​On this tour of Asia, I’m looking forward to playing an unusual “community” concert with four fellow CSO musicians in Seoul, the community being folks from the US Embassy, a South Korean youth orchestra and aspiring young musicians who are North Korean refugees. 
 
While every outreach concert I’ve played in is a positive experience and an adventure, it’s gratifying when our efforts to reach audiences beyond the concert hall are appreciated and understood. I recently reread a two-year old article that was written by a Canary Islands reporter after our quintet played at a community center there. Amid the post-concert bustle, she had called to me, as we left the stage, asking how we had enjoyed playing for this particular audience, a group of students, poor people and adults with various disabilities. I blurted out that this is where music has its greatest meaning. I hadn’t realized I was talking to a journalist, but she turned my soundbite into a passionate article and amusing social statement. The article is still available in Spanish at http://www.canarias7.es/articulo.cfm?id=322645 

​Noting the approval of the listeners in wheelchairs (“trapped in disobedient bodies,” if I read it correctly) at our intimate and informal performance in street clothes (“vestido de calle”) as opposed to the glittering stars and local celebrities at the two nights of orchestra performances downtown, she points out that it was an afternoon of people being entertained with something novel, being allowed to forget that their illness is one of forgetting.
 
As we prepare for our Embassy concert in Seoul, i can only say that we are looking forward to more nice surprises. 

One of the most famous of the numerous Taiwanese Night Markets is the Raohe Street Market. Here are some images from the Thursday night visit by cellist David Sanders and guest physical therapist Stephanie Davies.

A beautiful green space directly across the street from the Regent Hotel, where the Orchestra is staying.

The beautiful Taipei Botanical Garden is just a short metro ride away from the hotel.

A favorite form of transportation in Taipei is the motorcycle They're everywhere, and parking on the sidewalks is common.

A little bit of home away from home. 
Five photos above by David Sanders

Photo by Cathy Brubaker

A row of wardrobe trunks in the basement of Orchestra Hall before the concert Saturday night waiting for the musicians to finish packing. They will be loaded up by the stagehands after the concert and taken to the airport.
​photo by David Sanders

​By Susan Synnestvedt

I get very stressed about what to pack for a tour.  I don’t enjoy shopping, especially where I don’t speak the language (which is any Asian country!) so feel I have to bring everything I might need for the upcoming 3-week odyssey.  I obsess over which coat, shoes, party dresses, and toiletries to pack.  The concert clothes are easy. Management provides each Musician with half of a double wardrobe trunk, a wheeled armoire for two divided in the middle and with individual locked access, which our Stage Crew transports to each concert hall.  So, concert clothes and shoes go into the trunk. But there’s space left for other things, so we cram in whatever else could be useful on the tour: food, books, an extra coat, boots, etc. This tour starts in humid, balmy Taipei, Taiwan, where the highs might be in the 70s (if we’re lucky!), and ends in frigid Seoul, Korea, which should feel like home.
 
I start packing at least a week before a tour. I put things into a suitcase as I think of them, to be transported to the hall and into my trunk. I also start a carry-on bag for things I will need during the long trip: contact solution, medications, reading material, and the like.  As a violinist with a finicky, troublesome neck, I’ve found that bringing my own memory foam pillow is very important. I have to bring a suitcase that’s large enough to fit my pillow and some clothes, but not so heavy that I can’t manage it!
 
Donors and Board Members of the CSO often travel along with us on a Patrons Tour, although on a somewhat different itinerary and in separate hotels. These generous Patrons attend select tour concerts and often want to celebrate with Members of the Orchestra afterwards. Sometimes they want only a small group of Musicians to join them for an intimate dinner, and other times they invite the whole Orchestra for a big reception.  Not wanting to wear concert clothes (boring!), I usually pack a couple nice cocktail dresses. I’ve been given inside information that Maestro Muti will be giving a party after the last tour concert in Korea. Maestro often ends a tour with a special dinner for the Musicians and CSO staff, which is always bellissimo! At the end of our 2012 tour of Russia and Italy, Maestro Muti gave a dinner in his hometown of Ravenna that lasted until two in the morning (most of us only slept a few hours before our return to the States)!
 
Until I board the plane at O’Hare, I will be thinking and re-thinking my tour needs. But once the flight takes off, I will relax and enjoy the start of another exciting CSO tour!

photo by Sue Synnestvedt