Transporting hundreds of people (and their priceless instruments) over year-long tours to international venues... Keeping classical music on the road requires some serious ensemble playing...
IN 1876, THE HOT TICKET OF THE YEAR WAS THE WORLD PREMIERE of Richard Wagner’s four-opera epic, The Ring Cycle. It was an event made more prestigious by the fact that it was to be staged in a new purpose-built opera house deep in southern Germany. Unfortunately, despite being clearly postmarked by their English manufacturers for the town of Bayreuth in Bavaria, parts of the specially designed sets were delivered to Beirut in Lebanon. Question is: would it have happened if Wagner had engaged a travel management company (TMC)?
Unlike their 19th-century counterparts, modern orchestras and opera companies view touring as an essential part of money-making and profile-raising. With up to 100 people and their instruments (plus sets and costumes for opera) to be transported and accommodated, it is a specialised business, and such touring companies will tend to work with a tried and trusted TMC to look after their particular needs.
However, for some companies with a dedicated tour manager, the use of a TMC even for long-haul touring would seem to be a choice rather than a necessity. Some orchestras will hand over tour planning almost entirely to a TMC, while others will have a tour manager who plans the tour and only uses a TMC for help with specific aspects of it (such as booking flights, ground travel and hotels), in conjunction with other agencies such as air cargo specialists. Then there are touring companies that don’t use a TMC at all and manage it themselves.
WORLD-CLASS
Whichever model is used, classical tours face similar challenges. At present, the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), a group of over 100 personnel, is on a tour that began in Japan in September and will conclude in Germany in December. LSO tour manager Miriam Loeben has worked for the world-class orchestra for 11 years. For her the main challenge is cost. Consequently, all of the orchestral players fly economy, with only some (soloists or more elderly conductors, who need more rest) travelling business or premium. Everyone, though, has their own hotel room.
Once the budget has been met, her next growing concern is the airlines’ squeeze on hand luggage. “As more travellers today are opting for maximum hand luggage to avoid the cost of checking-in bags, the capacity of the overhead lockers is reaching maximum,” she says. “Any instrument not meeting the size limitation in the future might have to be checked in. I worry that there will not be room.”
This phenomenon produced a potential glitch recently when the orchestra’s pre¬ferred supplier, British Airways, told 22 of the LSO string players that they could not carry their violins and violas, and would have to check them in. As these include 17th- and 18th-century instruments, this was a serious problem for Loeben. “Fortunately, the situation was resolved,” she says, “but if it hadn’t been, the players would simply have refused to travel… As it is the players’ responsibility to look after their instruments, if the airline does not let us bring our smaller instruments on board, then we cannot fly.”
Regarding duty-of-care, Loeben regards the health and happiness of the players to be paramount to their giving a good performance, and will plan months, sometimes years in advance to make sure there is enough time between flights, rehearsals and concerts for players to eat and rest. In long-haul touring, the musicians are even flown out three days before the first concert to allow them time to acclimatise. All the players have to do is make their own way to Heathrow and from there the rest of their travel is managed. “It is annoying when their travel day goes wrong,” says Loeben. “But if it is down to bad weather, they don’t complain to us, as they know it's not our fault. They are actually very nice to work with.”
DIVISION OF LABOUR
But when TMCs are engaged in planning an orchestral/opera tour, what is the division of labour between the agency and the client? Rose Hirschel, owner of Tzell Travel Group affiliate Musicians’ Travel Services, puts it succinctly: “The organisation will have decided on its tour before any travel is arranged. The TMC will need to make the schedule work.”
Caroline McCann is managing director of global touring UK at The Appointment Group (TAG). Even for a TMC like hers, that has a classical touring wing, it is still something of a niche, given that each year the company will manage nearly 1,000 pop/rock tours and just 30 classical ones. So, in such a relatively small market, how does her TMC find clients? “If we see a tour for an orchestra that has been announced, we might seek to get in contact with that management company,” she says. “But business comes mainly via referrals from existing clients who are happy with the service we provide.”
With the much-reported stories of musicians falling foul of airline restrictions regarding instrumental hand-luggage, does a long-standing relationship between a TMC and preferred airline help smooth out such difficulties? “It’s not as easy as pulling in favours to reduce fares or get away without a change fee,” says McCann. “With policy issues, such as baggage, it is more difficult to get a change in the rules.”
Another problem is being asked to plan a tour after a festival has been announced and the tickets have gone on sale. “It can be quite a task,” says McCann. “You simply have to get your map out and look at places nearby – they might be driving in from an hour or two away. With orchestras it can be difficult, because sometimes the festivals are in quite small places, with not a lot of large hotels to accommodate 100 people.”
