Left Coast Quintet Live music with personality! Classical, pop, film favorites & more for any event

5 armless chairs

LCQ cannot perform outside during inclement weather (rain, heavy mist, heavy winds, heat) - we can play under shade including umbrellas if they protect against the elements. Our instruments are incredibly expensive, we won't subject them to any kind of possible damage.

We are comfortable in almost any venue. Parking location, loading doors, etc are great things to know in advance.

We can but not necessary.

Yes, we can play our own recordings during breaks if there is a sound system on site, or if someone hires our sound system.

It's hard to pick just one! Since 2014, we've performed at some incredible venues throughout Southern California, from luxury resorts like the Fairmont Grand Del Mar and Hilton San Diego Bayfront to the beautiful San Diego Zoo Safari Park, historic venues, and stunning private residences. We've also loved being part of major community celebrations like December Nights and local ArtWalk festivals.

But some of our favorite performances have been the smaller, more personal ones, where we get to connect with guests, share a few laughs, and see firsthand how much live music adds to an occasion. For us, the best gigs aren't necessarily the biggest or fanciest. They're the ones where everyone has a fantastic time!

We love events where we can surprise people with just how versatile a wind quintet can be! Corporate celebrations, holiday parties, weddings, private gatherings, and community concerts all give us opportunities to create something special.

Some of our favorite events are those where guests aren't quite sure what to expect from five classical wind instruments, and then suddenly recognize a favorite movie theme, pop hit, or Broadway tune! We especially enjoy events where we can interact with the audience, share a few laughs, and bring something unexpected to the celebration.

Ultimately, our favorite events are the ones where we can be creative, have fun, and help make the occasion memorable for everyone involved.

Left Coast Quintet was founded in San Diego in 2014 by a group of professional musicians who shared a love of chamber music and wanted to do something a little different. We started performing together at weddings, private events, and community gatherings, and quickly discovered how much fun it was to bring the unique sound of a wind quintet to audiences who might never have experienced one before.

Our musicians bring years of professional experience performing with orchestras, chamber ensembles, musical theater productions, and other groups throughout Southern California and beyond. That experience has helped us develop a group that's not only musically versatile, but also comfortable performing in just about any setting.

Over the years, we've grown our repertoire to more than 800 arrangements, performed at hundreds of events, and built lasting relationships with venues, event planners, and clients throughout the region.

Our musical influences are all over the map, quite literally! On the classical and film music side, John Williams is a favorite. His incredible scores are just as exciting to perform as they are to hear. We also love the timeless melodies of The Beatles, the energy of ABBA, and the creativity of composers from Mozart to Bernstein.

One of our favorite things about being a wind quintet is exploring music from around the world. We perform folk and traditional music from Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia, bringing different cultures and musical traditions to our audiences.

As for the greatest song of all time? Getting five musicians to agree on that might be harder than rehearsing some of our most challenging pieces! We all have different favorites, but that's what makes our repertoire so diverse and our performances so much fun.

Left Coast Quintet, or LCQ, is a professional wind quintet based in San Diego, made up of flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, and bassoon.

Since 2014, we've performed throughout Southern California at corporate events, concerts, museums and cultural programs, community events, weddings, fundraisers, holiday celebrations, and plenty of places that don't fit neatly into any category.

What makes us a little different is the combination of five completely different instruments and a music library that goes far beyond traditional classical repertoire. We can move from Mozart and Debussy to jazz, Broadway, Taylor Swift, movie soundtracks, video games, and plenty of unexpected favorites.

We also perform as the Left Coast Trio, featuring flute, clarinet, and bassoon, when a smaller ensemble is a better fit for the space or event.

Just about anything that could use great live music.

Left Coast Quintet performs for corporate events, holiday parties, cocktail receptions, conferences, galas, fundraisers, museum and cultural events, community concerts, weddings, private celebrations, school and university programs, graduations, senior communities, and public events throughout Southern California.

We’re comfortable providing polished background music while guests mingle, being a featured part of the program, or presenting a full concert for a seated audience. We can also tailor the repertoire to the event, whether you’re looking for something sophisticated and classical, upbeat and familiar, cinematic, seasonal, or built around a particular theme.

If you have an event that doesn't fit neatly into one of those categories, that's completely fine. We've played in some pretty unusual places over the years, and we're always interested in something new.

There are plenty of wonderful musicians in San Diego, but a wind quintet offers something most guests don't hear every day.

With flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, and bassoon, LCQ brings together five completely different instruments, each with its own sound and personality. That gives us an enormous range, from elegant classical music and jazz to Broadway, pop, movie soundtracks, video games, and plenty of unexpected favorites.

We're also a dedicated ensemble, not five musicians meeting for the first time at your event. We perform and rehearse together regularly, have built a library of hundreds of arrangements, and know how to adapt what we do to everything from a corporate reception or wedding to a museum program or full concert.

​Most importantly, we want the music to be memorable. Guests regularly come up to us because they've never heard a wind quintet before, want to know more about the instruments, or can't believe the song they just recognized was being played by a bassoo

Absolutely! One of our favorite parts of what we do is helping clients bring their own musical ideas to an event.

Our library already includes hundreds of arrangements spanning classical music, jazz, Broadway, pop, film and television, video games, holiday music, and more. But if there's a particular song or piece you'd love to hear and we don't already have it, we can often arrange it specifically for our ensemble.

We've created custom arrangements for weddings, corporate events, themed programs, and special performances over the years. Just let us know what you have in mind and we'll see what we can do.
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The earlier you ask, the better, since arranging and rehearsing new music takes some time, but we're always happy to consider a special request.

Unlike ensembles where the instruments come from the same family, a wind quintet brings together five completely different instruments: flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, and bassoon. Each has its own distinct sound, range, and personality, giving the group an incredible variety of colors to work with.

That means a wind quintet can sound delicate and elegant one moment, warm and lyrical the next, and surprisingly bold and cinematic when all five instruments come together. It's one of the reasons we're able to play such a wide variety of music, from classical works written specifically for wind quintet to jazz, Broadway, pop, movie soundtracks, and video game music.

It's also an ensemble many people don't encounter very often, which makes it a fun alternative to more familiar chamber groups.

You may know all five instruments individually, but hearing them together is a completely different experience.

-Approximately 10 minutes for setup.

-A two hour gig will be taken with one 10 minute break.

-Every additional hour over two hours will require a 15 minute break.

San Diego has some of the best weather, we are happy to perform outside and our music carries over large spaces for everyone to hear. We will need shade and cover from the elements.

We can design an amazing set list on our own, or we can work together to design the program. With around 800 songs in our library (and always growing) we will have a blast playing music you'll love to hear.

We have a 5-star review rating across all platforms. Our clients love the music of course, but also they usually mention how much they appreciate the open communication, flexibility, and helpfulness.