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 Manhattan’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 Hamilton, 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.