Tours

Two important musical organizations last week started bag and baggage on important tours.

The Philharmonic Symphony. From Manhattan on the S. S. De Grasse sailed the New York Philharmonic Symphony bound for a tour of Europe under Conductor Arturo Toscanini. There went 114 musicians, 38 wives, nine children, two dogs, 250 trunks. Ten years ago the now defunct New York Symphony went on what was the first European tour by a U. S. orchestra, made the mistake of not practicing on shipboard. Philharmonic players intended to profit by that experience, practice daily that no brass-players may be handicapped by sore lips at the opening concert. In Paris, on May 3, the Orchestra was to play first, go thence to Zurich, Milan, Turin, Rome, Florence, Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin, Brussels, London. Already houses are sold out all along the way but, regardless, it is estimated that before the tour is over the cost to Chairman Clarence Hungerford Mackay and other Philharmonic directors will be some $200,000.

Hampton Choir. Coincidentally there sailed also on the De Grasse 40 musicians of a different color. They carried no fiddles, no trumpets. They were Negro singers, members of the Hampton Institute Choir (Hampton, Va.) bound for London where they will sing under the patronage of Ambassador Charles Gates Dawes and place a wreath on the tomb of David Livingstone in memory of his services to Africans; go thence to Antwerp, Brussels, The Hague, Amsterdam, Paris, Hamburg, Cologne, Berlin, Vienna and back to Paris by way of Switzerland. Unlike many a Negro musical organization the Hampton Choir can claim distinction for its singing of classical as well as of racial music. An ambitious list of classical choruses will be combined with spirituals on the European programs arranged by Negro R. Nathaniel Dett, smart, sophisticated leader of the choir.

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