PROPOSAL

For a possible tour by the New Trier High School
Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble to CHINA

Presented to New Trier Board of Education
by James Warrick and Peter Rosheger (Music Department)
December 13, 1999

WHAT: A twelve-day performance trip to China by the New Trier Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble. The groups would travel and perform together.

WHERE: Primarily in Beijing, Zhengzhou, Kaifong, Gongyi, and Luoyang, all located in the Henan Province.

WHEN: We would leave on June 10, 2000, and return on June 21, 2000.  The last day of school is June 7.

COST: $2,100 per traveler. Our cost includes airfare, all transportation in China, travel insurance, meals, lodging, tickets to all sights, and all entrance fees. The only out of pocket costs while in China would be souvenirs, snacks, clothes cleaning, telephone, and bottled water for meals. Students must also pay for passports, visas and immunizations.

TOUR OPERATOR: We will be under the guidance and tour operation of the Chinese-American Cultural Bridge Center, which represents the Henan Province in Kaifeng.We have checked references and spoken with others who have used their services, and found them to be beyond reproach. We are working with a local representative, Ms. Qui Min Ji, who lives in Arlington Heights. She is a professional musician and is aware of the unique nature of performance tours. Her Chinese home is in Kaifeng and she will be traveling with us on the tour.

WHY: A trip such as this provides a unique cultural experience. New Trier music groups have never traveled to the Far East for a performance tour, yet we have a significant Asian population represented in the music department and the school-at-large. We would also have the opportunity to perform with a variety of national Chinese performance groups such as the Chinese Acrobatic Troupe. This trip would provide for all involved a once-in-a-lifetime experience of cultural exchange and performance. Performance tours to China by high schools are not unique. For example, the Evanston High School Symphony Orchestra toured China for ten days last summer. Their director, Stephen Hobson, has been very helpful in the initial design of our tour, and he and his students will be speaking with our tour party about the wonderful experience they had last summer.

PARTICIPATION: We currently have deposits and commitments from 100% of the Jazz Ensemble members, and 95% of the Chamber Orchestra members. 100% of Chamber Orchestra is possible as logistical issues are being resolved. Currently, there would be 68 students taking the trip with 15 adults. Our travel party may include additional adults related to the student travelers who will not have chaperoning responsibilities. The total travel group will probably number 100. We will also take Tony Tang, a New Trier graduate, who is a videographer to produce a trip documentary similar to the video he produced following the Jazz Ensemble’s European tour. That video received a national award, and is still broadcast annually on WTTW-TV.

CHAPERONES: We currently have 1 chaperone for every 7 students. That ratio may develop to 1 to 6. Committed chaperones include a tour doctor (Dr. Robert Freilich who traveled to Europe with the Jazz Ensemble) and six New Trier Music Department faculty members with spouses who are very experienced in performance tour travel.

PERFORMANCES: We would perform four concerts. One will be at the Great Wall. Another will probably be with the Chinese Acrobatic Troupe and another in a Chinese high school. The location of the fourth concert is not determined as yet.

TRANSPORTATION/HOUSING/MEALS: Our air carrier will probably be Northwest Airlines. Once in China, we will travel by train and bus. We would be staying in air-conditioned three star hotels with two students per room in individual beds and a private bath. The cost of the trip includes all meals with three special dinners. Students who have Kosher and vegetarian food concerns will have those needs met.

ITINERARY: The complete itinerary is published on the Tour Web Page. It includes an evening at the Peking Opera, a concert at the Great Wall, a visit to the Forbidden City of the Ming and Qing Dynasty, the White Horse Temple (the first Buddhist Temple) and many sites in the Henan Province.

TOUR WEB PAGE: A special China Tour web site is already on the WEB at http://ntjazz.com/chinatour This page address is only known by China tour personnel and will not be linked to the popular http://ntjazz.com web site until the trip is approved by the Board.  The China web site will be our primary method of communication before and during the trip. Using a satellite telephone from Motorola, a live internet audio broadcast of our concert at the Great Wall is possible.  During the tour we plan to post a daily overview of activities, pictures, and possibly video footage. The Bulletin Board can be used during the tour to get important messages to and from the students. Board members who would like access to the “password protected” areas of the Tour Web Page should contact Jim Warrick and a password will be provided. Basically the password area will be a hub of email links to every tour family and the tour leadership to assist in planning the tour and the fund-raising activities.

TOUR PREPARATION: We will have several meetings with required student attendance to learn about the culture, language, and history of China. Mrs. Kessel, New Trier’s Chinese teacher, has volunteered to meet whenever requested with our students to best prepare them for this trip. We have the enthusiastic support of Mrs. Kessel and Ms. Zemel for our tour. They do not see our trip in conflict with their previously approved summer study trip to China. In fact, the Modern and Classical Languages Department sees our trip as having positive long-range benefits for future enrollment in the school’s Mandarin classes.

FUND-RAISING: While the primary burden for this trip must be assumed by the parents of the students involved, we will undertake several “performance based” fund-raising activities. Funds raised will be divided between the Tour Fund, used to reduce everyone’s trip cost and purchase needed equipment, and the Tour Account to assist individual students to lower their own tour cost. The fund-raising activities already planned are listed below.

1.  We have already recorded a compact disc entitled “Beijing, My Kind Of Town” to be sold for $15 each here and abroad. It should be available for sale in February.

2.  A benefit concert by the CHICK COREA/ GARY BURTON DUET (an internationally known, Grammy Award winning jazz duo) is booked for April 29 in Gaffney Auditorium. Both the Jazz Ensemble and the Chamber Orchestra will perform in that concert as well.

3.  A “BIG BAND DANCE” at a country club is currently being planned. The Jazz Ensemble will perform dance music from the 40’s, and the Chamber Orchestra will provide Strauss waltzes.

4.  The Spring Jazz Concert and Spring Symphony Orchestra Concert will provide tour funds after guest artist expenses are paid.

5.  A combined “TOUR PREVIEW CONCERT” is planned for May 12 that will feature both groups performing their tour repertoire.

6.  A “Guess The Weight” contest will allow people to donate $1 toward the tour fund by guessing the total weight of the students going on the trip and their instruments. Prizes for winners will be donated.

7.  For fun, tour participants will be selling Fortune Cookies at school at various times during the school year.

CLOSING COMMENT: New Trier has an outstanding reputation with regard to performance travel, both domestic and international. Both Mr. Warrick and Mr. Rosheger have taken groups on numerous international performance tours. (An overview of their group travel experience, and the experience of all the adults on the trip, can be found on the China Tour Web Page.) The orchestra program has had no significant travel in decades and those students are overdue for international exposure. Mr. Rosheger and Mr. Warrick believe the students who comprise this year’s Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble I are of sufficient maturity and can be trusted to represent the school and country well. They would not propose such a unique trip if there were any reason to believe there would be discipline problems with this particular group of students. We wish to demonstrate to New Trier’s significant Asian community that our school’s musical groups perform in places other than Western Europe.