Testimonials

I hired John to play solo guitar at our annual 500-attendee charity event, for Community Hospice, and he was perfect! His music is absolutely top notch and added so much to the event. He is a super nice gentleman and very easy to work with. He arrived promptly, and handled all of his own set up and tear down efficiently and discreetly so as not to interfere with the flow of the evening. He plays a wide variety of music; each piece was just beautiful and executed perfectly. You really couldn't ask for a better performer for any kind of event, wedding or celebration where you want beautiful, relaxing and fun music. I highly recommend John. You will enjoy meeting him and I look forward to working with him again. – Ann E.

John Chapman was a true blessing at our beautiful Wedding Ceremony. His repertoire, experience, and talent shines through in the most beautiful of ways. He was a great communicator, I always felt confident of his character and professionalism. He was able to play special songs for us as well, what a treat! Thank you so much John for creating an absolutely beautiful ceremony and cocktail hour for us! Your talent is a beautiful thing, and we will always appreciate you with the up most gratitude! I cannot recommend you highly enough! – Josie Martin

Mike and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the outstanding performance at our ceremony and reception. Being the music lovers that we are, the music was one of the most important parts of our celebration. Your performance was exactly what we were looking for. You and your music are the perfect combination of elegance and fun and you have a wonderful presence. Thank you for covering our special songs. They meant so much to us and you so willingly learned and so wonderfully performed them. We can’t thank you enough for being such an important part of the best day of our lives! Your music will always have so much meaning to us! We can’t wait for you to make a CD. :) Happily married, Mike & Karen Tomasek

John, thank you for your gift of beautiful music yesterday! It was perfect and really helped set the ambiance. –Christine L. (Brand manager at DFV Wines)

Besides being a top-notch professional and accomplished musician, John is a delightful presence as well. We hired John for our outdoor wedding and could not have been more pleased! –Margi E.

THANK YOU!!! John your music was amazing and thank you for giving us wonderful music on such a short notice. We got so many compliments, and many guests just wanted to sit by you and listen to your playing. Good times! –Cindy and Kamron M.

John, I cannot thank you enough for providing us with such wonderful music at our cocktail party last Friday night held in the courtyard of the Stanford Park Hotel in Menlo Park. Almost all of our guests commented about how nice it was to have such wonderful music at our affair. You added a very necessary touch of class, which we ourselves greatly appreciated and which was appreciated by all. Your play list was excellent and very diversified. You were extremely professional, arriving on time and playing even longer than we had originally agreed. Thank you very much for adding a great deal of warmth and excitement to our party. –Bob Matthias

I hope your hands have recovered from their 5-hour workout on Saturday! Thank you so much for making it such a wonderful event and for giving us so much of your time. We keep hearing from guests how much they enjoyed the music and Steve and I both felt you captured just perfectly the spirit we were hoping for, from the initial processional through to the evening's end.  Thank you for helping us select such lovely pieces for the processional and for playing so many other delightful pieces afterward.  Hearing my son play with you was an unexpected extra pleasure! With many thanks again, –Barbara

We want to thank you once again for a great performance during our wedding. Our guests thoroughly enjoyed your music! We hired John to perform for our wedding ceremony and reception last August 5th 2010. All our guests raved about John's performance. He was very easy to work with, and delivered a very nice rendition of the 2 songs that was not part of his regular repertoire that we asked him to play as part of the ceremony, and reception. Our guests kept commenting how they enjoyed John's performance; John kept our guest entertained while my wife and I were getting our pictures taken with our photographer.  Our guests liked him so much that they were still giving us comments on how much they enjoyed his music a day after our wedding. John is a very nice and pleasant guy. One of our guests even requested a business card from him for guitar lessons. I highly recommend John for your wedding, or any other occasion. Thanks so much John! –Ben & Mai

I initially contacted John to play solo during cocktail hour for my wife's birthday party while I also searched for a band for after dinner. One discussion with John and it was clear he could manage both. He directed me to his website where I was able to determine he was not only immensely talented but that he was able to satisfy a wide range of musical genres.  He proposed a 4-member band for after dinner and, given his professionalism, I went with John not knowing for certain what we would get. Well, it was no risk at all. John performed solo for an hour or so, (checking in a time or two to assure we were satisfied-we were-he was perfect!). John is a truly talented musician and obviously enjoys himself as well that's a great combination. The 4-piece band followed the solo. These were true professionals! I had 7-8 guests approach me during the party and compliment the band. My wife and I were so pleased! The band played exactly as you would expect professionals to perform: great music played with precision yet an "in the moment" performance style, with an infectious enthusiasm, all with the proper perspective of keeping the focus on the party, not on the band. I heartily recommend John Chapman as a solo guitarist or with his band to anyone with NO reservations; you will not be disappointed!!!!! –Tom C.

John recently performed solo guitar for our wedding reception and dinner at the Flood Mansion in SF.  I also hired him to perform with his Top-Notch 10-Piece Band for the evening’s dancing entertainment. He is incredibly thorough, professional, responsible, and talented! Most importantly, he and his Band are composed of TRUE musicians, who make GOOD music (in a variety of genres). Guests repeatedly told me they felt as though they were "watching a performance" rather than a commercialized, cheesy wedding band. I would recommend him for ANY event: corporate, private, parties, weddings, etc. AS GOOD AS IT GETS!! –Erin Kim

If you are looking for a great guitarist for an upcoming wedding, John is your guy! He is a fabulous person and a gifted artist!!!! Our wedding ceremony in Forestville came to life with his talents on the guitar. He was quick to learn a new song (Quando, Quando, Quando) and was so kind as he consulted us on our music selections for our special day, meet us in person, after we arrived from living abroad in Paris. He accommodated our every request and was not bothered at all when we asked him to play longer at our reception. John is truly a professional and my new husband and I were very, very happy with the service we received from him. –Jyl A.

