The End of the Tour

When you have over 100 people, it is inevitable that some will get sick. The tour started with about 7-8 members of the orchestra getting a gastrointestinal virus that put them out of commission for 24 hours.  Fortunately, there is some redundancy in the orchestra so the concerts were not impacted.  This occurred over the first 3-4 days and we were fearful that it would sweep through the whole orchestra, but thankfully, it did not. There have been colds, sore throats, rashes, a broken foot and the tour doc spent 1/2 of one night in the emergency room with someone with something a bit more worrisome. We keep telling ourselves it could have been worse and we have handed out hand sanitizer like it was going out of style.  All in all, most have been healthy and it has been an excellent tour and an experience we will never forget. 

The Europeans have such appreciation for symphony orchestras and appear to support them much more than in the U.S.  Berlin alone supports 8 large symphony orchestras, while cities in the U.S. have single orchestras that suffer chronic financial difficulties.  I am sure some of this is a reflection of our government’s reduction in funding for the arts, and the elimination or reduction of music and art programs in schools.  I hope the outcome isn’t that we are fostering a  cultural wasteland.  It is great to see young artists like Lang Lang, who have such charisma and talent and the ability to attract younger fans. Hopefully, artists like him will create and sustain another generation of interest in classical music. 

After 16 hours of travel from Warsaw to Frankfurt to Dulles, we arrived home at 6:30 pm EST feeling pretty fried.  I am wide awake now at 4:30 a.m on Sunday to back blip this image which was my only one of the day. 

Many thanks to all of you who have followed along on this amazing tour.  I have truly appreciated the interest and lovely comments. Thank you so much! I will spend the next week going through all my photos and hopefully get them up on Flickr soon and post a link.