The Benefits of Traveling With Your Ensemble

The benefits of travelling with your ensemble can be numerous. Not only is it a great experience for you and your students, it can raise the profile of your program, take your performance to a new level, increase participation and offer additional educational opportunities.

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Build Your Ensemble’s Reputation

Travel provides the opportunity to showcase your ensemble in front of a new audience.

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Traveling Musical Ambassadors

Students develop a sense of pride and accomplishment when invited to participate in a major event and serve as traveling ambassadors for their school and community. These events provide a great public relations vehicle for promoting your ensemble and music education program as well as your school and community on regional, national. or global television.

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Ensemble Recruitment & Retention

Travel adds an extra incentive for students to join the ensemble and stay in the program. Students learn social skills, self-confidence, responsibility, commitment and the value of teamwork.

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Raise Your Band’s Profile

Public relations for your upcoming trip will foster interest about your students within the school and community. The extra amount of time students and teachers spend together provides a great opportunity for getting to know each other outside of the traditional school environment. Sharing time with fellow music students and students they will meet from other music programs fosters a sense of fellowship creating lifetime bonds and memories.

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Educational Enrichment

Your students will see new sights, visit historic landmarks, meet new people and experience different climates as they travel across the United States or to a foreign country. The lessons they will learn from spending time away from home can be invaluable later in life and include responsibility, self-discipline, and teamwork, sense of community and basic life skills gained by living with others.

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Thanks to our guest blogger, former band director Andrew M. Yaracs! Yaracs is the Author of “Travel 101: A Band Director’s Guide for Planning Student Travel.” Stay tuned for his guest blog series featuring excerpts from his book!

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