Birmingham Violin Reviews

Birmingham Violin

Birmingham, AL

4.9 out of 5 rating, 29 reviews

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4.9 out of 5 rating

4.9

Excellent

29 reviews

Recommended by 98% of couples

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Quality of service
4.9 out of 5 rating
Average response time
5 out of 5 rating
Professionalism
4.8 out of 5 rating
Value
4.9 out of 5 rating
Flexibility
4.9 out of 5 rating

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Amy Sent on 06/22/2025

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Lovely music 🎶!

Karen was fantastic! She is lovely and so easy to work with! She and her cellist played my fav music along with different styles of music that all the guests enjoyed.
Maia Sent on 11/13/2024

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Fabulous music for my ceremony

Karen was just great, from the communication texting and helping with music choices. She is easy to work with and very professional. Highly recommend.
Jose Sent on 10/17/2024

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professional and talented

We were absolutely thrilled with the performance at our wedding. Karen was exceptional - both in talent and professionalism. Every note was beautifully played, adding a magical touch to our special day. From our initial communication to the final performance she was punctual, responsive and easy to work with. Our guests were highly complimentary to the beautiful music. We would highly recommend her for a truly special addition to your event!

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Lauren Sent on 07/05/2024

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Lovely addition to our ceremony

Karen and her cellist was wonderful! WOW! They sounded like a recording! Will hire again!
Cheryl Sent on 12/20/2023

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Fabulous violinist!

Karen was great! We hired her for our wedding ceremony. My wife and I could not have been happier. Moon River was perfectly played as my soon to be wife walked in. Karen provided excellent communication prior, early arrival at and attention to detail during.
Sara Sent on 12/20/2023

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Wonderful violin duo

Our Christmas party dinner would not have been complete without Karen and Kevin violin duet. They play beautifully and we absolutely loved the selection of music they brought to our Christmas dinner. We highly recommend! And Thank you Karen for your talents!
Tanya Sent on 12/19/2023

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Amazing Violinist!

Karen of Birmingham Violins played for my son's wedding ceremony this past weekend and it was absolutely lovely! And SHE is lovely! Karen was responsive and easy to work with, which was important as planning an out-of-state wedding can be challenging. She offered a wide selection of music (classical, contemporary, etc.) and was even helpful in making suggestions. With so much to do with wedding planning it was nice to just say "play what you like" and have it all turn out and sound beautiful. Karen was prompt and very reasonable with her rates. I cannot overstate how highly I recommend Karen of Birmingham Violins.
Jewels Sent on 03/27/2023

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Fantastic cello + violin duo!

Kevin and Karen were fantastic to work with and did an amazing job performing during our ceremony and cocktail hour! They are talented musicians and provided the perfect vibe for us. We highly recommend this group!
Zac B. Sent on 12/31/2022

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Beautiful Violin Duo

Karen's duo set the mood for our wedding ceremony. Karen was professional from the start to the finish. She has a ton of experience and is so familiar with song choices. The music planning she provided was fantastic. And the duo was so romantic!
Julie Sent on 12/31/2022

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they were PERFECT!

Karen was amazing and exceeded my expectations by helping select the perfect Christmastime music to go with my favorite song. She was easy to get in touch with and answered all my questions. We had a lot of comments on how the music made our ceremony. I Couldn't have done it without her beautiful violin and the fab cello accompanist.
Jamia Sent on 04/26/2022

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Perfect Music

We hired Karen for a baby shower luncheon several weeks ago and she was terrific. She played light jazz, pop music and some Stevie Wonder songs (my favorite) and brought a speaker system. Easy to work with. Recommend!
Trey Sent on 01/21/2021

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Karen McDowell, lovely violinist

Karen came to play at my 60th - lovely gal, fab violinist- highly recommend!
Mike Sent on 09/20/2020

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Absolute delightful accompaniment to our wedding!

Karen McDowell and her cellist provided an absolute delightful accompaniment to our wedding. Karen's duo played during the ceremony itself and then provided the background music to our champagne reception which was an outdoor event on a gloriously warm afternoon. She reflected our requests and the joyous mood of the occasion perfectly and there is no doubt that her presence enhanced the occasion. Many of our guests commented how varied her talents were.
Karen's approach and communication during the lead up to the event and on the day itself was professional and supportive.
I was very pleased with my experience with Karen McDowell and I have no problem in recommending her to other wedding couples or for other types of events.
Kamryn Sent on 04/19/2020

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Amazing!!!!

I couldn't have asked for a better violinist on my wedding day! Karen went above and beyond my expectations. I had so many people make comments at the reception on how talented she was. I promise you won't be disappointed if you go with her!
Cici Sent on 03/02/2020

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Exceptional professionalism and musicality

We hired Karen's duo at the last minute to play for a corporate event and they were excellent! They arrived early and played while we were arriving and folks came up to sing along with movie theme music from A Whole New World, Moon River (played beautifully by the violinist), and the cellist tore up the Lannister theme song and the Game of Thrones. Of course they also played some classical Motzart impecably. We were all thrilled with the entertainment!
Wanda Sent on 06/13/2019

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Very pleased!

