<p>cyclistsmom -- I would encourage your son to stand firm about the carryon. Yes, take the letter with you. Explain to them that it's a valuable instrument, and will not survive being tossed around by baggage handlers. (It won't.) If there's a problem, ask if there is room for the stewards to put it up front or in back. Once when my S was flying home, even though we booked Delta, one leg of the trip was handled by Air France. He had to argue at the check-in counter because they were insisting that he check his horn, and he refused. He did point out that he was on his way home, and had flown over with it. He asked them to please call their manager or something. They did; spoke in French so he doesn't know what they said. They then told him he could proceed to the gate, but they would determine at the gate if he could get it on board. We hung around, just in case we had to take him home again, because there was no way he was going to leave his horn behind or check it. Well, no one at the gate even looked twice at him. Just arrive plenty early, in case there's a problem.</p>
<p>I do think that is their official stance; that it's up to the gate staff. We've gotten that before, too. No one is willing to risk any other.</p>
<p>And as for the tie -- it doesn't take much space! Just carry one along. If others are wearing one, he will be happy to have the option. If they aren't, you've wasted maybe 3 cubic inches of suitcase space. :)</p>
<p>Thumper -- the letter you're talking about is probably the same one I linked to in post #10.</p>
<p>The main thing about bringing an instrument on board a plane is to be unfailingly calm and polite, while being quietly insistent....any "attitude" and you are cooked! Any attendant can toss you if they chose. It is usually the older, more experienced folks who are more agreeable and accommodating. When you think about it, it is a good exercise in life.....suck it up and bite your tongue.</p>
<p>lorelei: S just received the Juilliard accompanist list by email yesterday and plans to work this weekend on securing an accompanist and scheduling the rehearsal. Do you have any insight or inside information that would be helpful?</p>
<p>Accompanist S had last year was lovely, helpful, etc. Be sure to keep copies of music to look at between rehearsal and audition. We mailed photo copy to her, she wanted original, but kept photo copy, and S had nothing (except his own part) to study after rehearsal....big mistake. </p>
<p>S's rehearsal was early evening on Saturday before Monday audition, and J was a gloomy, cold place, very off-putting. Be sure to go with him, whenever it is to keep him upbeat and cheery. Other kids will try to intimidate him, prep him about that competitive audition mentality. There is lots of gamesmanship at these things. It was all fine the day of the audition, except being around the other auditionees at invited luncheon experience. It was a great experience, as he put it, being around the gods of his instrument. Break a leg!</p>
<p>S had a choice of 2 accompanists. He emailed both, and worked it out that way. The one he ended up with was excellent; positive and encouraging. He had a Saturday night rehearsal, for an early Sunday audition. I waited outside with other parents and kids, and overheard the accompanist being equally positive with others. [Tip: remember to thank the accompanist at the end of the audition.]</p>
<p>We didn't notice any gamemanship. All the parents were friendly, and commiserated with each other. We saw many of the same folks we'd seen in Philly the day before. But pretty much everybody avoided talking about specifics. My S was totally focused on his audition, so he didn't spend a lot of time talking to other kids, although he loosened up a bit afterwards. The conversations I did hear tended to be "what instrument?" and "where are you from?" </p>
<p>We asked on our tour how competitive the actual J students were with each other. We'd heard horror stories. The answer was not really much at all. That it was a given that if you got in, you were pretty good, so kids didn't have much chip on their shoulders to prove anything. In general, S has found the small group (I think there are 14) of horns to be extremely supportive of one another. This may vary among other instruments, but S hasn't seen it.</p>
<p>MY D and I were there in '04 for voice auditions and asked the very same question binx asked. We had heard the same horror stories. None of them turned out to be true. The 4 different students we asked, at different times, ALL said they hadn't seen that at all, and that most everyone was very supportive of each other. And these were voice students. They said they knew about the rumors and wondered where they came from. Seems Juilliard has a bad rap.</p>
<p>Flying - What a fun topic! My son plays a cello. No way he can bring it on board without buying it a seperate ticket and we can't afford that and tuition. So cello always goes in baggage and son get ulcers when he flies. However, it has always come back to him safe and undamaged, (knock on wood). He has a special padded flight case that goes over top of his regular hard case. We call it the sarcarphogus because that is kind of what it looks like. On average, once out of every 10 flights he gets dinged a $75 oversize baggage charge, but it is really inconsistent and we can never predict when it will happen. He is looking forward to the day when he gets paid enough to buy the instrument a ticket as well.</p>
<p>As far as dress goes, my son wore basic black - black pants, black shirt and a gray tie. (Never one much for color this one.)</p>
<p>My son had trouble getting away from the gregarious fellow auditionees at Juillard, lots of questioning of each other. He encountered the worst gamesmanship at NEC, where he did not get his warm-up time because previous occupant of room and his dad had extended conversation in another language while they "packed up". If I had been along, this would not have happened! He was way too nice and polite! He had fortunately gone early and used an unoccupied room, but his designated time and place was purloined. </p>
<p>I will say that this year, now that he is a freshman, I hear more reports from him about ways he has and will protect himself, much less generous and accommodating. Some of his friends had grade problems because they did not protect their time and energy, too much hand holding of other students in melt-down mode during final exam time. He knew he could not get sucked into the morass of empathizing and sympathizing.</p>
