NEW YORK MUSIC, THEATRE, ART & FOOD

MARCH 14-26, 2018 Final itinerary TOUR LEADER: DR MATTHEW LAING November 2017

Hamilton – Broadway’s hottest ticket NEW YORK Overview MUSIC, THEATRE, ART & FOOD Enjoy the best of the Big Apple on our 13-day residential-style tour to New Tour dates: March 14-26, 2018 York, a regular fixture on the Academy Travel program. We have carefully designed this tour to please all the senses with world-class experiences. This includes the very best in opera, symphony concerts, jazz Tour leader: Dr Matthew Laing performance, musicals and drama, some of the world’s top art and history museums, and a selection of the city’s finest restaurants. Tour Price: $10,350 per person, twin share Accommodation is in spacious premier plus rooms at the Warwick Hotel Single Supplement: $2,930 for sole use of on 54th St in ’s midtown. The hotel is within walking distance of double room the Museum of Modern Art, Carnegie Hall Central Park and finest shopping on Fifth Avenue, and close to the theatres of Times Square, the Lincoln Center and Rockefeller Center. Booking deposit: $500 per person

Americanist Dr Matthew Laing has led many tours to New York and will Recommended airline: Qantas provide a series of background lectures on the history, culture and architecture of the city, as well as carefully tailored of walking tours Maximum places: 20 throughout spanning infamous sights and hidden gems alike. In addition, expert art historians and will conduct several gallery visits. There is also Itinerary: New York (12 nights) plenty of free time to relax and for individual sightseeing.

Date published: November 22, 2017 Your tour leader Dr Matthew Laing has a comprehensive knowledge of the history and society of the United States and has travelled the length and breadth of the country for research, personal interest and as a tour leader.

Matthew holds a PhD in politics and history from the Australian National University, where his research focused on historical patterns of leadership within US presidency. He currently works as a research fellow at Monash University. In 2007, he spent six months in Washington as an intern at the US Congress and has provided expert advice on leadership to government agencies in Australia, the United States and the Netherlands. Matthew started leading tours to the US for Academy Travel in 2014, all including stays in New York.

For Matthew New York is the quintessential city of the modern world. “Although is it not the biggest, the oldest or the wealthiest, it is by far the most richly diverse and influential. Every walk of life is represented here - the city is a vast patchwork of ethnic, religious and cultural communities, Enquiries and and over 800 languages are thought to be spoken across the five bookings boroughs. Its ability to harmoniously straddle the world's cultures and create something entirely new along the way is New York's greatest For further information and to strength. It is an international symbol of success, a Mecca for Western secure a place on this tour culture and entrepot for the world's trade.” please contact Jemma York at Academy Travel on “Matthew Laing was brilliant. His knowledge and ability to present it was 9235 0023 or 1800 639 699 exceptional. He was also amiable, helpful and well organised.” Feedback (outside Sydney) or email from Academy Travel’s Washington, Chicago and New York tour, October [email protected] 2014.

Seven outstanding performances Each year we offer a carefully selected line up of live performances, spanning operatic and orchestral classics, jazz, quality drama and Broadway musicals. For 2018, we have booked the following:  The smash-hit Musical , based on the life of New Yorker Alexander Hamilton  The spectacular Franco Zeffirelli production of Puccini’s Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera  Come From Away, an award winning new musical from Canada  Legendary pianist Marta Argerich and violinist Itshak Perlman in recital at Carnegie Hall  Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women, starring Glenda Jackson  Tracy Letts’ new play, The Minutes, direct from Chicago’s renowned Steppenwolf Theatre  An evening of jazz in the elegant Appel Room overlooking Central Park

Optional Performances No matter what your taste, if you love live performances we are able to arrange tickets to additional performances on your nights off. Choose from:  Dance events at the City Center Theater, David Koch theatre or the Brooklyn Academy of Music  Broadway plays and musicals selected from the 2017-18 season  The Met Opera – Madama Butterfly, Elektra or Cosi Fan Tutte  Jazz at popular venues such as Birdland or the Blue Note Jazz Club  Chamber music at Barge Music in Brooklyn

Most of these additional performances can be organised with your tour leader when you are in New York. We’ll contact you with options in the months leading up to departure and let you know if any shows are likely to book out early.

