Scarsdale High School chorus & orchestra
February 15th -20th, 2009
BUENOS AIRES-ARGENTINA
CONCERT TOUR 2009
John Cuk, Conductor
Hello Andrea,

I hope that you've had some time to relax after our "invasion" of Argentina. To be perfectly honest, I was overwhelmed by the amount of work and effort that you put into tour. Your staff was brilliant; activities perfect for our children, and concert venues and logistics
wonderful. I've taken 8 school concert tours and this one was by far the best one, from all facets.My students are still talking about it and I guess will for some time.

Thank you for making this special.
Sincerely,
John Cuk
Scarsdale High School Chorus conductor


PEQUEÑAS HUELLAS ORQUESTA Y CORO
22 de diciembre de 2009 - 4 de Enero de 2010 Chascomús (Pcia. de Buenos Aires)-Mercedes (Pcia. de Buenos Aires)-Buenos Aires-Mendoza ORQUESTA PEQUEÑAS HUELLAS EN CONCIERTO
Solista invitada: Susana Moncayo
Margherita Pupulin (16 años), Directora

Queridos todos!
Estamos nuevamente en Italia.
Hemos pasado unos días maravillosos que nos han cambiado profundamente.
Agradecemos todos por el amor y la colaboración con los cuales nos han acompañados.
Un abrazo muy fuerte!
Sabina Colona Pretti
Directora programa Pequeñas Huellas (Italia)


Long Island Symphonic Choral Association
July 16th – 21st, 2010
CONCERT TOUR 2010
URUGUAY & ARGENTINA

Greetings,Maury
Just a quick note to thank you for another fine singing tour. Although we missed not having you with us, rest assured that Andrea and her group did an extraordinary job! It was obvious from the beginning that we were in the hands of true professionals. Each of them was enthusiastic, welcoming,patient and extremely knowledgeable. They went out of their way to pay attention to the littlest of details (like the "Welcome to Argentina" gift bags placed on our bus seats when we were picked up at the airport, or bringing along a gaucho doll and related paraphernalia on the way to the estancia for 'show and tell'). These kinds of thoughtful little touches continued throughout the tour, making it a very special one. The venues chosen for the concerts had a marvelous acoustic and the touring destinations and restaurants were varied and wonderful. Did you know that Andrea went out of her way to obtain 30 free tickets (and primo seats, may I add), to a fabulous string quartet performing in the Teatro colon?  Serendipity, and for me, one of many highlights of the trip. Thank you for a wonderful trip, please convey my sincere gratitude to Andrea and company for a job
very well done!
Mary Riotto
Long Island Symphonic Choral Association


Dear Andrea:
Thank you all from Waveney and me for a wonderful concert tour plus sightseeing. We had a great time with so many informed, enthusiastic and competent guides. And please send especial thanks to Victoria for getting Waveney the emergency dental care she needed  (twice)!
Best regards,
Malcolm J. Bowman
Stony Brook NY
LISCA


Thank you so much, Andrea!!!! You and your staff made my vacation so memorable!!! I will remember all of you until the day that I go to heaven! Someday, I hope to visit you again! Much love and happiness to all of you!
Suzanne Austin
LISCA

What a pleasure to find your lovely message near the top when I opened my e-mail this morning! We had such a wonderful time in Argentina and appreciate what an important role you played in making this a great trip for us. The concert in the beautiful Opera House and Iguazu Falls were highlights for me, but everything was truly memorable. Thank you again, and very best wishes.
Norma Watson


Dear Andrea,
Thank you so much for everything that you, Vicki, Florencia and the rest of your staff, not to mention the bus drivers, did to make our trip such a spectacular success! We had a lovely time! You picked churches with wonderful acoustics for our concerts and the side-trips, especially the one to Colonia,
were great fun. Bob and I will always remember Argentina and its people with great affection because of all your care and concern! Warm regards
Julia De Zafra
LISCA
 

Orquesta ULBRA- Tour 2006
Brasil- ARGENTINA
Cara Andrea:
Estou te escrevendo para agradecer todo teu empenho em fazer com que  as coisas acontecessem da melhor maneira possível durante a nossa gira na Argentina. Tudo que foi combinado aconteceu da melhor maneira possível.  Tu és uma profissional muito competente e tua equipe trabalha em perfeita harmonia. Foi um prazer trabalhar contigo e espero que possamos, num futuro próximo, continuar esta parceria que foi muito boa.
Muito obrigado pela tua dedicação e seriedade.
abraço
Tiago Flores
Director Orquesta ULBRA- Tour 2006
Brasil

