On the Road Again There's more to a New York Philharmonic tour than just giving concerts. Just think of all the activity that has to go on behind the scenes in order to arrange a multi-city trip for 135 people and 22,000 pounds of luggage! The New York Philharmonic's tour party includes not only the musicians but also the music director, the assistant conductor, the Operations Department staff, and some guests. In the cargo is everyone's personal luggage plus all those instruments, each packed in a specially built touring case. They range from small (but valuable) instruments like flutes, oboes, and violins, all the way up to huge (but fragile) instruments like string basses, tubas, and harps! There are 95 trunks in all. They must be loaded into two 40-foot, temperature-controlled trailers to go to the airport. If the trailers were not temperature-controlled, the instruments might suffer damage from getting too hot or too cold. Also, the trunks have to be hand-loaded - no fork-lifts allowed - and they have to stay right side up. At the airport, the whole process is repeated as the cargo is moved from the trucks into the hold of a jumbo jet, to fly to the first city on the tour. And when the plane lands, trucks are waiting to carry the cargo to the concert hall. All of this loading and unloading is carefully supervised by the Philharmonic's stage manager, Louis Patalano. Meanwhile, buses are waiting to take the tour party to their hotel. The Operations staff has it all arranged so the musicians don't have to wait. They can just pick up their key and go straight to their rooms. The staff also makes sure that the musicians have plenty of "down time," so they are relaxed and ready to perform well at concert time. When the musicians are ready to board the bus to the concert hall, once again the Operations Department has gotten there first. The staffers put signs around the backstage area so the musicians can see where their dressing rooms are, where their instrument cases and wardrobe trunks have been placed, and how to get onstage. With all this help from the Operations staff, the musicians are rested, relaxed, and all ready to play. They get together with Mr. Masur and play a wonderful concert. Do the Philharmonic musicians enjoy these touring concerts? You bet! Associate Principal Bass Jon Deak, a 30-year veteran of the Philharmonic, says, "I love the tours. Always have. It's great to bring the excitement of music to new audiences."