Three Highlight meals Dine in elegant spaces and explore New York’s food scene:  Lunch at The Boathouse restaurant in Central Park  Lunch at the Michelin two-star restaurant The Modern, inside the Museum of Modern Art  Degustation dinner at the Michelin three-star restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, recently rated as the best restaurant in the world  In addition, lunches at the historic Fraunces Tavern and the Morgan Library

Art, Architecture and History A carefully selected sightseeing program, ranging from European Old Masters to cutting- edge contemporary arts, with expert guidance:  Private out-of-hours viewing of the Museum of Modern Art with a museum lecturer  Day-trip north to Westchester County and the Rockefeller Estate at Kykuit  Curator-led tour of The Cloisters, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exquisite medieval collection  Remarkable small galleries, including The Frick Collection and the Neue Galerie  The Cooper-Hewitt design museum, housed in Andrew Carnegie’s 5th Avenue mansion  Architectural walking tours of The Financial District, Midtown Art Deco, SoHo, Chelsea and the High Line Detailed itinerary

Included meals are shown with the symbols B, L and D.

Wednesday March 14 Arrive New York Flights from Australia arrive in New York in the late afternoon. In the early evening, we gather for drinks in the hotel bar. If you have arrived early we suggest you take one of the many harbour cruises available in Manhattan, and can particularly recommend the AIA tour. The Staten Island Ferry, the Museum of Natural History and going up the Empire State Building are other iconic New York offerings not specifically covered on our tour that you Above: Fraunces Tavern, a relic of New York’s earliest days in the might consider visiting beforehand. Academy Travel can busy Wall Street precinct arrange bookings. Below: Javier Muñoz as the US Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton; the Boathouse, Central Park Thursday March 15 Downtown – Hamilton We begin our exploration of New York’s unique history and architecture in the downtown area, where the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam was founded in the 17th-century. We walk down some of New York’s oldest streets, learning the history of the Dutch and British colonies and visiting sites such as the elegant beaux-arts style Customs House, Wall Street, the 9/11 Memorial, Trinity Church and the site of George Washington’s inauguration. Lunch and an introductory lecture will be at the historic Fraunces Tavern, one of New York’s oldest remaining buildings and where Washington famously farewelled his officers prior becoming the first president of the newly independent USA. This evening we kick off our performances with the smash-hit musical Hamilton, for some time the hottest ticket on Broadway. The musical tells the story of the dramatic life of New Yorker Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the US treasury. It’s an unlikely topic for a musical, but its popularity is proof of Broadway’s never-ending inventiveness. (B, L)

Performance details Venue: Richard Rodgers Theater Program: Hamilton, book, music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda Performers: Javier Muñoz (Hamilton), Daniel Breaker (Aaron Burr), Lexi Lawson (Eliza Hamilton), Euan Morton (King George), Bryan Terrell Clark (George Washington)

Friday March 16 Frick Museum and Central Park This morning be begin with a visit the Frick Collection, a unique museum of European old masters’ paintings of very highest quality, displayed in the former private home of Pittsburgh entrepreneur Henry Clay Frick. The house and its staggering art collection epitomise the taste and wealth of America’s ‘Gilded Age’ from 1890-1929, and is an exemplar of the opulent mansions that once dominated the Upper East side. We then head to Central Park for a late lunch at the Boathouse restaurant. Weather permitting, we will stroll home through Central Park, whose landscaping has been described as New York’s largest work of art, and take in some of the carefully sculpted vistas the park provides, as well as notable areas like Strawberry Fields and the Bethesda Terrace. This evening there is the option of catching a Broadway show, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the Met Opera, or a chamber concert at Barge Music in Brooklyn. (B, L)

