Musical instruments

What does a world-class orchestra do when a prized cello is bumped from a flight ahead of a major performance? Turn to the skills of Stage and Screen to orchestrate a solution.

Client snapshot

The Australian World Orchestra (AWO) is one of the country’s most acclaimed musical ensembles, comprising top Australian classical musicians from renowned orchestras around the world. With musical instruments, excess luggage, and sometimes strollers in tow, musicians converge in Australia from all over the world, making AWO’s travel management exceptionally complex. Coordinating oversized baggage, valuable instruments, and passenger logistics requires careful planning and precision.

The challenge

For a major Sydney performance by the orchestra, Stage and Screen was responsible for co-ordinating travel for 120 passengers which included 9 passengers requiring an extra seat for their cellos, across three flights from Melbourne to Sydney. This required extensive planning: individual seating allocations, pre-arranged special-rate baggage allowances and handling from the airlines, and a dedicated seat for each cello. An additional complexity emerged when the Stage and Screen Travel Manager’s annual leave overlapped with the orchestra’s travel day, requiring her to manage all components of the travel well in advance and plan for any contingencies. What’s more, one flight cancelled a cello booking due to capacity restrictions. The cello had to be moved to another flight without incurring additional costs for the AWO and before the Travel Manager went on leave.

The solution

The Travel Manager began preparations for the travel date months in advance. She held regular meetings with AWO’s Tour Manager to finalise seating plans, cello seating allocations and baggage arrangements, ensuring every detail was finalised weeks ahead of departure. When a cello seat booking was cancelled, Stage and Screen worked closely with the airline to reallocate the cello onto an earlier group flight, and in doing so, avoided extra fees and ensured the cello and its owner travelled with AWO musicians.

The outcome

The travel day was seamless: the tour party of 120 including 9 cellos arrived in Sydney safely, on time and without AWO incurring additional costs, despite the unexpected hiccup and overall complexity of the travel. When the Travel Manager returned from annual leave, AWO’s Tour Manager expressed heartfelt thanks to Stage and Screen for its expert coordination — noting how much they appreciated all the detailed and thorough planning that had gone into the trip months in advance.