O trabalho de vocês  foi perfeito, desde a chegada no aeoporto, o cumprimento dos horários estabelecidos, a organização das atividades com os co-produtores das cidades onde fizemos espetáculo, a divulgação de imprensa, enfim tudo correu a contento e sua equipe é muito competente. Sem dúvida o trabalho de vocês foi muito importante para o sucesso do nosso espetáculo.
Um grande abraço e até a próxima.
Ana cristina-Secretaria Orquesta ULBRA- Tour 2006
Brasil

Yale University Alumni Choir
CONCERT TOUR 2004 ARGENTINA
Yale University extends sincere gratitude to Andrea Merenzon directora General del Festival Internacional de Música de Buenos Aires for conspicuous service to the Yale Alumni Chorus on the occasion of the Gift of Song Tour. Saturday , August 7, 2004. Power sound, song begets song the voices of the watershed rivers change merge, amplify, and sing! An extravagant cascade La Musica! from Cascade.
Linda Koch Lorimer, vicepresident and secretary
Richard C.Levin , president.
USA

Por intermedio de la presente te saludo y envío nuevamente las felicitaciones por el excelente encuentro del
2005. Mis alumnos quedaron muy encantados con la experiencia y con muchas ganas de participar este año.
Ricardo Alvarez B.
Director Banda The Grange School,
Santiago de Chile 2005

En nombre del Mozarteum Argentino te hago llegar nuestro agradecimiento por la impecable labor de tu equipo y vos. Fue un placer trabajar y viajar con ustedes, llevando al norte del país a la Orquesta Sinfonía Baires.
Agustina Amuchástegui
Mozarteum Argertino

University of Nebraska at Kearney Choraleers
Choral Music Department
May 10th - 20th, 2009
Colonia del Sacramento (Uy)-Buenos Aires (Arg)-Mar del Plata (Arg)-La Plata (Arg)
CONCERT TOUR 2009
URUGUAY & ARGENTINA
Dr. David Bauer, Conductor

I can not thank you enough for the wonderful experience all of us had in Argentina and Uruguay.
Blessings.
David Bauer
University of Nebraska at Kearney Choraleers Director

The University of Georgia Wind Ensemble
May 10th - 17th, 2010
Buenos Aires - Mercedes
CONCERT TOUR 2010
ARGENTINA
Dr. John P. Lynch, Conductor
Angela Jones-Reus, Flute - Amy Marinello, Basson - Scott Pollard, Marimba

Hello Victoria,
Thank you and Andrea again for a wonderful trip, all of us had a fantastic time! We miss you and all
the wonderful people we met in Buenos Aires.
Best and warmest wishes,
John
John P. Lynch, DMA
Director of Bands, Professor of Music
The University of Georgia

Some Students  Comments
(Comentarios de estudiantes)

North Shore High School Band, Choir and String Orchestra
February 14th - 21st, 2010
Colonia del Sacramento (Uy) – Buenos Aires (Arg)
CONCERT TOUR 2010
URUGUAY & ARGENTINA
Conductors: Lisa G. Polito, David Soto & Michael Kerschner

Dear everyone!
Thank you for a beautiful time! I loved everything so much te amo mucho!!
Love, Bryanna
Mate=
¡Muy muy muy bueno! ¡Muchas gracias! Olivia

This is a trip I’ll never forget!
You all helped in making this memorable.
Thank you! Arielle

Beautiful, life-changing, unforgettable
THANK YOU!!!!!
Christian Petroske

Natalia, thank you so much for making this trip absolutely amazing.
I learned so much!
Thank you for everything & all the work you put into this trip
Gabrielle

This is a moment I will never ever forget in my entire life! You guys worked so hard for us and made
so many sacrifices. ¡Estoy muy agradecido!
Con amor
Jeff Kim
P.S. Ice cream ears…
P.S.S. NON ALCOHOLIC!!!

Thank you all for such a wonderful experience and trip! I will never forget this amazing week! Thank
so much for all that you did for our trip!
Cecilia Castellano

Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Thank you Vicky, Florencia, Karin and everyone. I feel a part of
South America now.
Nick Corda

Thank you for a wonderful tour! South America is beautiful!
Victoria Colozzi

Vicky! I had so much fun on this trip and you made my day everyday! Don’t lick the ceiling. I bet
you’ll never see that again.
I LOVED this tour it was amazing thanks to all the members of the tour organization!
Love love love!
Crysta Lehmann

Vicky! Thank you for being such a gracious tour guide and friend. This experience was truly one of the
most amazing and empowering things I have ever done. Thank you for everything. Mate= life
Matt McGill

The trip was amazing! I enjoyed it so much. Victoria and the guides were so knowledgeable it really
made the trip excellent!
Sam Horowitz

Thank you so much!!!! You all were the most accommodating, helpful, and nicest tour guides. Without
you all, our trip would never have been the same, and we wouldn’t truly understand Argentinian or
Uruguayan culture. See you again!
Lily Fagin

Vicky! Thank you so much everything was incredible! You guys were so nice and awesome and you made
this trip absolutely amazing! Thanks for sharing your mate with us (It was so good)
Love, Elizabeth Duffy
P.S. NON ALCOHOLIC!