Saturday March 17 Midtown Art Deco – Three Tall Women This morning we begin with a lecture in the lecture in the Rockefeller Center, and we explore some of the Beaux-Arts and Art-Deco architecture of New York’s midtown district, including icons such as the Waldorf Astoria, Rockefeller Center, the GE Building, the New York Public Library and the Chrysler Building. We also look at mid-century architectural masterpieces by Mies Van der Rohe, Gordon Bunschaft and Phillip Johnson, as well as the United Nations Complex. The late afternoon is free. This evening we head to a theatre in Broadway to see Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women. Albee was a leading mid-century American dramatist, most famous for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Above: English stage and screen legend Glenda Jackson returns to Woolf. Tonight’s performance stars English stage legend Broadway after a 30-year absence Glenda Jackson. (B)

Below: Daniel Burnham’s ‘Flatiron’ building, one of countless Performance details architectural gems on Manhattan Venue: John Golden Theater Program: Three Tall Women, by Edward Albee Performers: Glenda Jackson, Laurie Metcalf, Joe Mantello (director)

Sunday March 18 the Cooper-Hewitt and the Guggenheim Today we visit two important museums on the Upper East Side. First up is the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum. Part of the Smithsonian Institution’s museum network, this superb design museum is located in steel baron Andrew Carnegie’s elegant Fifth Avenue mansion, itself an interesting historic site. Not far away is Frank Lloyd Wright’s unique spiral design for the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum. We will inspect the building and there will be time to visit the exhibition by contemporary artist Danh Vo for those interested. There will be an optional walk in the morning to take in some of the top sights on 5th Avenue, long a home of the finest shopping and accommodation in the city, including the Plaza Hotel, Bergdorf Goodman, Tiffany’s and the now infamous Trump Tower (B).

Monday March 19 SOHO to Chelsea After a morning lecture, we continue our exploration of New York’s neighbourhoods with a coach and walking tour of the cast-iron architecture of Soho, Washington Square, Greenwich Village and Chelsea, as well as stopping by the Merchant’s House Museum and Flatiron Building on the way. In Chelsea, we’ll stroll the High Line, an urban park created from a disused industrial railway, compete with plants and art work that

overlooks a rapidly changing area of the city. The slick apartments buildings on either side of the High Line are a showcase of contemporary architecture, with buildings by Renzo Piano, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and many others on view. There will be opportunity for you to lunch and shop at the Chelsea Markets. (B)

Tuesday March 20 The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Jazz at the Lincoln Center We spend the morning at The Cloisters, the Metropolitan Above: an unexpected touch of green in the city - the Chelsea High Line Museum of Art’s medieval department, located on the northern tip of Manhattan, featuring a collection of medieval works of art and sculpture that is easily the rival of many European Below: The Cloisters provides a wonderful context for the collections. On the way to the Cloisters we call in at the Met Museum’s superb medieval collection; the Appel Room, a great venue for jazz Riverside Church, built in the gothic style with funds provided by the pious Baptist John D. Rockefeller. Adjacent is the tomb of Civil War hero Ulysses S Grant. We then travel to the Metropolitan Museum’s main campus, where we’ll explore the impressive American Wing and a selection of the museum’s 54 departments. A free afternoon will follow to allow you time to explore this vast and encyclopaedic collection of the world’s art and culture. This evening we enjoy an evening of Swing or Jazz music at the Appel Room at Jazz at the Lincoln Center complex. Overlooking Central Park, the musical temperature rises as the sun sets over Manhattan. (B)

Performance details Venue: Appel Room, Jazz at the Lincoln Center Program: Jazz band and/or vocalists, to be announced November 2017 Performers: to be announced November 2017

Wednesday March 21 Lower East Side and Ellis Island – Puccini’s Turandot Today we explore the rich history of immigration and cultural interchange that has defined much of New York’s unique history and peoples. We begin with a tour of the Lower East Side, long a hub for new immigrants to the city, and explore Little Italy and Chinatown, as well as take a visit to the Tenement Museum, a remarkably preserved example of the 19th century immigrant experience. We’ll also take the opportunity to take in some of the Jewish heritage in the area, such as the Eldridge Street Synagogue and Katz’s Delicatessen. In the afternoon, we’ll take the ferry out to Ellis Island, now maintained as a National Park unit. Ellis Island was the port of entry for millions of immigrants to the United States and now stands as a permanent museum of their lives and stories. This evening we make our way to the Metropolitan Opera for the spectacular Franco Zeffirelli production of Puccini’s Turandot. Soprano Martina Serafin, with tenor Marcelo Álvarez tackling the celebrated aria Nessun Dorma. (B, L)

