Is Your Chorus Ready To Tour?

Western Europe, with its rich classical music tradition, is a prime destination, of course, but choral groups also travel to countries off the well-beaten path—Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and South Africa, to name a few.

In addition to the obvious joys of traveling, touring confers many benefits for a chorus, including the chance to bond as a group, to stretch musically, and to create new enthusiasm and commitment. But make no mistake, touring is also a huge investment of time and money—for both the individual singers and for the choral organization.

"There's real sticker shock for people traveling these says," says Dennis Hunt of Concept Tours in New York. "Tours to Europe that went for $2,700 a few years ago are nowhere in that ball park now."

In light of the costs, choruses are taking a harder look at touring. They are asking, is touring an inevitable rite of passage, that pivotal event that confirms your maturity as an organization? Is there a right time in the life cycle of a chorus to consider touring? How can you tell if you're at that point? And if you decide to tour, how can you put together the right package for your group?

To answer these questions, we asked the staff of a number of companies that manage artistic tours and several adult choruses that have toured to share their experiences and offer their own "words to the wise."

Assessing Your Readiness

Choruses of all sizes, budgets, and levels of musical prowess can and do travel, with rewarding results, tour operators affirm. "Touring is not just for the greatest choirs with the biggest budgets," agrees Bryan Black, music director of DeKalb Choral Guild of Atlanta. "When your choir is doing well, producing good music, and there's a good balance in the sections, there comes a time when you think, 'Let's go.'"

That time came for the Choral Guild in 2005—seven years into Black's tenure. Black's interest in German language and culture certainly influenced the choice of Germany and the Czech Republic as destinations, but he warns against pushing ahead with a tour based on the music director's tastes and enthusiasm alone.

To gauge the singers' interest in touring, the Choral Guild sent a simple survey with open-ended questions asking where they preferred to travel, times of year they could travel, and how much they would be willing to spend. The enthusiastic response signaled that there was pent-up demand and that the time was ripe.

"But I wouldn't suggest planning a tour in your first year as music director," Black concedes. Groups experiencing a transition in leadership or any kind of internal strife may not be tour-ready. Waiting a year or two might produce an environment much more conducive for touring.

Is Touring A Priority?

A chorus also needs to figure out how touring fits into its overall goals and priorities. The board of Cantate Chamber Singers in Maryland began researching tour possibilities one year, but at a planning meeting the next year decided to defer tour plans and instead focus on recording a CD.

Cantate's music director Gisele Becker says the decision made good strategic sense. "If a choice has to be made between touring and recording, I think recording gives you a bigger bang for your buck," says Becker. "Many more folks will hear you on a CD than on a tour."

Balance the Sections

It may seem obvious, but if you want to tour you need to have enough singers to put together a viable chorus. "Remember, not everyone in your chorus will be able go on tour," says Black. "The choir you see on rehearsal night may not be the one you put on the plane." Polling the chorus may reveal gaping holes in sections. This may put the kibosh on tour plans—or it could be the thing that energizes a chorus to beef up its sections.

Black warns against padding your touring group with too many extra singers, however. "You don't want to be unrecognizable as your chorus," he says. "That's not good for morale."

The Cost Factor

In order to tour, choruses and their singers must take a deep breath and embrace the finances. "You have to be able to say, 'We are ready to commit to a certain dollar amount and to commit to fundraising or whatever it takes to get there,'" says Frank Davis of World Cultural Tours.

Choruses have devised various strategies for helping singers defray the costs of a tour. A full year-and-a-half before a planned tour, the Choral Guild's board treasurer put together various payment plans so singers could begin socking away money for the tour. Singers from the Seattle Men's Chorus have been known to raise funds for their tours through rummage sales, which are advertised prominently in its production company's quarterly Flying House Magazine, and through hot dog sales at baseball games. Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners, lets nonprofit groups man concession stands, with a portion of the proceeds going toward their causes.

We Want To Tour—Now What?

Once a group has decided to tour, one of the first questions is, should we hire a tour company or can we make arrangements ourselves? Certainly, some choruses produce their own tours, and with great success. An energetic team of volunteers put together three European tours for the Chorus of Westerly in Rhode Island, a mammoth undertaking considering the group's large entourage—some 140 adults and children singers plus another 150 or so orchestra members, family, and friends.

Self-producing the tour allowed for certain personal touches, including a mass picnic under the great beech at Tewkesbury Abbey, Exmoor in Great Britain. The group even published a bookabout touring overseas with the tagline, "If we can do it, so can you."

