“Two years ago, the company Classical Movements was looking for an April Fools’ joke for its website,” writes Anne Midgette in Friday’s (4/1) Washington Post. “The Alexandria-based firm has worked in 140 countries on six continents.… The company hit on the idea of announcing an event on the seventh continent: a choral tour to Antarctica…. Classical Movements began getting calls and emails asking how to go about booking. Then they realized it might be even funnier—given the evident interest—if they actually did it. This month, Classical Movements is starting to accept reservations for a choral tour of Antarctica from December 29, 2017 to January 14, 2018. 50 participants … will fly to Argentina; rehearse for a few days under the tour’s conductor, Oscar Escalada; give a concert in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world; and then embark on a boat trip through Drake’s Passage to give what may be the first public choral concerts in Antarctica…. There will … be at least one performance on board the ship, and a concluding concert…. Despite the high cost (starting at $14,500 per person), a few high-profile musicians, including the conductor Marin Alsop, have already expressed interest.”
Posted April 1, 2016
