The McNeese State University Jazz Ensemble will travel to Romania for a 16-day performance tour in the spring and jazz director Rick Condit is inviting other students, faculty, staff and community members to accompany the group.

Oct. 15 is the deadline for a $500 non-refundable fee deposit to reserve a spot for the tour scheduled May 25-June 10. All travel arrangements will be booked by Condit through Partners in Travel.

The cost is $2,500 per student and $3,000 for non-students. The price covers airfare, double occupancy in two-and three-star hotels, ground transportation, sight seeing and all other group related expenses. Additional fees will include one or two meals per day, excursions not related to the tour and other incidental charges.

The group will tour in five cities—Timisoara, Tirgu Mures, Iasi, Sibiu and Bucharest—attending concerts, presenting workshops and participating in specifically organized civic activities throughout the tour.

“The ensemble will perform at the nationally televised Richard Oschanitsky Jazz Festival in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the founding of the George Enescu University of the Arts,” said Condit. Other performances are scheduled at the international Open Jazz Festival, the National Radio Hall in the capital city of Bucharest and a citywide concert in the philharmonic hall in Sibiu.

Condit, a Fulbright Senior Scholar who taught American-style jazz education at George Enescu University in spring 2002, has been to Romania six times since then.

“The six weeks I spent there this past summer convinced me that this is an unprecedented opportunity for our students. Everyone I spoke to in Romania about the tour was extremely enthusiastic,” he said.

In addition to the concerts, master classes and workshops, the jazz ensemble students as well as those who sign up for the trip will see some of Romania’s most historic sites including the 500-year-old painted monasteries of Moldavia and the medieval cities of Sighisoara and Sibiu in the region of Transylvania.

For more trip information, contact Condit at (337) 475-5007 or by e-mail at rcondit@mcneese.edu.