But for its next tour, executive director Emma Palzere-Rae decided to turn the reins over to a company that specializes in chorus tours. "People's lives are different now," she says. "There's not as much energy to volunteer, and international travel is much more complicated."

Chorus tour companies claim that choruses save money—or at least break even—by outsourcing to a music tour specialist. Says Neeta Helms of Classical Movements, Inc., "I know we save choruses money, because we have relationships with so many airlines and hotels, etc. And there's also the time factor. It takes lots of time to organize a tour."

There's also the touchy question of liability. "If you have sunk $20,000 into airfares, says Frank Davis of World Cultural Tours, "and another $40,000 into hotels, restaurants, and bus companies, and there's another disaster like 9-11, it's hard to get your money back.

"That actually happened with many of our groups after 9-11," says Davis, "and because of our ongoing relationships we were able to get their money back."

Music tour companies have an advantage over companies booking regular vacation tours because of their knowledge of all the logistical details unique to concert productions. "Music tours have 10 times the details of a regular vacation tour," says Don Harper of Arts Bureau for the Continents. "Not only are you moving people and luggage, you're also checking out concert venues, hiring orchestras, booking rehearsal space, and more."

For this reason, many chorus tour companies like to hire musicians or former music educators as staff. "I'd much rather teach a musician about travel than a travel agent about music," says Hugh Davies of ACFEA Tour Consultants.

"None of our tours are typical vacation packages," says David Rasmussen of Tour Resource Consultants, which bills itself as "musicians serving musicians."

"We look for unique venues for our groups," he explains. "For a chamber group, for example, you need an intimate setting with immediate visual contact between the singers and the audience. If you take a group to a venue, you need to know that it will be supportive of the group."

Fitting the Tour To Your Chorus

Groups interested in touring often select a committee made up of singers, staff, and perhaps board members to investigate tour possibilities. To help zero in, it's important to ask: "Why are we touring? What is our goal?"

Goals for a tour may be as simple as "We want to bond as a group," or "We want to improve musically," or "We want to sing for a broader audience," or "We want reviews in an out-of-town newspaper." Or they can be as far-reaching as "We want to make a difference in the world." Your primary goal will help you fashion the trip appropriately.

Touring as A Bonding Experience

The chamber chorus Voices XXI planned its first tour to France in 2003 to ""build cohesion between new members and those who already knew each other," according to music director Jesse Parker. Most of its singers had come from the University of Maryland Chorus, a symphonic chorus that had toured regularly.

"Our choristers had been to Europe before, so we weren't looking for six countries in five days," says Parker. "We wanted to move around as little as possible, so we had more time together."

The group stayed in Paris and sang only three concerts, performing works of Claudin de Sermisy and Jean Berger that they had already perfected for their spring concert. They didn't need to rehearse every day, which left plenty of time for day trips and sightseeing...and bonding.

Stretching Musically

Practically every touring chorus will say that singing in new venues expands their singers' horizons and sharpens them musically. But for some choruses this is the primary goal of a tour, and they tend to perform more concerts than on a typical tour.

During both its 2001 and 2004 tours of Europe, the Sonoran Desert Chorale of Mesa, Arizona gave six major performances over 12 days, with ""drive-by"" sings in several other locales. "A drive-by means we would get off the bus at a church and ask the monsignor for permission to sing," says music director Jeff Harris. "We do have days off, but we love to sing. That's why we go."

To make such an energetic tour manageable, the Chorale limits hotel changes to four, with run-outs to other locations. "And we limit the total number of singers and friends and family so that we'll fit on one bus," says Harris. "It makes the logistics so much easier."

Making A Statement

The Seattle Men's Chorus has as part of its mission to use "the power of words and music to recognize the value of gay and straight people and their relationships." So its singers go on tour with at least an implicit goal of promoting human rights as well having a good time and entertaining audiences. For this reason, the group's 1998 European tour was timed to coincide with Amsterdam's Gay Games—a sports competition and cultural festival celebrating gay and lesbian athletes and artists—where the group performed at the closing ceremony.

In 2005, the Men's Chorus and the Women's Chorus decided that the times called for a tour of the Northern Rockies rather than an overseas tour. "After the 2004 election, there was this dichotomy about red states and blue states," says Tom Luhnow, then the executive director. "So we said, why not go into these so-called red states—Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah—and say 'no, these are everybody states,' and spread the message of diversity."

From a tour organizing perspective, having a social justice agenda means you allow time for it and you go to places where your message will have an impact. Two of the six concerts on the Rockies tour were benefits for local lesbian and gay organizations.

