More SF details

Davies Symphony Hall

Package is designed for 20 participants, and includes:
Estimated Roundtrip Air from San Antonio International Airport to San Francisco
Four nights accommodation at a Radisson Hotel (or similiar) in San Frnacisco
Deluxe motorcoach transportation for tours in San Francisco and the Wine Country
Professional Tour Director to accompany the group for the duration of the tour
Sightseeing Tour of SF includes: Union Square, Sausalito, Twin Peaks, Golden Gate Bridge, and Muir Woods Park.
Sightseeing Tour of Wine Country includes: Napa, Sonoma, and wine tastings
Sightseeing Tour of SF #2 includes: Alcatraz, Shopping, and Chinatown
Two dinners: at Pier 39, and with Mads Tolling in North Beach
Two lunches: with composer Philippe Hersant, and on Santana Row in Santa Clara
Reception with Cypress String Quartet
Sunset Cruise (1 hour)
Tickets to performances of: San Francisco Symphony, Cypress String Quartet and Stephen Hough
Fully customized itinerary and maps
Information on area Health facilities
All applicable taxes and gratuities (including guides and drivers)
$2 million in Professional Liability Insurance
24-hour Travel Support Staff

Napa Valley

Double occupancy estimate $1869 per person
Single occupancy estimate $2219 per person

Actual prices will be determined once you have secured a deposit and we are able to contract air seats and make ground arrangements on your behalf. Air has been quoted at an estimated rate. Actual booking will determine the final rate on the air.
Trip cancellation insurance is recommended: http://www.insuremytrip.com/ http://www.accessamerica.com/ http://www.travelguard.com/

For more information, contact John Clare at 210-485-9330 or violinsandcigars at gmail dot com

SF Tour Schedule

Thursday, March 15th
Arrive San Francisco, meet guide, transfer to hotel and check in
5:00pm Dinner at Pier 39
8:00pm San Francisco Symphony concert

Friday, March 16th
Breakfast on own
City tour (Golden Gate, Sausalito)
Lunch with Philippe Hersant

Cypress String Quartet

More city tour (Union Square, et al)
Dinner on own Wharf area
8:00pm Cypress Quartet concert
Reception afterwards with artists

Saturday, March 17th
Breakfast on own
Full day Wine Country tour (including Napa, Sonoma, wine tastings, lunch on own in 1870's Yountville)
Dinner on own Wharf area

Sunday, March 18th
Breakfast on own
Alcatraz tour
3:00pm Stephen Hough, piano recital
Free time for shopping, cable car, Chinatown/Union Square

Violinist Mads Tolling

Monday, March 19th
Breakfast on own
Hotel checkout, load chartered motorcoach
Original Apple Store (Cupertino)
Lunch on Santana Row in Santa Clara; Berkeley bookstore
Dinner with violinist Mads Tolling in North Beach
return to airport for red-eye flight home

Tuesday, March 20th
Arrive early morning in San Antonio

New Music in SF

Join me in San Francisco for great new music this March! We'll hear new music with the San Francisco Symphony, MTT, John Adams, pianist Emanuel Ax, and organist Paul Jacobs.
Listen to an interview I just did with Jacobs, who talks about Mason Bates here.

Cypress Quartet - March 2012

Clare, Cypress Quartet, and Puts April 2009

Guide and guru John Clare met the Cypress Quartet in Pennsylvania in 2006 and they have been friends every since. In 2009, the quartet invited Clare out to celebrate their 10th anniversary of Call and Response with composer Kevin Puts.

For Call & Response 2012, the Cypress String Quartet presents a program featuring masterpieces of two of the greatest String Quartet composers in history: Haydn's Op.20 No.1 in Eb, and Beethoven's Op.127, also in Eb. Featured on the program along with these two groundbreaking works - one of Haydn's earliest and one of Beethoven's last quartets, will be a newly commissioned work from French composer Philippe Hersant. Mr. Hersant will be the first international composer to have been commissioned by the Cypress Quartet for their Call & Response program.

Philippe Hersant (pictured left) was born in Rome. His studies included literature as well as music and he took harmony classes with Georges Hugon before entering André Jolivet's composition class at the Paris Conservatory in 1968, receiving his undergraduate degree in literature that same year. Resident at the Casa de Velásquez.
From 1970 to 1972, Philippe Hersant went on to teach music and to become a producer at the radio station France Musiques. In 1978 he became a resident at the Villa Médicis thanks to the support of Henri Dutilleux and Gilbert Amy. It was during this period that he truly came into his own as a composer. Stances for orchestra thus became his new first opus and is the earliest work in his catalogue. This piece was followed by several other, more melancholic works such as Missa brevis, the chamber opera les Visites espacées (Avignon, 1983) and the opera le Château des Carpathes (1982), based on a work by Jules Verne. He composed a number of shorter and more dynamic works for small instrumental ensembles before returning to the orchestral and greater forms with his Second Concerto for cello and the ballet Hurlevent (Palais-Garnier, 2002). He is currently working on an opera based on a Chekhov story, The Black Monk, and this will be premiered by the Leipzig Opera in 2005. Today, Philippe Hersant defines himself as a tonal composer willing to turn music’s entire heritage – from Monteverdi to Janacek to Stockhausen – to his advantage. As a composer, he lives by a few precepts : to be personal rather than to seek innovation at all costs, to avoid greyness and to surprise.
READ MORE: www.philippehersant.com

Your exclusive tour in San Francisco will include meeting the Cypress Quartet and having a meal with Philippe Hersant, plus tickets to Call and Response 2012!

San Francisco March 2012

See San Fran and go behind the scenes of the new music world with John Clare. Tour includes concerts of the San Francisco Symphony, Cypress String Quartet and pianist Stephen Hough, plus meet composer Philippe Hersant and violinist Mads Tolling of the Turtle Island String Quartet!
Tour will include sights and sounds, wine country and the original Apple Store in Cupertino!
Find out more by calling (210) 485-9330.
Dates for this trip are March 15-19, 2012.
Packages start at $1870 for doubles and $2200 for singles, including round trip airfare from San Antonio, TX.

Exclusive travel

You know the places, there's a line...and VIP's are on the list, and there's an A-list. There are circles that get certain access.

Now you have a chance to go where others can't in new music! Travel with John Clare to America's cultural capitals and hear new things, see great art and meet the people involved!

NEW MUSIC NEW DESTINATIONS