Find the right Sitar Player for your wedding, within your budget
No vendors are published in this category right now.
A sitar during the ceremony, the cocktail hour or a mehndi does something recorded music does not: it fills the room without competing with it, and it sounds like the occasion rather than a playlist.
It is a small booking that changes the texture of an event, and it is easy to get slightly wrong in ways that are entirely avoidable.
A sitar is a quiet instrument. In a 300-person hall with people arriving and talking, an unamplified sitar is inaudible past the third row.
Ask what they bring: a pickup and their own small amplifier, or whether they need a feed into the venue's system or the DJ's board. Sort this before the day, because "we'll plug in somewhere" is how a beautiful instrument ends up as background nobody hears.
Sitar with tabla is a different and fuller sound, and it is what most people picture. Solo sitar is more contemplative and works well for a ceremony processional or a quiet arrival.
Decide which you want before asking for a price, since it is two musicians rather than one and the fee reflects that.
Ask what they will play for a processional, whether they can hold and extend a piece if the entrance is late (it will be), and whether they take requests for specific film or classical pieces.
Tell them the running order and the cues. A musician who knows the bride enters after the third phase can land the entrance; one who is watching the door cannot.
No published Canadian figures for wedding sitar performance are specific enough to quote. What sets it: set length, solo or with accompaniment, travel, whether they supply amplification, and how many events they play.
Ask for the fee as a set length plus a rate for extra time, and confirm what arrival time is included. Being on site for two hours to play for forty minutes is normal and should be priced as such rather than discovered.
During the ceremony processional, a cocktail hour, or a mehndi — moments where people are arriving or seated. It is wasted competing with a full room mid-reception, where the volume simply is not there.
Yes, with amplification. A sitar unamplified outdoors is inaudible past a few metres, so confirm who brings the small PA and whether there is power at the location before committing to an outdoor set.
They do different jobs. Shehnai is the traditional auspicious sound for arrivals and processionals; sitar suits a longer, calmer set while guests are seated. Some weddings use both, at different moments.