Pianist hire in Australia: the complete guide

A pianist is the one live music booking where the venue is half the decision. If there is a good piano in the room, hiring someone to play it is the best value music you can buy. If there is not, you are also hiring an instrument, and that changes the conversation.

The prices below come from the pianists listed here. Before you compare them, find out what your venue has in the corner, because the answer moves everything else on this page.

Ring the venue and ask three things: is there a piano, is it tuned, and may a hired player use it. Plenty of hotels and clubs have a grand that nobody has touched in years, and an out of tune piano is worse than no piano at all. A pianist will tell you in one listen whether it is playable.

No piano is not a problem, it is just a different quote. Most professionals own a weighted stage keyboard and a speaker, and will bring both. But somebody has to carry it in, so ask about access. A keyboard up two flights of stairs to a rooftop is a genuine consideration and it belongs in the first email.

Long stretches of background music, mostly. Arrival drinks, a seated lunch, a gallery opening, the hours of a wedding between the ceremony and the speeches. A piano does something no other instrument quite does, which is fill a room completely while asking nothing of the listener.

It also handles the formal moments well. A processional played live, a national anthem, a quiet piece during a memorial. One player, no setup fuss, nothing to soundcheck if there is a real piano, and no risk of a backing track cutting out at the wrong moment.

These are three different players and profiles usually say which. A classical pianist brings repertoire and reads music, which matters if you want a specific piece played properly. A jazz pianist improvises and can stretch or shorten anything on the spot, which is why cocktail hours suit them. A pianist playing recognisable songs as instrumentals gives you familiarity without a vocal competing with conversation.

Ask for a recording in the style you want rather than a general showreel. A player can be superb at one of these and merely fine at another, and the difference is audible to guests even when they could not name what they are hearing.

Sydney has the largest group here, then Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. This is one of the few small act categories where Sydney clearly leads, and the concentration of hotels, ballrooms and function venues with real pianos is the likely reason. Outside those cities the numbers drop away quickly.

Very few pianists on this page show reviews, so do not read a blank rating as a warning. Background players rarely collect written feedback. A recording, a clear reply and a sensible question about your venue tell you more than a star count would.

If the venue has a piano, will you use it, and what do you need checked first? If not, do you bring your own keyboard and amplification, and is that in the price? How long can you play in a stretch? Can you read a specific piece of music if I send it? And how long do you need to set up and get out?

Setup time is the practical one people forget. A player using the house piano can walk in twenty minutes before and start. A player bringing a keyboard, stand, stool and speaker needs a proper window, and your venue coordinator will want to know which it is.