Performance details Venue: The Metropolitan Opera Program : Puccini, Turandot Performers: Martina Serafin, Marcelo Álvarez, Guanqun Yu (Liu)

Thursday March 22 Morgan Library - Carnegie Hall This morning after a final lecture on New York we visit the exquisite Morgan Library, containing a wonderful treasury of extremely rare manuscripts and books collected by the banker J.P. Morgan. Ranging from ancient cuneiform tablets to key documents of American history, this is one of the world’s great bibliographic collections. Morgan’s collection is housed in several exquisite and connected buildings, beginning with Charles McKim’s Renaissance-style rotunda of 1906, flowing into Renzo Piano’s light-filled 2006 atrium. We stay for lunch in the Morgan’s elegant restaurant. This evening we head to historic Carnegie Hall to hear two of the world’s finest instrumentalists present a recital of chamber works, including Bach and Franck. (B, L)

Performance details Venue: Carnegie Hall Program: Chamber works, including violin sonatas by Bach and Franck Performers: Marta Argerich, piano and Itzhak Perlman, violin

Friday March 23 MoMA Private Viewing – The Minutes

A highlight of our tour is this morning’s private tour of MoMA, Above: the extraordinary interior of the JP Morgan library; the New York’s famous Museum of Modern Art. Before the doors Metropolitan Opera’s grand entrance open to the public, a museum lecturer guides us through the museum’s greatest works. After the tour, you are free to spend Below: an Academy travel private viewing at the Museum of Modern Art the entire day at MoMA if you wish. Lunch is at the Museum’s excellent restaurant The Modern. This Michelin two-star restaurant overlooks the MoMA’s sculpture courtyard as is certain to be one of the culinary highlights of the tour. This evening we return to Broadway for a new play by Tracy Letts. The Minutes premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre in November 2017. Set in a local council meeting, but dealing with much broader issues, Variety described it as ‘nearly certain to be the single work of art that best represents, but will also survive, the Trump era’. (B, L)

Performance details Venue: A Broadway Theater Program: The Minutes, by Tracy Letts Performers: Kevin Anderson, Ian Barford, Brittany Burch

Saturday March 24 Brooklyn Heights Brooklyn was first developed as an independent city, becoming part of New York only in 1898. Today we explore the elegant brownstone row houses of Brooklyn Heights – home to writers, artists and, once, millions of immigrants. We also stroll through the chic Down Under Below the Manhattan Bridge Overpass (DUMBO) precinct. Weather permitting, we’ll walk back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge, a wonder in is own right, and take a walk around the landmarks in the Civic Precinct, including the Woolworth Building and City Hall. The evening is free, with lots of entertainment offerings available, including Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte at the Metropolitan Opera, Barge Music in Dumbo or a dance performance. (B)

Sunday March 25 Harlem Gospel – Come from Away – Degustation Dinner An early departure this morning to catch the 8.00am sung service at the Convent Avenue Baptist Church in Harlem. Our Palm Sunday service will feature traditional choir, gospel, a vibrant congregation and a thundering sermon delivered by the pastor, the Rev Dr Jesse T Williams Jr. After a free morning, we return to Broadway for an entertaining and thought-provoking final performance. The new musical Come From Away is set in Newfoundland, Canada, where in September 2001, 38 planes were forced to land after September 11. It has been nominated for no fewer than seven . This evening we farewell New York with a dining highlight of the tour – a degustation dinner at Eleven Madison Park. Recently Eleven Madison Park was rated at the world’s best restaurant in a leading annual survey. Our degustation menu features locally sourced produce prepared and presented in innovative ways. (B, D)

Performance details Venue: Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre Above: walking towards Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge

