Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Weiss.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve been a musician since I was a kid – first trying out piano (didn’t stick), then guitar (initially didn’t stick), and finally, in sixth grade, I was handed a bassoon by my middle school band director and was in awe with the instrument. Bassoon is a weird instrument – not too many people play it, so it is incredibly unique, but also the tone and sounds of the bassoon can range from adding humor into a musical score to beautiful soaring passages that add to the tone of a symphony or ensemble.
Bassoon routinely fits in with wind sections of symphony orchestras, wind bands, pit orchestra for stage productions, and even in some more pop and jazz groups where the musicians are trying something a bit different or unique, and I love performing in all of those groups. In high school, I was introduced to a small ensemble setting of the woodwind quintet, which incorporates clarinet, flute, oboe, French horn, and bassoon, and started performing at concerts and competitions. The level of skill necessary to perform at a high level in such a small ensemble and be able to really get to know the other performers’ habits and strengths is both fun and challenging. You don’t have a huge orchestra to hide in; each instrument is front and center, and each part is a solo part.
I continued with bassoon through college, although I was not a music major. Moving from Texas to California, I attended California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo and studied City and Regional Planning, which was a great experience. I still performed locally in university and symphony groups and had a woodwind quintet that performed at festivals around the Central Coast. It was during this time that I had the thought of utilizing a wind quintet to perform more at public and private functions, and I started working on building a library of really fun music that could connect to audiences of all ages and backgrounds beyond the traditional classical music we had been performing.
I moved to San Diego in late 2005 and began playing with a number of local symphonic groups, a couple of opera gigs here and there, a pit orchestra for a stage production, etc., but I still loved the idea of doing more with a wind quintet and wanted to create more opportunities for making my own musical schedule. In 2014, with a group of other like-minded musicians who I’d met performing around town, we started a group and called ourselves the Left Coast Quintet, referring to being on the left-hand side of the US when you look at a map (and since the name “West Coast Quintet” was already taken at the time). Over the past 10 years, we’ve had a few different players leave or join the group, but the premise is still the same – perform fun music at unique venues for celebrations and other life events.
In the almost 10 years the group has been together, we have been hired to perform at corporate meetings and conferences, holiday events, wedding celebrations, birthday parties, memorial services, and many civic functions throughout San Diego. Our library has grown to over 700 arrangements of music that cover movie and TV show themes, Broadway classics, jazz standards, pop covers, European and South American-influenced music, and really much more – we enjoy exploring new styles. Besides offering our wind quintet, we also sometimes perform as a wind trio or a duet depending on the size of the venues we are going to or if our clients have a limited budget but still want the class and ambiance of a live ensemble.
For the future, we hope to continue this trend of incorporating our wind quintet into events all over San Diego and Southern California. It has been a challenge since many people only think of a string quartet, a solo guitar, or a pianist for some of these celebrations, but we know we are offering something that is unique and special and look to continue to work with awesome clients on their live music ambiance.
Outside of the quintet, I absolutely still love performing bassoon and contrabassoon with local symphony groups, touring musicians, and other ensembles. Getting that call to come play and add my part to the musicality of the group is incredibly rewarding.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Yes and no. The musicians in the group are amazing people; the music we play is fun, challenging, unique, and so much fun. The biggest hurdle is actually getting our group out in front of audiences and encouraging people who are looking to add that live music touch to their wedding or event to consider a wind quintet.
Routinely, especially for weddings, people are looking for the standard string quartet since that is historically the ensemble associated with live classical-style music. If you look to TV shows or movies, most wedding ceremonies have a string ensemble there, which cements in people’s minds that this is the ensemble they should hire to provide that class at their events.
That has been one of the biggest hurdles – trying to convince possible clients that our ensemble can add that flare, elegance, and beauty to their events while not being a string-oriented group. Many times, potential clients either move on or stop replying altogether when they learn we aren’t a string ensemble, which is heartbreaking for at least myself since I know we could provide them with an amazing musical atmosphere for their celebrations.
This coincides, of course, with the changes to marketing over the years – I personally do not have a background in media or marketing, so the updates to algorithms within social media networks have led to a decline in getting our message out to potential clients. I have worked hard to build an accessible website, do social media updates, attend networking events – and really, all I would like to do is be able to perform more fun and beautiful music for people. The other parts of the business are ancillary to that ability to perform.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My main ensemble is the Left Coast Quintet, which is a really fun and unique ensemble of wind players. We’ve been around since 2014, although all of us know each other from local symphony groups that we also perform in.
We offer a unique way of incorporating live music to events like weddings, holiday parties, corporate functions, conferences, home events, and more because our ensemble is different than the standard fair. We are known for custom arrangements that span more than traditional classical music but also include jazz, pop covers, movie themes, Broadway, and much more – and we always have guests coming up to us with a huge smile on their face because of the memories that music can bring back to them. The ensemble brings a beautiful full sound works well both indoors and outdoors, and typically has no need for amplification.
I’m most proud of the connections we’ve made in the local events community and how many professional planners and venue managers recommend us to their clients. We’ve had the pleasure and opportunity to travel to and perform at amazing places all throughout San Diego and meet the amazing people who work at those venues.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
On the quintet side of the house, we are a team, and everyone deserves credit! From rehearsals through performances, each musician brings an incredible amount of professionalism with them that helps make the group shine. That includes Erica Gamble on flute, Jenny Shippee on oboe, April Leslie on clarinet, and RB Anthony on French Horn. Additionally, RB is also our primary music arranger for the group and has spent a great amount of time creating unique and beautiful music for our group to perform, as well as taking requests from clients for music not usually associated with a wind quintet and masterfully making arrangements that utilize the strengths of each performer.
On the bassoon performance side, Ryan Simmons has been a great friend and advisor who has provided recommendations, referred me to orchestral gigs, and repaired instruments over the time we’ve known each other. Ryan is a professional bassoonist with the San Diego Symphony and also owns a woodwind repair shop, RS Woodwinds, in the Ocean Beach area. We also get together every month or so with other bassoonists in town to have fun and play some wacky bassoon quartets, which are always a good time.
I’d also like to give credit to Fiona Chatwin and Villa Musica, where I’ve performed for the past 10 years with various symphony groups, and I’ve very recently joined the board of directors. Fiona has built Villa Musica up to being a class-act music academy, and she focuses her attention on under-served communities in San Diego. Being able to perform and be a part of the Villa Musica family for the past decade has been a blast.
Pricing:
- $750 – Left Coast Quintet one hour
- $1250 – Left Coast Quintet two hours
- $550 – Left Coast Trio one hour
- $950 – Left Coast Trio two hours
- Other ensemble combinations – vary
Contact Info:
- Website: www.leftcoastquintet.com
- Instagram: @leftcoastquintet
- Facebook: facebook.com/leftcoastquintet
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZuJEek8Ebmz9gzzwLKYczw
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/left-coast-quintet-san-diego-5
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/leftcoastquintet
