Tours
Click on a photo below to view the photo album.
ARGENTINA – June 2007
DYAO Wows Argentine audiences
DYAO Board member Suzanne Ryan recounts the orchestra’s ten-day, three-concert tour of Argentina
DYAO’s South American adventure was one of our greatest tours. One of the most memorable and satisfying experiences of the trip was the extraordinary response the orchestra received from the Argentine audiences who cheered and brought Adam back for 8 to10 curtain calls. As one of the musicians commented, “We felt like a soccer team who had just won a big match!”
Rosario (the birthplace of Che Guevara) was a delight. Located on the Rio Parana, it has a lively fishing industry and large parks bordering the major river, as well as a good Fine Arts Museum. We had two delightful evenings before our scheduled concert, filling them with a late afternoon riverboat excursion the first day, and a surprise opportunity to attend a local production of the opera La Boheme. The venue was in the elegant old opera house, Teatro El Circulo, which coincidentally was where our concert was the following evening. It was thrilling to hear the opera there and know that we would also be performing in this beautiful theatre. Our tour company, ACFEA, was able to book us on the Circulo’s winter concert series, so we were pleased to draw a good-sized audience of nearly 750 enthusiastic people. One of the unexpected and enjoyable aspects for the audience throughout our trip was our encore - which was a very popular Argentine tango arranged especially for the DYAO by Colorado Symphony bassist, Ken Harper.
The rest of our tour was spent in and around Buenos Aires, truly the “Paris of South America.” We experienced our first taste of tango dancing - taking a two-hour lesson on our second day there. In addition to being great fun, it greatly enhanced our appreciation of the performance given by professional dancers at our scheduled Tango Show the following evening!
We spent our first morning at La Boca, one of Buenos Aires’ most famous seaport neighborhoods, with its brightly painted buildings, colorful history, and good folk-art shopping. The next morning was spent touring the city and visiting the Museo Nacional des Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts). Across from the museum is the famous Recoleta Cemetery, a unique cemetery with a myriad of the most ornate and decorative tombs imaginable.
The next day we traveled by coach to the university town of La Plata, approximately 90 miles north of Buenos Aires. Our venue was again an elegant old opera house, Teatro Coliseo Podesta, in the heart of the city. The nearly 200 in attendance were extremely enthusiastic and the music students in the audience were particularly enamored with our lovely soloist, 18-year-old alumna Hannah Robbins, who performed Elgar’s Cello Concerto so beautifully on the tour.
We spent the next day in the “pampas” (Argentina’s vast grasslands) on a traditional estancia, Rancho Susana, where a few got on horses, enjoyed carriage rides, lunched at an authentic Argentine BBQ, and witnessed a small rodeo and a folk dancing/tango show by the local “gauchos.”
Our final concert was at the Salon de la Facultad de Derecho (Law School) at the University of Buenos Aires. Again we were very well received with a large, appreciative audience. As happened after all performances, Adam had to lead our concertmaster, Jessica Oddie, off the stage to end the applause and cheering. We were assured this was NOT the response most orchestras get here. Rather, it was a genuine appreciation of superb music-making and the talent displayed by our wonderful musicians!
I think I speak for all of us on this tour who were so proud to be able to represent the United States in such a positive and upbeat way.
AUSTRIA/HUNGARY - June 2004
FRANCE - June 2001