I hired a violin trio for my daughter’s wedding. Karen is very easy to work with, she helped me with song selections, and the order for each song to be played. I am extremely pleased. I’m glad I decided to give Karen a call. You will not be disappointed.
Hannah Sent on 05/30/2019

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Amazing!!!

Karen was absolutely amazing! She is an incredible musician and a lovely person to work with. She made our ceremony so special with her violin. Don’t hesitate to book her!!
Todd Sent on 04/03/2019

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First rate!

We hired Karen and her trio to play for our wedding and the guests said afterward they thought the radio was playing! Karen was very professional throughout answered our many questions. They arrived early and although our ceremony was delayed over 20 minutes because our pastor was late they had plenty of music. It was a gorgeous day and no one seemed to notice except me. She told us later that she has learned over the years to bring more music to cover late weddings and at her own wedding they forgot to bake her wedding cake! Karen's duo played beautifully and we give them the thumbs up and highly recommend! We even gave them a bottle of champagne each and a tip for being so extra special.
Joseph Sent on 03/07/2019

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Lovely Christmas celebration dinner music

I hired Karen's Duo for my family's Christmas dinner celebration. They were very professional and most enjoyable. The family had a lovely time listening to Christmas music and Classical music which included selections from The Nutcracker and even included sing a longs!
Marcia Sent on 01/13/2018

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I hired Karen's duo, violin and cello, for my son's wedding at The Barn at Shady Lane. They were fantastic!! The song choices were a mixture of classical and special selections from the bride and groom. They were so accommodating and we really appreciate their willingness to learn a few new pieces for the ceremony. Karen performed a special solo that the bride requested that literally brought tears to my eyes! Very professional and fun to work with - I would highly recommend for any event!!
Sue Sent on 05/23/2017

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Excellent musician! We hired a duo and they played 1000 years, Beatles selections and Hawaii version of Over the Rainbow with mandolin. Everyone loved the music. They arrived early to set up and were very professional. Best music in town and worth every penny!
Tyler Sent on 01/18/2017

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Karen's violin duo was perfect for our wedding ceremony and Christmas party/wedding reception. She was very professional and the music was exactly what we had wanted with an added bonus. The cellist also played accordion and we all loved The Girl From Ipanema!
Amy Sent on 07/07/2015

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We hired Karen's violin duo to play for our wedding and cocktail hour and we're glad we did. We left the music selection planning to Karen and were pleasantly surprised and pleased with her music that our guests enjoyed and talked about. They played a fabulous variety of songs during our cocktail hour too, from Games of Thrones to Elvis, the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. It was a very nice transition to our DJ. Couldn't have planned it better myself. Karen was very professional throughout. We loved having Karen's live violin music at our wedding.
User2176384 Sent on 06/12/2015

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Karen provided us with excellent communication prior to our wedding. We wanted special music selections which she arranged for us. The violin and cello duo was beautiful and we heard comments that the cellist sounded like the Piano Guys and they both sounded like the Dallas String Quartet. We were very pleased with Karen and highly highly recommend. ??
Ladonna Sent on 07/26/2014

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Karen performed beautifully for our ceremony and cocktail hour. Her music was professionally performed and gave me chills! Thank you so very much for the wonderful violin performance!
User1235488 Sent on 07/10/2013

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Karen's string duo added the classical elegance we wanted for our garden wedding. Everyone loved the music! Thank you. Highly recommended!
User1225007 Sent on 07/02/2013

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The music was to die for! Karen's expertise and musicianship was phenomenal. She provided us with much more than just music which all the guests enjoyed, but her professionalism was superb. I think I counted 45 emails in correspondence! We were delighted that she could add several requests that had to be arranged for solo violin (Foo Fighters and Beatles) certainly not normal classical violin pieces. We would hire again! Highly recommended!
Linda Sent on 03/28/2020

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Linda Barnett

Excellent!!! Was asked to play on very short notice and was very accommodating! Arranged the music and played beautifully!
Stephanie Sent on 04/03/2019

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Forgot Sheet Music For My Wedding Ceremony

Up until my actual wedding, I had no issues with Karen and Birmingham Violin. She was helpful in making music selections & responsive to my emails. Reasonably priced. However, on the day of my actual wedding, she FORGOT all of the sheet music for my wedding ceremony. I was shocked. To make matters worse, she told my coordinator that it would take her only 30 minutes to go back & get the sheet music, but after an hour she was nowhere to be found & not answering phone calls. This delayed my ceremony by about 15-20 minutes, and my guests were wondering what was going on (found this out after the wedding of course). Luckily my band was willing to step in & play some kind of music to start the ceremony. By the time it was my time to walk down the aisle, she showed up & was able to play the wedding march for me to walk down the aisle. I know in the grand scheme of things to go wrong at a wedding this is somewhat small, but I felt it was very unprofessional. Part of being professional is being prepared, and as a musician, I feel the two things you should always make sure you have to do your job are your instruments and music. I wouldn’t recommend going with them if you want reliability on the day of your wedding. Or maybe if you do use them, remind someone to bring the sheet music the day before the wedding.

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