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Choral performance cruiseDate: April 17, 2013 by Joel Ross  Views: 928
Hello,
I'm seeking information on whether anyone might have experience or insight regarding the advantages and disadvantages of a chorus participating in a cruise with a performance theme rather than a concert tour per se. The boychoir I direct will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2014, and we have toured nationally every year and internationally every 3-4 years. The proposals we have received thus far include destinations to the Orient and Europe. It appears that tours of this scope may now be unaffordable for many of our families, and at a recent board meeting, it was suggested that we explore the idea of a concert cruise. It is imperative to me that any concert travel experience have strong musical, educational, cultural, and historic components. Are travel companies experienced in planning, promoting, and executing a more affordable option such as a cruise, while at the same time, providing excellent concert venues, strong audience development, and other important elements? Might there be some recommendations or suggestions?
Thanks,
Joel Ross
Replies (4): Threaded | Chronological
Eileen Finley on April 18, 2013 8:04am
WOW! What a great question Joel. I don't have any experiece to offer but I'll definitely be interested in the responses you receive. I've frequently considered this option for touring with children. The only down side for me is that I can imagine the parents and families (siblings, grandparents, etc) wanting to join the cruise and then suddenly the choir tour will turn into a family vacation and the children will have lots of adults pulling them in different directions????
Historically when we tour, we invite parents to do a prallel tour and invite them to attend our concerts at each stop along the way but we keep our distance during the day and the choir is housed separately from their parents. We insist on this to maintain the autonomy and the uniqueness of a choir tour as opposed to a family vacation, not to mention to keep the choir focused on the task of preparing for and presenting concert performances every other day.
Looking forward to some information on this idea.
Eileen Finley
Pennsylvania Youth Chorale
Joel Ross on April 20, 2013 9:01am
Hello Eileen,
Thanks for your reply. We're researching options at this time. It seems that many of the performance cruise packages allow for one 30 minute concert on the ship during a 5-day cruise, and 2 concerts for a 7+ day cruise. My feeling is that we would need to consider other performance options while on land to round out the musical experience. My other concern is that most cruise participants want to be entertained while on ship. Our balanced repertoire of sacred, music of the masters, world and folk music, and lighter fare may not be the optimum fit for this audience. Of course, we can do a much lighter program, but we're not a show choir or an ensemble that performs with a lot of choreography and costume changes. I'm still sorting this out in my head.
Thanks,
Joel
on April 19, 2013 4:08am
Hello Joel,
I am the Founder and Director of Encore Creativity for Older Adults and we have done two crossings on the Queen Mary 2, various Caribbean cruises and this May we will be cruising on Grand Circle Cruise line from Normandy to Paris. On the QM2 and Carribean Cruises, we simply rehearsed in the morning and performed for the ship on the final day of the cruise.
For our French cruise coming up, I did want our great older adult singers to be able to perform on French soil. When I first spoke with Grand Circle, they said they could be instrumental in finding us two concert venues. That did not happen. Luckily, I have a singer who has contacts in France and we will be doing a concert in Rouen. When I wrote to various churches and towns, I recieved a negative response. I think many of them deal only with the concert tour organizers.
I contacted various choral tour organizations, and they were only interested in finding us venues if they could plan the entire trip.
Travelling with older adults, average age over 70, I need to know my singers will travel in comfort. THe river cruise allows us to unpack once and travel in comfort. That is why we chose them. I know everything will be easy and excellent. I could not consider travelling by bus and doing many concerts.
You may try the embassies of the countries you wish to visit.
Encore is the nation's largest choral organization for older adults. We have 13 Encore Chorales in the MD/DC/N.VA area serving over 620 singers. We perform in high profile concert venues such as the Kennedy Center.
Good luck,
Jeanne Kelly
on April 20, 2013 9:15am
Hi Jeanne,
Thanks for the info on concert cruises. In my reply to Eileen, I had mentioned that some of the performance tour cruise companies allow for one 30 minute concert while on ship during a 5-day cruise and 2 mini concerts for a 7+ day cruise. In my opinion, this is not enough performance options to make the tour truly a performance tour. It's more like a vacation with one concert included. Your experience with less-than-enthusiastic responses to your requests to sing in various venues in specific ports of call also concerns me. Also, your situation of touring with singers aged 70+ is really the opposite of ours. The boys (age 10-18) need to be active and engaged the whole time. They're not unaccustomed to performing every night, plus informal impromptu singing throughout the day. I guess we'll need to do a little more homework on our end and see if this is the best fit
Thank you very much for your response, and good luck with your organization. It's great that you're encouraging singers to keep active in choral ensembles in their later years.
All the best,
Joel Ross
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