Orchestra Rentals

To avoid extra fees and charges on your music rental:

Make sure that you return all of the materials - scores and parts - in the same condition that you received them. Before sending the music back please check its condition. Are any of the parts heavily marked or defaced? Those that are returned to us in that condition will surely generate an extra charge.

Does your conductor like to use a magic marker, highlighter or heavily mark scores in some other way? A score returned to us that cannot be sent on to the next orchestra will also generate an extra charge. There are several solutions to this problem, including purchasing a score for the conductor's permanent library, if it happens to be a piece that he/she will be performing more than once. For one-time performances those little yellow stick-on notes work wonders. Many conductors use them and even if you forget to remove them it's very easy for us to do it (at no charge!)

Before returning a set please make that sure all parts are accounted for. Missing parts - along with those that are heavily marked or damaged - are one of our biggest headaches. Unlike the annoying fees that airlines tack on to generate extra income without seeming to raise ticket prices, the fees that we charge, especially in these situations, are as much a source of aggravation to us as to our client orchestras, since the time involved (wasted) dealing with them is always a strain on the staffs of both organizations.

Pay by Company check. While we accept payment via Visa and MasterCard, the fees that banks charge - especially smaller companies like us - have to come from somewhere, and ultimately it's the customer who foots the bill. The same goes for wire transfers, which are most commonly used for international orders. The fees charged, while doing wonders for those banks bottom lines, also must be reflected in our invoices. We add a surcharge of 7% if payment is made by credit card. We also add a surcharge if payment is made by wire transfer. This charge varies, depending on what the bank is charging at any given time. In most cases these charges can be avoided by simply ordering in a more timely fashion. Waiting until the last minute is always a costly endeavor.

Waiting until the last minute to order is also costly when it comes to shipping charges. Both Fed EX and UPS offer excellent, fast, usually reliable service to almost anywhere. But the prices can be staggering. The solution here is to order early.

Are you ordering from a university or college?
Orders from organizations such as these always take longer, especially with very large institutions, where it can sometimes take months to process a simple order. If you're in a hurry the best solution to this problem is to use a personal (or institutional) credit card and have the university reimburse the holder. If you know that your institution will want to pay using a wire-transfer let us know before we generate the invoice. This will allow us to include the bank transfer charge on your first invoice thus avoiding the lost time that inevitably occurs when revised invoices have to travel back and forth.

Retaining the music for longer periods than it is actually needed can add considerable cost to your rental. While it is surely handy to have the music months in advance of performances, keep in mind that you can save by requesting it only for the amount of time that it is actually needed. (see the next paragraph) Returning the music promptly after a performance will also save late charges.

Our standard rental time is 6 weeks, portal to portal, from the time it leaves here to the time it is returned. International orders get an extra two weeks, making a total of 8 weeks. If you need the music for a longer period the extra time will be charged for in 1 month increments.

Making sure that you send us the copies of the printed programs that we requested when we ship you the materials. Or, if none were available, filling out the Confirmation of Performance page that was also included in the package. This can be easily done by the person - usually a librarian - that is responsible for returning the materials. By doing this at this time it will avoid the endless telephone calls and emails between both our staffs.

Filling out the Music Rental Form as completely and accurately as possible, especially making sure that the shipping address is correct to the very last digit. Both UPS and Fed EX charge a Hefty fee for even the slightest address error.

Keep the packaging that was sent to you and reuse it when returning the materials back to us. We use boxes that offer very good protection for both parts and scores, helping to avoid damage during shipping.

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