John was the guitarist at our July wedding ceremony and we were so happy with his music! He was great to work with during the months of planning and had great ideas and suggestions for songs. We had him play Bossa Nova for the cocktail hour and his music is beautiful! I completely recommend him! –Meghan T.

I just want to thank you so much got your lovely music on Saturday. Many of our friends commented on how lovely it was. And thank you for the beautiful version of "Feel My Love". I'd love to get a copy of it when you release it. Thank you, –Pam Butchart

John played music at our wedding reception in Palo Alto, CA. I found him online and coordinated everything by email and phone. It was one of the easiest parts of planning our wedding. He played classical and elegant music and our guests loved him.  We weren't having dancing at our lunch reception so decided to go with a solo guitarist and it was one of the best choices we made. A DJ would have interfered too much in our day and John just blended in perfectly.  John was easy to work with, he has a great personality and his guitar performance was fabulous. Thanks so much! –Julie & Randall

Thank you for an incredible performance at our wedding! You got quite a few compliments on your skill and we thank you for your energy, smiles and professionalism. –Derek & Kellie Williams

We are incredibly happy, and completely pleased by how the wedding exceeded our expectations. I can't thank you enough for the wonderful job you did with the ceremony music. The music enhanced the ambiance of the vineyard, and you timed everything perfectly. You are truly an artist! I really appreciate how accommodating and flexible you were through out the planning process in helping me select music that would create the vibe we were striving for. I had several people during the reception approach me to tell me "how cool" it was to hear Zeppelin at a wedding vs. the standard Cannon in D or Wedding March. I would readily recommend you to any bride. It was a pleasure doing business with you. Best Regards, –Elizabeth Peebles

Thank you John for your great skill and professionalism. You created a wonderful ambiance for our winery opening celebration with your outstanding guitar performance. Our family and guests loved it! –Karen Fontanella

Thank you so much for making our day that much more special! –Maya & Steve

Thank you for making our wedding ceremony and cocktail hour unique and enjoyable. Your guitar playing was fabulous! –Erik & Liz

John helped us create the perfect mood for our wedding. My husband and I wanted nontraditional, fun, yet significant music for our ceremony and reception. John was more than willing to learn the songs _we_ wanted to hear for our ceremony, plus his repertoire of pop and jazz music was perfect for our reception. I couldn't believe our good luck that we found John, who was able to play our favorite Beach Boys and Bee Gees songs for our ceremony. John is truly special: He's an incredibly skilled and creative guitarist who is also flexible, accommodating, and helpful. A wedding is a huge undertaking, and John helped guide us through some of the musical "issues" that we hadn't considered. Thanks, John! –Julie A. & Doug W.

John was tremendously accommodating, friendly, and professional. I was so pleased to have found someone who could play a wide variety of music in many different styles, with such skill. Since I am half Brazilian, I had him play a lot of Bossa Nova and he was fantastic!  Our wedding ceremony was exactly how I wanted it to be. I am also thrilled with his communication skills leading up to the wedding. This was especially clear after I incorrectly relayed my ceremony music to him. He called me to confirm the music, played it, and we were able to correct my mist-communication with him learning the song a week before the wedding! I couldn't have used anybody else, and NO, we're not related (as far as I know:) Thank you for making our day special. The wedding was everything--and more---that I wanted it to be. All our best, –Joan Chapman & Raven Bonacich

Thanks you so much for the beautiful guitar music you provided at our wedding! It was very enjoyable having your talents at our wedding and your music was the perfect accent to our day! Love, –Lori & Vivek

Everyone tells you that a wedding goes by in a blur, so we wanted the ceremony to be memorable. You offered Bach and Vivaldi but didn't flinch when we asked for "reverent" versions of Santana, Al Green, and Allman Brothers for processional and recessional. You didn't blink when we said we wanted Samba/Bossa Nova and Jazz for pre-ceremony and Funk/R'N'R for after the ceremony. As you know, we had quite a few musicians attending our wedding. They were all impressed. Even the vendors were buzzing about what a fantastic job you did. No one could believe we found a musician who could play Samba, Bossa Nova, Rock, Jazz, Blues and more! For a bride, the walk from the dressing room to the aisle is strangely quiet. The one thing I could hear was your guitar; I got goose bumps because I knew that when the music changed I would be walking down the aisle. And then the music changed. I will always remember how I felt, walking down that aisle, led by the sounds of your guitar. We were so touched when we lit that candle together and you surprised us by playing a favorite piece of music that I had mentioned to you once and then forgotten about. When you are working with couples in the future I hope you share with them what we learned: music is hugely important in creating the day you want. There is so much we don't remember, and yet we have distinct memories of our ceremony because they are tied to the music that was played. We are so appreciative for the contribution you made to our wedding. John, thank you for honoring us with your extraordinary talent. With Love, –Lori & Robert