The Funkeys Traveling Dueling Pianos

For more information on hiring Dueling Pianos for private events, wedding and corporate functions, visit www.duelingpianoshows.com or call 248.398.9711 x 122.

With over 21 years of combined experience in Dueling Pianos/Sing Along, The Funkeys are guaranteed to have your audience singing, clapping and laughing from start to finish.  Both Dan Satterberg and Marshall Charloff have served as Entertainment Directors at some of the world’s most notable Dueling Piano venues and have personally trained many of the newer entertainers currently performing in college town and resort area Dueling Piano clubs.  Based in Minneapolis and available for nation wide travel, the Funkeys spend most weekends on the road performing at Corporate Functions, Weddings and Casinos.  The Funkeys have only one goal in mind at each of their performances – that of making the audience just as much a part of the show as themselves.

www.thefunkeys.net <- Click here for information on dueling pianos for corporate functions and weddings – NATION WIDE.

The Funkeys have performed at the following venues and the following events in 2008 and 2009:

BA Days – Ghent, MN  {Minnesota Dueling Pianos}
Axles Bonfire
Lucille’s Rockin’ Pianos
The Shadow, Wichita, KS {Kansas Dueling Pianos} [dueling pianos kansas]
Profile Event Center – Minneapolis, MN
North Star Mohican Casino – Bowler, MN [WISCONSIN DUELING PIANOS]
Milwaukee Art Museum
Grand Piano Bistro – Des Moines, IA (IOWA DUELING PIANOS)
Buster’s – Mankato, MN
Stone Ridge Golf Club – Stillwater, MN
Children’s’ Hospital of Michigan
Citizens Banking Corporation
Coca Cola Corporation
Embassy Suites Hotel – Bloomington, MN
St. Ambrose University – Davenport, IA (DUELING PIANOS IOWA)
Greysolon Plaze – Duluth, MN
KI Convention Center – Green Bay, WI
Gale Woods Farms – Minnetrista, MN {Minneapolis Dueling Pianos}
Fontenelle Forest – Bellevue, NE
Warwick Hills Golf Club – Grand Blanc, MI
Northern Illinois University
Notre Dame University {Indiana DUELING PIANOS}
Volvo Trucks North America, Inc.

Dueling Pianos Training

Dueling Pianos bars have become a staple in nearly every major College and Tourist town in the Unites States.  New Dueling Piano clubs are opening every quarter and this explosion of the Dueling Pianos Concept has created a shortage of qualified Dueling Piano Players, forcing Dueling Piano clubs to place unqualified pianists without training in front of their customers.

When an audience sees two giant tip jars stuffed with singles, fives, tens and even twenty dollar bills, it is no secret that Dueling Piano Players have lucrative careers.  Why, one may ask, is there a shortage of qualified Dueling Piano Players?  The answer is simple:  the dueling piano concept is extremely demanding, requiring each player to have an immense repertoire and the ability to adapt and entertain in an impromptu capacity.  If a traditional dueling piano venue were to audition 25 professionally trained pianists, the venue would be lucky to find 2 pianist capable of developing into a Dueling Piano Entertainer, even after 6 to 12 months of training. 

Dueling Pianos International constantly strives to recruit, train and develop fresh and exciting piano players to perform the Dueling Piano Concept.  The entertainers featured in the video below are responsible for training many of the new dueling piano entertainers in the Midwest.

While the entertainers above generally travel across the country for weekend corporate and wedding performances,  they spend the weekdays training new talent for local/traditional dueling piano nightclubs.

Please visit again for more information on Dueling Piano Player training and more information on booking Dueling Pianos for corporate functions, colleges and weddings.

Stretching the Student Activities Budget

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Each semester STUDENT ACTIVITIES boards are faced with the following universal questions:  How can we increase participation in our student activities programming?  How can we get more for our student activities budget?  What do our students want this semester?

On the surface, these questions would seem to have easy answers.  However, limited budgets in combination with differing opinions among student activity committee members can make planning the semesters’ activities a laborious chore.

In the business world, Corporate Event Planning chairpersons are faces with a slightly more serious question:  How can I make certain my company’s next function a is not a failure so I don’t get fired?  For this reason, Corporate Event Planning committees, as opposed to Student Activities planning committees, rely more heavily on Full Service Agencies who specialize in Event Production.  Contracting a multitude of vendors and monitoring each vendor’s service is a full time job involving months of planning and preparation.  By using an experienced and established event production company, companies of all sizes, small to large, are able to reduce employees’ time spent on the minutia of event planning while keeping their employees more productive with their duties in the workplace.

Likewise, Student Activities committees can also benefit from using a full service production company.  When a student activities board develops a relationship with a production agency who offers a number of different attractions, the stress and uncertainty of the booking process is eliminated, awarding more time for promotions to increase student involvement.  Furthermore, Student Activities committees using the same agency for several different events each semester are often offered package discounts (the next level of “block booking”).  Close relationships between Purchasers and Agencies, whether in the College Market or the Corporate Market, will stretch the entertainment dollar further and yield better service.

Great Full Service Resources

Lorio Ross Sterling Entertainment – www.lorioross.com

LRS College Entertainment – www.lrscollegeentertainment.com