Prelude – A Succulent Treat for Music Directors by Encore Tours

A music director who plans an international tour is comparable to an outstanding chef preparing an exquisite meal to be enjoyed by their musicians. And if a tour is successful, the delicious memories are savored by generations to follow.

Encore Tours prepares a yearly feast for its clients called Prelude. We treat the coming year’s traveling directors to an outstanding weekend, realizing that once you’ve acquired a taste of your dreams becoming a reality, everything less is cheap wine.

Our clients savor the value of quality, knowing full well the price you pay for a low-cost music tour leaves a bitter taste.

This year’s feast, Encore Prelude 2015, was served in the musically-rich city of Vienna.

Gerry Dolan, Music Director from Ipswich, MA was one of our 2015 Prelude participants who summed-up the experience:

Your thoroughly planned weekend made (us) feel like very special guests. You also reminded us how important it is to make sure that music educators must continue to seek out musical experiences and musical moments to enrich our lives. It is through these renewing experiences that will help us continue to motivate and enrich our students’ lives.

Another Director, Bill Evans, of Sherwood Chamber Singers of Sandy Springs, MD said,

I had no idea what to expect, so the way we were pampered was a real treat. The combination of guided and planned events…was wonderful.

Every participant felt that Prelude 2015 far exceeded their expectations. We at Encore plan these very special weekends as a sampler, a taste test, a moment to savor the Encore experience. A great feast is a blend of incredible ingredients, and we add just the right amount of spices to the recipe, such as a Welcome Reception under the roof of St. Stephen’s Cathedral (a place the “average tourist” will never see), a concert featuring the Vienna Philharmonic in the Musikverein, the Imperial Chapel at Schonbrunn Palace, and attending a Mozart Mass featuring the Vienna Boy’s Choir.

We at Encore Tours realize we are ultimately serving up a lifelong relationship. Many of our directors come to the Prelude weekend with enthusiasm and lots of questions about their upcoming international music travel. And based on the response of our guests, we succeeded in reminding our clients that the more we share our experiences, the more we can define what works best for our ensembles.

To that end, Encore provided a Director’s Workshop where great ideas were exchanged and explored. In Vienna, our workshop was held in the stunning Augarten Palais, home of the Vienna Boy’s Choir. We were greeted by one of the conductors of the Vienna Boy’s Choir, Bomi Kim, Choirmaster of the Mozartchor.

Christina Jenkins of Idaho Arts Charter School said,

After Prelude, I am excited about the prospects and what I learned in order to make the preparation for my future international trips work. I expected Prelude to be great and it was even better than I could have possibly imagined.

Elizabeth Hansing-Moon of St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, Texas thoroughly enjoyed the weekend:

It’s brilliant to put musicians together for Prelude. The conversations and connections were good all around. I’m trying to think of more superlatives for the weekend. Exclamation points and rave reviews for everything. This is a great way to give a taste of international travel to those who are with Encore for the first time. Although I have traveled many times with student musicians, this is certainly a sweet reminder that Encore’s passion for travel and attention to detail can make a great experience even better.

And no great feast is complete without dessert. Our Vienna Prelude concluded with a dinner in a private dining room in the famous Hotel Sacher. It was difficult to say what was the most memorable entrée on the menu: the sumptuous meal, or the 5-star friendships that resulted from the Prelude 2015 weekend.

Vienna Prelude weekend will be a treat long remembered. And we’re already planning next year’s offering.

Find out where we are going!  We’ll set a place for you.

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