3/31/2010

We proudly present: The Grace First Presbyterian Church Choir Incantato Concert Postcard



A thousand of these custom designed Incantato concert postcards have been printed and are currently distributed locally in Ireland to announce the 2010 Grace First Presbyterian Church Choir Performance Tour to Ireland. The trip starts already in a few days! Incantato Tours takes great pride in providing the fine ensembles traveling with our organization with professional marketing materials to ensure the local audiences are aware of the group's performances and their high level of musicianship.

San Marino Chamber Choir's finale performance at the Petit Palau in Barcelona on April 11


The Palau is Barcelona's prime concert venue and it is also the location for the San Marino Chamber Choir's finale performance of their 2010 Spain Incantato Performance Tour. On April 11 at noon, the singers from California are presenting a highlight concert at the newest concert hall, the Petit Palau. For more information, visit the official Palau website (in Catalan) and click on the performance day April 11 or the SMCC Incantato Tour blog.
Prior to their arrival in Barcelona, the singers from San Marino will perform in Madrid, Toledo, Cuena and as the featured guest choir at the Encuentro Cuidad the Torrevieja, a renowned choral festival in a small village south of Valencia.

We proudly present: The Falcon Choirs Incantato Concert Postcard




A thousand of these custom designed Incantato concert postcards have been printed and are currently distributed locally in Germany to announce the 2010 Falcon Choirs Performance Tour to Germany. The trip starts tomorrow, the first destination is Munich.
Incantato Tours takes great pride in providing the fine ensembles traveling with our organization with professional marketing materials to ensure the local audiences are aware of the group's performances and their high level of musicianship.

3/28/2010

Full house for Western Reserve Academy Choir & Ensemble in Calvi

What a special night it was for the WRA singers and musicians! The students performed to a full house in the beautiful baroque church of Calvi dell'Umbria, a small town perched high upon the hill where the mayor had warmly welcomed them with a special tour prior to the performance and a reception afterwards in the town hall. The audience was very moved by the concert and rewarded the groups under the direction of Mrs. Margaret Karam with minute-long applause. Vice-Mayor Luca thanked the travelers for coming to his town and hoped that the students one day return with their own families. "It was our honor to have you here tonight. Thank you for sharing your gift of music, we will never forget you." As a special souvenir, Mrs. Karam also received a painting that was created during the concert by local artist Valvan. He titled it "Libertà!".



Here is short video from the concert.
For more information on the Western Reserve Academy 2010 Italy Tour, please visit their Incantato Tour blog.

3/22/2010

The 2010 WRA Bella Italia Performance Tour through the eyes of a traveler

Martha Miller - student at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio and currently on tour in Italy - is the recipient of the Incantato Tours WRA scholarship for blogging. Here are some of her findings along with pictures taken in Verona.

WRA Incantato Italy Tour DAY 4: Verona
Hello from a bus in the middle of Italy! Not the exact middle, but we are driving from the north more towards the middle part of Italy. We took our two-hour bus drive down to Verona yesterday with our wonderful bus driver and guide, and saw many farms out the window in that time. The bus drive felt oddly short as we pulled up in Verona and began our first adventures in an Italian city with a new added twist--there were cars everywhere! Unlike Venice, we had to be aware of cars and motorbikes driving up and down the streets, and we found that crosswalks in Verona last less time than the infamous crosswalk across Main Street in Hudson, leaving some of us on the other side of the street.
We ate lunch inside an old church that had been renovated, St. Matthew's Church. It was there that we really noticed for the first time how long Italian meals are--we ate for almost two and a half hours! After we finished, we met with our local guide and got a beautiful walking tour of Verona, complete with a very deep history of Verona. We started at the Gate of Jupiter and ended inside 'Juliet's House'--the house supposedly of the Capulets from Shakespeare's play. After that we were given some free time to walk around Verona's crowded streets before meeting back by the amphitheatre--yes, Verona has one too but it's not as big as Coliseum in Rome. It's actually the third largest in Italy.
We drove to our hotel and got settled in before heading out to Valeggio sul Mincio, a small village beyond Verona's city limits, for dinner. All of the kids went to a pizzeria with our guide and had delicious pizzas while the rest of the adults had some alone time for a nice quiet dinner (quite the gift on a trip like this one). Then we all met together at our bus and went back to the hotel to go to sleep.
This morning we got up and began our three hour trek to Montecatini, where we will have most of the day to ourselves before diving back into the intense touring once again!

WRA Incantato Italy Tour Days 1 through 3: Flights & Venice
The WRA tour group arrived in Venice two days ago, after several hours on three different planes. We met up with our guide, and put our bags in the hotel before beginning our tour of the city of Venice. It's confusing! The streets tend to mostly all look the same, and the shops all blur together in a mish-mash of masks, food vendors and 'I -heart- Venice' shirts. We walked through the Jewish ghettos--the first ghettos in Europe--and finally got to have our first lunch in Rialto Bridge. Afterwards we continued to St. Mark's Square. A large group of us had the wonderful oppourtunity to go on a gondola, and it really sunk in that we were in Venice! After a delicious dinner (at LaBrindisi, pictured) we went back to the hotel to collapse into bed.
Our second day was spent mostly in St. Mark's area, taking tours of Doge's Palace and the St. Mark's Basilica. We also visited a Venetian glass factory, where we saw a professional glass-maker make a vase in about five minutes flat right before our eyes! Afterwards we were allowed to wander and visit some of the museums in St. Mark's Square. Finally it was time for our concert inside St. Mark's Basilica for mass. Although it was absolutely freezing inside and the crowd was small, the concert sounded beautiful and we moved off to our celebratory dinner. Finally we went back to the hotel to fall back into our beds.
Today we are driving two hours by bus to Verona, and after the long walks around the winding bridges of Venice we're looking forward to some time sitting down!

3/16/2010

Two meals and two movies - Welcome aboard Lufthansa

The WRA Tour is about to take off on Incantato's preferred airline: Lufthansa.
After your short commuter flights, the 39 members of the 2010 Western Reserve Academy Italy Tour, are boarding the German airline for the long-haul and inter-European journey. While we recommend that you do get some sleep on the transatlantic overnight flight, you are in for several treats such as hot towels to refresh yourself shortly after take-off, two warm meals served with salad and dessert plus two or more recent movies. For more information on the on-board experience, visit Lufthansa's website.

3/01/2010

We proudly present: The WRA Incantato Concert Postcard



Over 2000 of these custom designed Incantato concert postcards have been printed and are currently distributed locally in Italy to announce the 2010 Western Reserve Academy Performance Tour to Italy. Incantato Tours takes great pride in providing the fine ensembles traveling with our organization with professional marketing materials to ensure the local audiences are aware of the group's performances and their high level of musicianship.