Yvonne Caruthers is a cellist in the NSO.
In the Musician's Lounge at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, violinist Sue Midkiff bares her arm for Dr. Zaid Akl, and piccolo player Carole Bean reacts to her shot.
To get a shot, or not get a shot, that was one of the questions on our minds in May. Our tour doctor, Dr. Chester Kessler, suggested that we should get certain vaccinations before our trip to China. Among them he recommended Hepatitis A and B, typhoid, tetanus, polio, flu.....were there more? I can't remember. The orchestra committee discussed the issue with management, and as a result, Dr. Ziad Akl, a travel medicine specialist, came to the Kennedy Center to give shots to those who signed up. Each musician was responsible for the expense ($110 for each of three doses of Hep A+B), but we appreciated the convenience of scheduling them at the hall.
Paperwork: I feel sorry for Cynthia Steele, our Orchestra Manager. She's been deluged with paperwork for this trip. First came the memo which outlined our projected itinerary and travel options. This was mostly for planning purposes, since some orchestra members needed to make the decision as to whether to bring along a guest or family member. Not only did Cynthia need guest information for hotels and flights well in advance, but she followed up on that several weeks ago with a form which asked us whether we had frequent flyer accounts with each airline, whether we wanted one bed or two in our hotel rooms, whether we needed special meals (low sodium, vegetarian, etc) on long flights, whether we would travel with the NSO the entire time, or make our own arrangements for some segments of the tour.
Cynthia also collected our passports several weeks ago, and made sure that each of us was photographed (backstage) for visa applications. Then each of us filled out visa applications for both Korea and China. Some of the questions were intriguing: "have you ever been refused entry to China? Why?"
As soon as a tour doctor (Dr. Chester Kessler) had been chosen, there were forms to fill out for him, ("are you diabetic? do you have heart problems?"), distributed and collected by Cynthia and her staff. The immunizations I mentioned above also required forms to fill out: information forms, insurance forms, and sign-up sheets.
I think we're closing in on the end of the paperwork, with a form to fill out concerning which instruments we will take on tour. A lot of players have a favorite instrument, and a backup instrument for travel purposes (no one wants a multi-thousand-dollar instrument damaged in transit) Not only does the shipping carnet have to spell out which instrument is in each particular case or trunk, but what accessories are in there with it, i.e. mutes, an extra bow, etc. If customs officials open a case and discover that the contents don't precisely match the shipping carnet, there are major delays in processing our entry or exit from a country. (Our stagehands have stories about this issue....)
Wait: one more piece of paper, a sign-up sheet, for those who want to attend a reception in Shanghai. It looks pretty enticing!
It will be nice to get on the plane and rest, though 15 hours of forced rest might be longer than any of us can truly enjoy.