<p>lorelei brings up a good point. Yesterday at UM voice auditions, the very same thing happened to a young woman I was accompanying. I wasn't in the room when she asked the person nicely to leave, but when I heard what had happened, I returned to the room and asked the person AGAIN to leave. This time, she did, and my student got a shortened version of her alloted warm up time. It happenes everywhere, I guess.</p>
<p>My son politely went into the warm up rooms at his designated time, began to unpack his instrument and politely said "this is the room I was told to use at this time for my warm up". Never was a problem (actually only had to use that line one time) as the other occupant just packed up (while listening to DS do his scales :) My son wore the same outfit to every audition....black pants, white long sleeve shirt, black or maroon tie, black dress shoes, and he had a sport jacket too. I think one time he wore khakis with a blue sport coat and tie. Bottom line, he dressed nicely. He was appalled at some of the outfits he saw others wearing (jeans, ill fitting clothes, no tie, tee shirts).</p>
<p>I saw the same amazing array of attire yesterday at my son's audition. This was at Northern Illinois University. Some of the kids looked as though they had just rolled out of bed. It's curious to me that they would not treat an audition as if it were any other college or job interview. We have Northwestern and Manhattan School of Music upcoming and I will be interested to see how those experiences compare.</p>
<p>Cellos+planes=expensive! Everyt time my D has to fly with hers, we must spring for TWO coach seats, one for her and one for her instrument. There are supposedly airplane cases for cellos but they're either (a) not sturdy enough or (b) so massive you can't manage them on the ground. Over the years she has noticed that airline personnel have become less uptight when she shows up at the gate with her instrument on her back. They used to make her sit in a bulkhead seat but lately they don't seem to care where she sits.</p>
<p>For those that are buying plane tickets for their instrument...I had a funny visual. When I make reservations online, they specifically ask for the name of the person for each ticket. What do you put..."Cello Jones"? Just curious.</p>
<p>Every airline has a different code for the instrument, some are an abbreviation of handheld cabin baggage, some are cello jones, and there are others. The instrument has to have a name attached. It accumulates no frequent flyer miles, but one airline did not charge certain taxes because it was not a person flying.....there is no method in the madness. No extra meals are served either.</p>
<p>I always make the reservations for "Cello Jones." True story: David Finckel, cellist for the Emerson Quartet who of course travels tens of thousands of miles every year, persuaded United Airlines to give his cello its own frequent flyer card. He showed it to me. It says "Cello Finckel" on it. I've never been charged extra for the cello..that's outrageous!</p>
<p>veteranmom - you are lucky to have never been charged. The first time it happened my son was on his way home from a summer camp. There is this 18 year old kid in a airport trying to get home and the airline won't let him on without paying an extra $75 oversize baggage fee. Fortunately, he has one of our credit cards with him and he was able to put the charge on that. (They didn't say anything when he flew out there in the first place.) They always seem to ding him when he is checking in by himself. It has never happened when we go to the airport with him. Maybe the see a younger person and feel like he won't argue. (Although he is now 6'5" and 22 years old and he still got dinged going back to school after Christmas.) </p>
<p>Actually, what I would like to see airlines to is to treat the cello as they would a pet. No really! I would be willing to pay the extra fee if I knew that it would be hand loaded and hand unloaded and was going to be securely attached in a seperate heated compartment, just like they would do if it was a house pet travelling. And they wouldn't even have to water or clean up after a cello!</p>
<p>Let me clarify -- we purchase a coach seat for the cello and never even think about checking it as baggage, so there is never a question of paying an oversized baggage fee. The instrument is worth $38,000 and we are NOT interested in seeing an airline reduce it to splinters. You can ask for it to be hand loaded etc. but there is absolutely no guarantee that will happen.</p>
<p>When in high school my D was in an ensemble that traveled to Europe every couple of years. The man who directed it told me that the first time they went, he believed the airlines' assurance that they would hand-carry the cellos on and off the plane. When they got to London, all four instruments were so damaged as to be unplayable, and several were a total loss. So much for that! By the time my D joined the group, they had acquired two wooden cello travel boxes, each the size of a couple of refrigerators, that each carried two cellos, in their regular cases, suspended inside. Those, they could trust the airlines not to wreck.</p>
<p>Ah, then you have been charged - for the extra seat. Once you have purchased that, it would indeed be outrageous to have to pay even more. If a bass would fit in a coach seat I would certainly do that as well. Unfortunately, we cannot afford to pay for a first class seat for it, so we bought the best flight case we could find and pray a lot. That is part of the reason for my other thread on insurance.</p>
<p>Hi all,
It took me awhile to find this thread. The name didnt necessarily match the topic. I had wanted to thank you all again for the advice about traveling with a fixed bell horn. We brought the copy of the musicians union letter, but never needed it. We flew NWA and found all of the staff to be more than accommodating. The horn was always secured in a on-board closet. My son did have several flight attendants tell him that in exchange for putting the horn in the closet, they were hoping for an in-flight concert :) However, a screw bell horn would have been easier to travel with.</p>