Program: Come From Away, book and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein Performers: Kendra Kassebaum,Jenn Colella, Sharon Wheatley, Lee MacDougall,Chad Kimball, Rodney Hicks Below: Come from Away – the surprise hit of the 2017-18 Broadway season

Monday March 26 Top of the Rock – Departure Late this morning we visit the ‘Top of the Rock’ observatory for 360-degree views over Manhattan, Long Island and New Jersey, located within the Rockefeller Center. In the mid- afternoon, there is a transfer to JFK airport for those departing New York. (B)

The Warwick Hotel

Our four-star hotel is very conveniently located in midtown Manhattan, on 54th Street. We have booked premier-plus grade rooms. These are large and comfortable, each with modern amenities. The hotel is in walking distance of many of New York’s most popular attractions. The hotel has just completed a major renovation. www.warwickhotelny.com

Tour Price Fitness Requirements

The tour price is $10,350 per person, twin share (land content of THIS tour only). The supplement for a single room is $2,930 per person. A non-refundable deposit of $500 per person is required to GRADE ONE secure a place on the tour. It is important both for you and for your fellow travellers that you are fit enough to be able to enjoy all the activities on this second deposit tour. To give you an indication of the level of physical fitness With the publication of this final itinerary a second deposit of required to participate on our tours, we have given them a $1,500 becomes due. We will send you an invoice for this star grading. Academy Travel’s tours tend to feature amount approximately two weeks after we receive your extended walking tours and site visits, which require greater booking. Alternatively, you can simply pay $2,000 per person fitness than coach touring. We ask you instead to consider with your booking to cover both the initial and second deposit. carefully your ability to meet the physical demands of the tour. Tour Inclusions Participation criteria for this tour

Included in the tour price This Grade One tour is appropriate for travellers in good health with good mobility. You should be able to comfortably  12 nights’ accommodation in premier plus rooms at the participate in up to three hours of physical activity per day on Warwick Hotel in midtown Manhattan most days, including walking at an easy pace, sometimes on  All breakfasts, and selected lunches and dinners in uneven terrain, climbing stairs and standing in galleries. hotels and local restaurants You should be able to:  Land travel by air-conditioned coach or taxi as required  keep up with the group at all times  Best available tickets to seven performances of opera,  walk for 2-3 kilometres at a moderate to slow pace with classical music, drama and a Broadway musical only short breaks  Background notes and background talks  stand for a reasonable length of time in galleries and  Services of Academy Travel expert tour leader museums throughout tour  negotiate stairs and bridges  All entrance fees to sites mentioned on itinerary  get on and off a coach, ferry or boat with steep stairs  Expert local guides at selected sites unassisted  Tips for all services stated as included in the itinerary  move your luggage a short distance if required  Porterage of one piece of luggage A note for older travellers Not included If you are more than 80 years old, or have restricted mobility,  International air fares, taxes and surcharges (see below) it is likely that you will find this itinerary challenging. You may  Travel insurance have to miss certain activities and may not get the full value  Visa costs of the tour. Before submitting your booking form, please  Meals not mentioned in itinerary contact Academy Travel to discuss your situation and the  Expenses of a personal nature exact physical requirements of this tour. While we will do our best to reasonably accommodate the physical needs of all Air travel OPTIONS group members, we reserve the right to refuse bookings if we feel that the requirements of the tour are too demanding The tour price quoted is for land content only. For this tour we for you and/or if local conditions mean we cannot reasonably recommend Qantas or United who have regular flights to accommodate your condition. New York. Please contact us for further information on competitive Economy, Business and First Class airfares. Taxi transfers between airport and hotel are included for all Moving Around New York passengers booking their flights through Academy Travel. To get to performances in the evenings we will use a private These may be group or individual transfers. coach or walk. Some of our travel from site to site in New York in the daytime will be in taxis. Taxis are much faster Enquiries & bookings than coaches and give us total flexibility in the program. On one or two occasions, we will also use the city’s subway For further information and to secure a place on this tour system. Please note that there is a fair amount of walking on please contact Jemma York at Academy Travel on 9235 this tour and a moderate degree of fitness is required. 0023 or 1800 639 699 (outside Sydney) or email [email protected]