ACFEA Newsletter 2003-04

Orchestra and Band Tours Performing Arts Tours Around the World . 2015 ACFEA provides you with . acfea.com • A dedicated Tour Manager who works with you from the initial proposal until 800-627-2141 the end of your tour • Offices and representatives worldwide, with experienced local staff, to ensure that your tour runs smoothly • Knowledgeable staff who travel extensively in the places you want to tour • The most reputable trucking services for transporting your instruments while you are on tour • Opportunities for your ensemble to perform with local groups • Distinctive cultural experiences to accent your tour such as homestays, special dinners and unique workshops • Up-to-date online information – customized for your group – on the Tour Central section of our website • Personal service throughout, including group presentations, careful handling of all individual travel requests, a pre-departure briefing for the entire group approximately one month prior to your tour and assistance with check-in at your departure airport Imagine performing . In the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, followed by a visit to the Great Wall during a tour of China A concert in the Dvoˇrák Hall of the Rudolfinum in Prague, followed by a dinner cruise on the Vltava River during a tour of the Czech Republic At jazz festivals in Modena and Perugia that attract thousands during a tour of Italy In the Conservatori Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro Manuel de Falla in Granada and the Teatro Auditorio de Cuenca during a tour of Spain Concerts in the Wrocław Filharmonia and in the Concert Hall of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw during a tour of Poland A concert in the world-famous Teatro Solis in Montevideo during a tour of Uruguay Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra 2014 Tour of China ACFEA is honored to be the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra’s exclusive concert tour organizer, and 2014 saw the fifth tour that we have CHINA arranged for them. Three have been to Europe, one to South America, and this latest one was to China. CYSO’s first performance, to a sold-out audience of over 2,000, was in the most prestigious concert hall in China: the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, often referred to as ‘The Egg’ because of its external appearance. Their final concert was in the Shanghai Oriental Art Center, a magnificent complex that fits three performance venues into a beautiful building that resembles an orchid from above; 1,600 people heard them there. In between were concerts in Xi'an’s Concert Hall and the Opera House of the Hangzhou Grand Theatre. All the concerts were attended by large crowds that warmly welcomed these young musicians and their program of Brahms, Bartók, Copland, Stravinsky and Zhou Long (they played The Rhyme of Taigu by this popular Chinese-American composer) was very well received. CYSO members on a rickshaw tour in Beijing DC Youth Orchestra Program 2014 Tour of Colombia On June 24th, the DC Youth Orchestra Program landed in Bogota. The nature of this tour meant that the orchestra would stay in Bogota COLOMBIA for the bulk of its trip, spending the first week of its visit in intensive rehearsals and workshops with Batuta, a Colombian youth orchestra program based on El Sistema in Venezuela. This was followed by three joint concerts, with nearly 130 players on stage at each performance, first in the Basilica in Tocancipa, then in the colonial town of Villa de Leyva, and finally in the Auditorio León de Greiff at the National University of Colombia in Bogota. The combined orchestra performed a program of Beethoven, Ginastera and Wagner, followed by an encore of the popular Colombian tune “Colombia Tierra Querida”, which never failed to inspire dancing in the audience (and the violin section!). By the end of the final concert, the bond between the two groups had become so strong that the DCYOP students had to be ripped out of the arms of the Colombians in order to make their flight home! ECYS in the Béla Bartók National El Camino Youth Symphony Concert Hall in Budapest, Hungary 2013 Tour of the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary El Camino’s 2013 tour took the performers to some of the key musical cities in Central Europe, and we were able to arrange concerts for them in some of the world’s most hallowed halls: • Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum, Prague CZECH REPUBLIC • Grosser Saal of the Mozarteum, Salzburg SLOVAKIA • Slovak Radio Hall, Bratislava AUSTRIA • Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Budapest HUNGARY Through the hard work of our colleagues in Europe, we were able to attract very good audiences for each concert: 800 in Prague, a near sell-out in Salzburg, 400 in Bratislava and over 1,000 in Budapest. Both the Salzburg and Bratislava concerts were in aid of local charities, with over €10,000 ($13,500 at that time) being raised in Salzburg. The US embassies in Prague and Budapest lent their support to their respective concerts, and the Cultural Attaché in Budapest joined ECYS for a Fourth of July dinner cruise on the Danube. 