The BBC Symphony Orchestra has indefinitely postponed a tour to the United
States planned for March 2003 because of the poor American economic climate.
Paul Hughes, the orchestra's general manager, said the collapse of the tour was very regrettable but "currently the economics of touring to America are difficult. The [American management agency] ICM put together a good tour schedule, but — without any commercial sponsorship — there looked like being a gap of $300,000 between what the tour would cost and what it would earn. Our players are ready for some hardship, but 16 concerts over three weeks, vast bus journeys, and nights in cheap hotels sharing four to a room are too much to ask when the outcome is so uneconomic."
The tour was to include visits to Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and possibly New York's Carnegie Hall. The programs, led by chief conductor Leonard Slatkin, would have been predominantly English music, including a new work by Mark-Anthony Turnage, works by Elgar and Tippett, and two performancs of Britten's War Requiem.
The orchestra is about to embark on a three-week tour to Australia and
Southeast Asia.
