Sydney Musicians for Hire
From Soloists to Bands, ESS is your destination for Sydney's hottest talent
You need a musician. We've got loads of them. From soloists for an intimate dinner to a five-piece that'll have your wedding guests still dancing at 1am, ESS books the right act for the brief – and handles the not-so-fun stuff (contracts, gear questions, last-minute changes) so you don't have to.
Hire a Musician in Sydney for Any Event
Sydney's music scene runs deep. There are more working musicians in this city than you'd think – soloists belting acoustic sets in Newtown wine bars, full bands packing out pubs in Parramatta, jazz trios warming up rooftop weddings, DJs running corporate events into the small hours. Whatever your event needs, someone in Sydney plays it. The trick is finding the right one.
That's where we come in. ESS connects you with vetted musicians for hire, matched to your event, your budget and your crowd. No guesswork, no scrolling through Facebook hoping the act in the photo actually exists. Just real performers we've worked with, who turn up when they say they will and play what you booked them for.
Have a flick through our roster below. Soloists, duos and bands, all bookable through ESS. You'll spot a range of styles and genres, from acoustic acts that suit a Sunday session to full bands built for a packed Saturday night. Hear something you like? Get in touch and we'll check their availability for your date.
Browse Sydney Musicians for Hire
DUOS
Types of Musicians You Can Hire
Soloists, duos, bands and DJs each bring a different sound and a different footprint. The right pick depends on the size of your room, the size of your budget, and how loud you want things to get. Here's what each format does well.
SYDNEY SINGERS
The most affordable way to put live music in front of your guests. A good Sydney singer can carry a room solo, switching between gentle background music during dinner and bigger numbers later in the night. Best for intimate weddings, restaurant residencies, cocktail hours, and smaller private parties where you want music without the footprint of a full band.
SYDNEY Bands
When you need the room moving and the dance floor packed, hire a Sydney band. Three pieces, four pieces, five pieces, full ten piece soul outfits. A good band reads the crowd, shifts gears between sets, and turns a decent event into a great one. Best for larger weddings, pub residencies, festivals, big birthdays, and corporate events with a proper dance floor.
Sydney Musical Duos
The sweet spot for a lot of events. Two voices, two instruments, fuller sound than a soloist and more flexibility across genres. Sydney musical duos work brilliantly at medium sized weddings, corporate functions, pub gigs and engagement parties. They're also the easiest format to fit into a venue that wasn't built with a stage in mind.
Sydney DJs
Hire a Sydney DJ when you want continuous music across a long night, or when the dance floor is the whole point. DJs cover more genres in a single set than any band can, take requests on the fly, and handle the transitions between speeches, first dances and dancing. Often booked alongside a live band to keep the night going once the band packs down.
Events You Can Hire Musicians For
Different events call for very different musicians. The act that's perfect at a Friday pub residency would be a strange choice at a 5pm wedding ceremony. The DJ who runs a corporate function flawlessly probably isn't who you want at your nan's 80th. Knowing what suits what is half the job, and after 15 years of booking acts across Sydney, it's the half we've got down.
Weddings
The biggest day of someone's life, and one of the top reasons people hire musicians through us. We book ceremony soloists, cocktail hour duos, full reception bands, and DJs to keep things going once the band packs down. If you're planning one, head straight to our wedding musicians page for the full picture, including wedding singers, wedding bands and wedding DJs.
CORPORATE FUNCTIONS
End of year parties, product launches, awards nights, gala dinners, conference after-parties. Corporate work needs a musician who reads the room, sticks to the run sheet, and dresses the part. Every act on our roster has done it before, and we'll match you with one that fits the formality of your event.
COMMUNITY EVENTS AND FESTIVALS
Council events, street festivals, community celebrations, charity fundraisers. We've supplied musicians for everything from local park family days through to multi day festival lineups. Tell us the brief, the budget and the audience, and we'll come back with options.
Pubs, Clubs and Venues
If you run a venue and you're looking to put live music on the calendar, we're the easy way in. Weekly residencies, one off Saturday night headliners, Sunday session acoustic acts. We work with venues across Sydney and the surrounds, and our booking agent service handles the lot. Have a chat with us about what suits your room.
Private Parties
Birthdays, engagements, anniversaries, housewarmings that got out of hand. A good musician turns a party into a night people actually talk about afterwards. Soloists and duos are usually the right call for backyards and smaller venues. Full bands when you've hired a hall and you mean business.
Tribute and Themed Nights
A whole event built around one act, one era, or one band. ABBA nights, 80s parties, Fleetwood Mac afternoons, Queen tribute weekends. We've got tribute acts on the roster covering most of the big ones, and themed bands that'll match a costume brief if you've gone hard on the decor.
Why Book Sydney Musicians Through ESS?
Hiring a musician shouldn't be a gamble. Booking directly off Facebook or Gumtree means hoping the act turns up, hoping the gear works, hoping they actually know the songs they said they did. Most of the time it's fine. Sometimes it isn't, and a few hundred dollars saved becomes a wedding reception with no first dance music.
ESS was founded in 2010 by Directors Brett Sams and Kirk Burgess, working Sydney musicians who got tired of watching venues book the wrong acts and clients get burnt by no-shows. Fifteen years on, our roster is a vetted list of performers we've personally seen play. We work with established artists who've been gigging Sydney for decades, and with emerging acts coming up through the local scene.
Every one of them has been checked for the things that actually matter at an event: musicianship, professionalism, gear, and the ability to read a room.
Vetted Performers Only
Every act on our books has been auditioned, gigged with, or both. We don't list musicians we haven't seen play. If we put someone in front of you, it's because we'd happily put them in front of our own clients (and we do, every week).
Real Humans on the Phone
You'll talk to a person, usually one who knows the act they're recommending personally. No web form abyss, no AI chatbot pretending to be a booking agent. Ring 0425 248 242 during business hours and you'll get one of us on the other end.
GEAR SORTED
Our musicians arrive with their own PA, microphones and stage lighting where the gig calls for it. You won't be chasing speaker hire the week of your event. If your venue has a house system, we'll match you with acts who can plug straight in.
Curveballs Handled
Real life happens. Acts get sick, gear fails, weddings run two hours late. When it does, we step in. Replacement performers, schedule adjustments, calls to the venue. It's the part of the job a Facebook booking can't offer.
Ready to Hire a Music Act?
Tell us the date, the venue, and roughly what you're after. We'll come back with a shortlist of acts that fit. Browse the roster above, or get in touch and we'll do the picking for you.
Call 0425 248 242 or head to our contact page to get started.
Looking for something else? ESS also runs karaoke nights, open mic nights, and pub trivia across Sydney.