Travel policies can present another planning problem peculiar to classical outfits, as Hirschel explains. “Orchestras, ballet companies and opera companies have contractual agreements which limit the hours when they can travel. These must be strictly adhered to.”
But somehow the TMCs manage – presumably through long-term relationships with suppliers? “Yes,” says McCann. “The airline fares are more flat-rated for all TMCs, but with the hotels it’s the relationships we have built up over 15-20 years, which mean that we can get much better rates at certain places.”
Hirschel has a similar story: “Musicians’ Travel Services has been working in this field for more than 25 years,
and our affiliation with the Tzell Travel Group gives us access to exceptional relationships with airlines, hotels and other service providers.”
One advantage in engaging a TMC for flight booking is, as McCann reveals, that they can provisionally hold seats on as-yet unreleased flights. “If we are planning for 2017, the seats have not been released yet, but we can hold them in principle with the airline.” However, this is not without its problems. “Their schedules may change, so it is difficult to get them confirmed and be sure of the time you will arrive.”
Of course, despite years of anticipating every detail of a tour, even the best-laid plan can go awry. Does McCann have a contingency plan for events such as the Icelandic ash cloud that grounded flights back in April 2010? “We have a 24-hour emergency team,” she says. “Things like that have a massive effect on travel, but we deal with it; we protect the clients as best we can. With the ash cloud we ended up hiring a charter from New York to London.”
GOING SOLO
Not all classical outfits use a TMC for touring. Glyndebourne Tour (formerly known as the Glyndebourne Touring Opera), for instance, manages its tours in-house. Of course, these are predominantly within the UK and don’t include flights. In fact, as Ian Jackson, head of planning and company management at Glyndebourne, explains, the tours don’t even include closely managing travel or accommodation either. “Our company for this year’s tour is around 200. So we furnish them with as much information as we can with regard to the venues and set up a company office at each of them. We send out digs lists and book hotel rooms in advance. Each member of the company is paid a touring allowance and they can choose to spend it on whatever sort of accommodation they want.”
So, presumably they could just drink away the money and sleep in the park? Jackson laughs. “I wouldn’t be able to comment on that,” he says. “Although I’m sure it has been known.”
But wouldn’t tour planning be easier using a TMC? Jackson doesn’t think so. “I have many TMCs contacting me every year, trying to encourage me to use them. But I have been planning and company managing at Glyndebourne since 1999 and we have never gone down that road. We have even done international touring – we took Billy Budd to New York in 2014. I simply prefer to have absolute control over that and not have a third party involved. Obviously, TMCs can sometimes get you very good rates for hotels, flights and other travel, but I am pretty confident that I can match those, on the whole. We have already built up relationships because we have been touring to these venues for years and can get very competitive rates.”
IT’S ONLY BAROQUE’N’ROLL...
Compared to rock and pop touring, which is where TMCs are most involved in the music business, are orchestras much different in what they require? “Essentially it’s the same. It is just making sure that things are seamless,” says TAG’s McCann. “All clients want to know is that, when they get off their flight, they can collect their bag and the bus is waiting to take them to the hotel, where the key pack is ready; and that all the billing has been updated so they don’t get held up in any way.”
And does someone from her office go on the road? “If the client wants it, we can send somebody out. To assist them at the drop of a hat for anything travel related, or if they need someone to organise a party after the concert, then we can do that. Anything they want,” she says. “Nothing is impossible.”
HANDEL WITH CARE:
GLYNDEBOURNE TOUR
• The company tours once a year in the autumn, following the main summer season at the prestigious and original country-house opera festival near Lewes in East Sussex.
• The current tour goes to five venues and presents three diverse operas (2015’s choices are Handel’s Saul, Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale).
• The company for this year’s tour is 200, comprising orchestra, chorus, principals, actors, dancers, children, stage technicians, costume, wigs, make-up, and stage and company management.
• The equipment requires 13 trailers for lighting, sets, wardrobe, props and larger orchestral instruments.
• If children are performing they have to be chaperoned. If they are staying for more than one performance a week, then schooling must be provided.
LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
• The LSO tours several times a year.
• The current tour involves 106 personnel, comprising 99 musicians, a conductor, soloist, tour manager and librarian, and technical crew.
• The LSO began its 2015 autumn tour at the end of September in Japan before moving on to Austria, Luxembourg and Paris, then New York, and a stretch of dates in Germany in December.
• Some players travel with priceless, irreplaceable instruments (usually on loan from trusts). A Stradivarius violin, for example (made by the workshop of Antoni Stradivarius in 1721) was recently sold at auction for £9.8 million.