2 Brunswick Blue Notes 2013 Tour of Germany and Austria GERMANY It was mid-May and everything for the Brunswick Blue Notes’s tour of Germany and Austria was ready to go. There was just one problem: it was raining hard in Central Europe and wasn’t showing any sign of AUSTRIA stopping. May, 2013 had already been one of the wettest in the last 156 years in Austria, with Germany showing rainfall levels twice the norm. But when the rains didn’t let up, the rivers finally let go. Most of the Blue Notes’s tour arrangements were okay, with one exception: the little town of Pegau, a half hour south of Leipzig. The theater in which they were to perform was fine, but as it was the only building in the town that wasn’t flooded, it was serving as a refuge for those who needed shelter. It looked as if the whole thing would be canceled, but the concert organizers sprang into action, and soon a concert with the citizens of Pegau turned into a concert for the citizens of Pegau. The Höfe am Brühl, a brand-new mall in Leipzig, had built an atrium specifically for concerts. With good acoustics and the possibility of exposure from foot traffic, it made for an ideal spot for the concert. Paul Raaen, the director of the Blue Notes, called the concert a “moving performance.” Brunswick Blue Notes performs at the Höfe am Brühl in Leipzig, Germany ACFEA Turns 60 by Hugh Davies, President, ACFEA North America Founded in 1955, before almost all of our staff were born, we are celebrating our 60th birthday in 2015. Even I, the longest-serving employee in North America, will have 'only' been with the company for 29 years by then, a humbling thought that emphasizes the durability of the organization regardless of any individual. When we started, tours were much longer (not least because the transatlantic journey was by sea) and much cheaper (I have a brochure for a 1967 tour, 12 years later, advertising 22 days in 8 countries for $745, including airfare). But much has not changed: we are still staffed by musicians, we still inspect every hotel and every performance venue, we still give pre-departure briefings, and we still see groups off at the departure airport. It seems we got a lot right from the very beginning. I am honored to be part of an institution that has given so much pleasure to so many people for so many years, and very content knowing that, when the time eventually comes for me to retire, the company has a momentum and longevity of its own. Happy birthday, ACFEA! DC Youth Orchestra Program performs in the cathedral in Villa de Leyva, Colombia ACFEA staff in Savannah, GA during our 2014 Global Summit Photo courtesy of Marianne Swienink-Havard 3 acfea.com For your next destination consider... Italy Germany Roosevelt High School Jazz Band performs in the Piazza IV Novembre at the Denver Young Artists Orchestra performs in Brandenburg Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia Cathedral Spain Peru UC Davis Symphony Orchestra performs in the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona Chicago Consort performs in the Iglesia Santo Domingo in Cusco 4 For your next destination consider... Australia Germany “It was a pleasure for the Blue Notes to reach out to communities and people in need with our music and made our tour to Germany and Austria a much more meaningful experience that none of us will forget.” Paul Raaen, Director Brunswick Blue Notes Pacific Lutheran University Wind and Jazz Ensemble tour members in front of Sydney Harbour Austria Chicago Consort performs in the Iglesia Santo Domingo in Cusco Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra performs in the Musikverein for the judges of the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in Vienna 5 acfea.com ACFEA has arranged Office Locations tours for hundreds of Philadelphia orchestras and bands from San Francisco the United States and Seattle Anchorage Youth Symphony, AK (Director, Linn Weeda) Canada. Some of Bairnsdale, Australia 2012 Tour of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, our recent clients Berlin Hungary and Austria include: Bucharest Boston Youth Symphony, MA George, South Africa (Director, Federico Cortese) 2012 Tour of Austria and Hungary Guadalajara, Mexico Brunswick Blue Notes, CT (Director, Paul Raaen) Hong Kong 2013 Tour of Germany and Austria London California State University Fullerton Jazz Ensemble Rättvik, Sweden (Director, Charles Tumlinson) 2013 Tour of the USA Shanghai Cascade Youth Symphony, WA (Director, Gerry Marsh) St. Petersburg 2014 Tour of Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania Vicenza, Italy Chicago Consort, IL (Directors, Edward

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