pianobeat

On its wedding-music page, pianobeat describes the ceremony lineup as "wedding singer, cello, pianist and guitarist" who "interpret songs for you in various combinations," and it names the fixed point in that combination plainly: "our pianist is a studied classical concert pianist and organist" who plays the classical repertoire on piano or church organ. The ceremonies page puts names to the claim. Irina Grebaus and a second musician named Erika are described there as "trained classical concert pianists and organists" who "play all classical songs on request on the piano or on the church organ." Everything past that gets added on: a cellist, a guitarist, a second singer, arriving as the booking grows.

pianobeat is not one act but a roster built around that core. The site names founder Roman Meyer and core members Irina Grebaus and Mark Edward, plus 7 further bookable musicians (Erika, Mae, Hannah, Laura, Joni, Martin and Andi). Booked as a duo, the group covers ceremonies, aperitifs and dinners with a short party repertoire, described on the site as "male lead vocals, female backing vocals." As a trio, the job narrows: aperitifs and dinners with a medium party repertoire, with ceremonies dropping off the list entirely. The quartet is the workhorse, a wedding singer, pianist and guitarist covering what the site calls the largest repertoire, and the FAQ states plainly that 90 percent of the weddings pianobeat plays use this formation. A quintet adds a second singer for bigger weddings, with a saxophonist or percussionist available on request on top of that.

Rather than working from fixed sets, the band says it reads the room "like a DJ," picking songs live from a stated repertoire of 200 titles that, in its own words, "can play through 2 hours" before laptop playback fills any remaining gap. That 200-song figure sits on the wedding-music page itself, not on the site's separate, searchable song-list page, which sorts by genre category (Swing 40's, Bossa Nova, Schweizer Lieder, even a Beerdigung, funeral, category) rather than printing a running total, so treat it as the band's own stated number rather than one a visitor can verify by counting. The style range on the searchable list spans early swing-era standards through current chart pop, plus Italian Canzoni, German Schlager and Swiss dialect songs. For ceremony music, the classical side gets specific: Mendelssohn's wedding march and the bridal chorus from Wagner's Lohengrin are both offered on piano or church organ.

The published day plan is fairly granular. Aperitif music is meant to sit in the background, described as "discreet." Dinner draws on "bossa, jazz standards, lounge music or acoustic pop." For the cake, there is a specific bit: guests are asked into a semicircle around the couple while the band plays instrumental music underneath it. The first dance gets learned to the couple's own song choice if it isn't already in the repertoire, with an optional father-daughter dance to follow. On hosting duties, the FAQ is direct: pianobeat will run the reception's announcements on request, but adds that "a moderation by someone who knows the bridal couple well is much more personal," offering 3 radio microphones so a friend or relative can take the mic instead if the couple would rather keep it in-house.

20 guests on a small rig, 400 needed 6 subs and a 2nd van

What pianobeat brings scales with the guest list rather than the room. For small weddings with limited space, the FAQ describes a compact HK Audio rig built around 2 double 10-inch subwoofers. Past a minimum of 40 guests, the band switches to a professional EAW system, 2x 15-inch bass bins and 2x 12-inch tops rated at 10'000 watts, run alongside in-ear monitoring so nobody on stage needs an open monitor wedge. The range on record: a 20-guest wedding that ran on the small rig, and a 400-guest wedding that needed 6 subwoofers, 6 tops and a 2nd transporter to get it all there. Lighting stays constant regardless of size, moving colored lights from the brand robe.cz, with a water-based fog machine added where the venue allows it. Power needs stay modest either way, a type 13 household outlet for a small setup or a type 15 outlet for anything larger, so the music, lighting and fog machine can each run their own circuit. The crew arrives 2.5 hours ahead of the guests to rig and run a soundcheck.

Zurich costs less than Ticino, and Dubai happened once

pianobeat books out of Zurich, and its FAQ names a working radius rather than drawing a hard line around it. Trips to Zurich, Basel, Aargau, Bern, Solothurn, Lucerne or St. Gallen cost less time and fuel, in the band's own phrasing, than trips into Valais, St. Moritz or Ticino, and its list of cantons where no overnight stay is needed, Zurich, Bern, Basel, Aargau, Schaffhausen, Lucerne, St. Gallen, Thurgau, Appenzell and Schwyz, marks out where the band can play a full evening and drive home rather than book a room. The 2026 references page backs up that reach with real, dated bookings this year: weddings at Uto Kulm above Zurich, Schloss Hünigen near Thun, and Villa Seerose in Horgen, alongside corporate work for firms including PwC and Ernst & Young. Beyond Switzerland, the FAQ says the band plays regularly across the border in Germany, Austria, France and Italy, and points further afield on top of that: a company event flown out to Mykonos, and a birthday party on a yacht in Dubai in April 2022, neither tied to a wedding booking. On language, pianobeat sings in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese as well as Swiss dialect, framed on the site explicitly around its international guests rather than as an afterthought behind German.

What the fee covers, and how rarely you get to hear them live first

pianobeat publishes no rate card, and the FAQ is candid about why not: fees move with the date (Saturdays between May and September are the busiest), the distance travelled, and how many guests the PA has to cover. What it does spell out is what a quoted fee includes, performance, travel expenses, administrative costs including Swiss social-insurance contributions (SVA, BVG, NBU, UVG), and the full sound and lighting system, described on the page as leaving "no unexpected costs," with the fee itself exempt from VAT. Booking runs on a signed engagement contract, and payment splits 50 percent on signing and the remaining 50 percent after the wedding. One place the site stays quiet is live sampling: its own FAQ states that 95 percent of pianobeat's performances are private, closed-company events, with only a handful of dates each year, the Kispi Ball and the Mondball among them, open to the public. A couple weighing this act against another should expect to lean on the video and audio demos rather than plan on catching a live set beforehand; a real audition is genuinely rare here.

What holds all of this together is the instrument, not the headcount. Book a duo and the core is a pianist or organist plus one voice; add a guitarist and it becomes the trio; add a singer and a wider repertoire and it is the quartet the band plays at 90 percent of its weddings; add a second singer, and on request a saxophonist or percussionist, for the quintet. A couple planning a destination wedding anywhere in Switzerland can use that structure directly: decide how much of the day pianobeat should cover, from a single classically trained pianist at the ceremony to the full PA-backed lineup on the dance floor, and the formation booked, not a separate act altogether, is what scales to match.