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Tour Letter 2011
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2011 Tour Itinerary
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Date: TBD
Sussex County Youth Orchestras
Dawn and Gerald Tedesco - Directors
PO Box 1052
Andover, New Jersey 07821
(973) 786 5837
Dear SCYO members and friends,
As you know, there has been much discussion regarding a proposed orchestra tour to the UK, France (Paris and Normandy) during the summer of 2011. St Bedes School will be visiting us very shortly in late June, during which time, many exciting activities have been planned. Andrew Barclay recently stayed at our home for three days in March, during which time we planned the upcoming itinerary. You may recall that we initiated an exchange with St Bedes in 1999, at which time we performed in both Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall with fantastic success.
They are anxious to reciprocate when we travel to St Bedes in June of 2011. Our tour will include a stay with host families for several days with rehearsals, a gala concert and many exciting activities in the beautiful “Sussex” area of Southern England. Then on to the Normandy area and Paris with more tours and concerts. Although airline prices continue to rise, this tour is less expensive than our Vienna tour, due to the “cost free” days spent at St Bedes. This trip is also two days longer than the Vienna tour. We are inspired by your commitment to our orchestra and realize that much of this comes from your experience with our successful tours in the past. A sample itinerary is included and will also be mailed as a pdf file to all of our SCYO family. Recapping this info, the tour includes the following:
DATES: June 22 – July 2 (A check of local school calendars reveals that the last day of classes in Sussex County are around June 15, 2011
ITINERARY: Sussex, (UK) / Normandy area / Paris (France)
PERFORMANCES: 1 joint concert in the new performing arts center at St Bedes.
1 concert in beautiful Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. (we have given concerts there many times in the past to a most enthusiastic audience)
1 formal (promoted) concert in Caen at “St Aubin sur Mer”
ACCOM / MEALS: Five days/four nights in Sussex as guests of St. Bedes. (Hotel available for adults wishing for that option. This is at an extra charge). For the remainder of the tour, 3 and 4 star hotels (2 to a room) with breakfast and dinner daily.
TOURS: All scheduled tours in the area of the itinerary are included.
COST: $3150.00 (Payments spread out over a year).
TOUR COMPANY Music Celebrations International (MCI). This is the same company who planned our trip to China and Vienna. Their expertise and track record are fundamental to our decision to take part in this tour.
PARTICIPATION: Musicians as mentioned above, family, siblings, or (friends subject to approval of the directors). An adult 21 or older must accompany any student not yet completing 9th grade by June of 2011
Please note that this price is almost four hundred dollars than our last tour while being two days longer. Also, included in the tour price, is $350.00 for fuel surcharge. This cost is finally determined at the time of ticketing. Anything less than $350.00 will result in a rebate, while any additional fuel charge must result in an add-on to the final payment. On our last tour, we took a chance and “anticipated” a final fuel charge. Although there were great moments of uncertainty, the charge wound up being within $5.00 of what we charged the participants. Hopefully that will be the case once again, but we can’t take a chance that our charge to you will not cover what we are charged in the end.
We have received positive feedback from many families regarding the viability of this tour. This is wonderful, but we are not so naïve to believe that all these people will participate. On the other hand, we are confident that many others will eventually sign on. Our final numbers will be in multiples of full busses. Any alteration of that will affect the price (i.e. empty seat charges). What this means, without getting too technical, is that there will be cut offs, as we get toward the final total.
Included with this letter is an application form. Please return with a $100.00 non- refundable deposit for each person attending. Checks should be made out to:
SCYO UK Tour 2011 and may be sent to our PO Box or turned in at rehearsals. Although the deposit is non-refundable, the $100.00 is counted toward the trip balance. As soon as the company gives us a payment/cancellation schedule, we will forward that to you. Be aware that the payments are spread out over a year. Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely yours,
Dawn Tedesco Gerald Tedesco
(Directors)