Dear Friends,

As I write this I'm reflecting on the rich experience I've recently had in Cuba as part of a church exchange. Churches are thriving now in Cuba. The future holds great promise for performance groups for excellent exchange with Cubans especially in music and dance as soon as our governments can work out the politics.

Our What's New page features several exciting new destinations. Also new this year is a tour of Bach's Organ World for individuals to the "new" East Germany. This promises to be a great tour and early sign-ups are recommended. Our Urban Workshop Tours to New York City offer your (non-performing) group our expertise in sharing an in-depth look at our fascinating city. Two suggested areas of focus are: New York's great Sanctuaries of Worship and New York Neighborhoods. We'll customize each tour to fulfill your group's own mission. Jazz ensembles can see what we're offering in Europe and elsewhere.

But the great on-going strength of Concept Tours work continues to be the concert tours for performing groups. Many of our groups enjoy joint concerts with local peer groups overseas. This has the dual benefit of generating the best audiences while providing a memorable social component. The 70 member Rutgers University Men's Glee Club completed a tour to Germany and the Netherlands which included eleven performances in two weeks. Five were joint concerts with German and Dutch choirs which provided outstanding audiences with receptions following the concerts.

Some schools ask us to organize companion tours for alumni, friends and family members: completely separate tours that parallel the performing tours. In addition to cultivating alumni/ae and/or University donors, the companion tour can generate funding for the student tour by including a donation in the tour costs. The University of Missouri-Columbia University Singers and Rutgers University Glee Club completed these with great success.

Whether you represent a band, chorus, dance ensemble, jazz group, or the orchestra, we welcome the opportunity to deliver a great performance tour for your group. Fulfilling the dreams of our clients in ways better than expected is what we do. I look forward to hearing from you so that we can suggest new and affordable options for your tour. Call us at 800-300-8841 or e-mail us at info@concept-tours.com

Sincerely,


Dennis Hunt