Selecting the Repertoire

The music you present in a tour venue is crucial, according to choruses and tour operators. Many choruses travel with significantly fewer singers than perform during their regular season and must adapt the repertoire to fit—no Beethoven's Ninth for a chorus of 60, for example. And it goes without saying that you must have a good balance on each part to pull off almost any repertoire.

Audiences in most tour destinations have an appreciation for Western classical music and they want to hear North American styles, such as spirituals and folk music. "But it's important to know the region where you are traveling and to sing music from that area," says Harris. In South Africa, you might explore call-and-response a cappella; in Mexico, the music of the Baroque artists Manuel de Zumaya and Ignacio de Jerusalem.

On its 2004 tour, the Sonoran Desert Chorale performed in a 1,000-year-old church in a tiny town in the Czech Republic. "The audience was attentive, but kind of stoic," Harris recalls. "But when we started singing Dvorak's Song to the Moon, there was this immediate sigh of recognition that was palpable. This was their music, their land."

Some choruses let the repertoire guide them to their travel destination. Voices XXI's spring concert of music by Claudin de Sermisy paved the way for its summer tour of France. "To sing music we've already perfected in Sainte Chapelle, where Sermisy was once a priest and court musician, was amazing," says Parker. "It's wonderful to experience how the music relates to the space and culture for which it was written."

Choosing a Tour Company

Once you know why you want to tour, where, and with what repertoire, you'll be in a better position to talk to tour companies. Tour operators are happy to guide you as you think through your tour, but before you sign a contract, consider these steps suggested by touring choruses and tour companies.

• Be prepared before you ask tour companies to give a proposal. "A chorus tour committee may come to us with 10 different ideas," says Hugh Davies of ACFEA. "Or a music director of an adult choir says he wants a two-week tour with 10 concerts and you know that he has not talked to his singers." In particular, make sure the music director is in the decisionmaking loop.
• Get bids from various companies, but don't automatically go with the lowest bid. You need to stay within range of what choristers can afford, of course, but you don't want to cut corners.
• Ask if a tour company has experience in the region to which you plan to travel or with the venues you hope to perform in. For example, Arts Bureau for the Continents and Concept Tours both produce their own choral festivals in which traveling choruses can apply to perform.
• Talk to other choruses that have traveled with the touring companies you are considering. Most companies will be glad to give you references. Ask the references questions like, "How was your overall experience?" "Were there hidden costs?" "Did the company let you down in any way?" "If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently?"
• Be clear about how the tour will be promoted. Many tour companies do the marketing, but choruses must play their part. "If you want to perform in one of the great cathedrals in Europe," says Davies, "don't send a copy of last year's brochure and think that will be enough for publicity."
• Get to know the tour company you want to work with. Proposals may look very similar on paper, but you'll be working with the company you choose for a year or more and paying them a great deal of money. "If a company does what you want and answers your questions, rather than coming back with a pre-packaged deal," says Parker, "that's a company that is listening to you and that you can work with."

Managing Expectations

Many adult singers are seasoned travelers, and they may have fond memories of that five-star hotel in Vienna or restaurant in Paris. But a performance tour and a vacation tour are two different animals.

"As a choir, you may be staying at a hotel outside the city to save costs," says Hunt of Concept Tours. "And people may be very disappointed with that. You have to be upfront with your group so that nobody is left in the dark about what to expect."

In order to communicate clearly, many traveling choruses start a full two years early planning the tour and putting the word out. "That's why a three-year interval of touring is good for us," says Harris of Sonoran Desert Chorale. "We go on tour, then for the next year we revel in the idea that we went. Then people start asking about the next tour. We give people notice to start saving their money. Then about a year before, we get specific with our plans."

Managing expectations is key, according to Neeta Helms of Classical Movements. "You need to find that person in your chorus who can communicate well with the singers and music director," she says, "and who can make decisions and not vacillate too much."

If an extended overseas tour is not part of your chorus's immediate future plans, there may be other ways to "step out." Helms reminds choruses not to forget North America as a destination. Wonderful venues await singers, from the Grand Teton Music Festival in the Northwest to Ravinia outside of Chicago to concert halls in affordable cities such as Quebec.

Touring can be a mindset more than a destination. No matter how far from home you roam, the spirit of touring is something to which every chorus can aspire. "Touring is that thing that takes you beyond the four walls of your rehearsal room and the four concerts of your regular season," says Black of the Dekalb Choral Guild. "Touring could be in your own state, or even venturing across town to sing at a homeless shelter.

"Touring is about capturing people's imagination and opening them to new possibilities. And it's worth every drop of energy you put into it."

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This article is adapted from the The Voice, Fall 2006.