayed tactfully in the background. Really, for such socially graceless girls, they scarcely disturbed anybody. I am of course being sarcastic because the truth is, they were quite lovely.

I am really glad that we knew those classical musicians because it was a truly wonderful treat poor Erin and her guests. I mean, how do you know that they are any good, and not just out to make a buck as entertainers? It is really best to hire classical musicians who you know or who you can get a recommendation for.