Sometimes, it’s difficult to find words to express your feelings. For me, this is one of those times.
There is no way that I could ever express how grateful I am for this amazingly incredible trip. It was
more excitement and fun than I’ve had in a long time, and it all happened because of you. THANK YOU!!
Charlie Helling

Thank you all so much! You all have made this a wonderful experience for me. I really don’t know how
else to tell you how much this has meant to me! I love you guys!! Thank you!
DJ More

I can’t express enough what an amazing experience you have provided for myself and the rest of the
group. This trip is my new favorite and I can’t thank you enough! I’ve learned so much and love the
cultures of these two wonderful countries. The performance opportunities you have given us will
forever stay with me and will share with my peers back home and to my students when I become a music
teacher in the future. I still can’t believe we’re leaving today; it has yet to hit me. I will most
definitely be returning to these wonderful places because of my memories with this trip. You are all
amazingly wonderful people and I love and thank you all so much!
Joanna Rose-Gross

For travelling halfway across the earth, putting this tour together must have been quite a large
amount of work. I am really impressed at how everything fell into place – even with flight
difficulties and the like. I’ll never understand how you can manage to get performance opportunities
over here, though. It doesn’t seem like a normal thing to ask a city, “High school musicians from the
other side of the world are coming to perform here; do you have a venue?” of course, it’s a lot more
than that, but set my drift. That you have the power to give us this opportunity is awesome, and I am
truly grateful to have had this chance for my Argentine/Uruguayan premiere.
A few extra thoughts; I overheard some complaints about “not enough free time", and I would like to
say that the scheduling was near flawless. Everything you scheduled worked quite well, and saving the
majority of the Shopping for last was an excellent idea. Though I’m the opposite of most people – I
came to play music (and not to dance & sightsee) - everything in the cities was beautiful, so I
suppose rejecting dancing and sightseeing was rash of me.OVERALL – well done! Thank you again for all of these opportunities and adventures we’ve shared, and I can tell you this much – when I start my career as a cellist, I’ll be back here at the first chance!
Josh Epstein


Thank you so much for this amazing trip! It was so much fun and an amazing experience! The tours were
amazing.
Erin Lepanto

The effort put into planning this trip definitely showed because there wasn’t a minute that I was not
having an amazing time. There were so many different activities that each showed something new about
Argentina & Uruguay. There was so much to do and so much to see and although it was impossible to see
all of it, what we did see helped us understand the culture of this country. Thank you for this
experience.
Abby Schubach


 

San José Youth Symphony Orchestra
June 27 th - July 6th, 2009
Santiago de Chile (Chile)-Mendoza (Arg)-Córdoba (Arg)-Rosario (Arg)
CONCERT TOUR 2009
CHILE-ARGENTINA
Yair Samet, Conductor

Hola Andrea:
It is so great to hear from you. We all made it home safely and much richer for our experience in
Argentina! You and your team are awesome.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!! The outreach concerts were the highlight of our trip.
Playing in concert halls for knowledgeable audiences is always great fun, however, playing for people
who have so little and no access is heart warming. Thank you for arranging this for us.
Thank you for the update on the DVDs. What a fantastic and talented videographer! Thank him again
for us.
All our love,
Lorne Morris
SJYSO President


Dearest Andrea,
I'd like to thank you again from the bottom of my heart for the fantastic tour and all your great
care, work and friendship. The entire orchestra is raving on what a great experience it was. Thanks so
much!
Yair Samet
SJYSO Conductor


Some Students  Comments
(Comentarios de estudiantes)

Thank you so much for just making this trip absolutely fantastic!!! The weather
transitions were smooth, everyone was just so wonderful and helpful and Buenos
Aires/Colonia are such beautiful places!!! The concerts were fantastic as well as the
sights and food
Everything was absolutely perfect
and remember… NON ALCOHOLIC!!! Vicky
Kathryn Kaufmann


This trip has been amazing. Thanks to you, I have a totally new perception of South America. Expect me
to come back to Buenos Aires soon!
Patrick Welden

I’m so glad to come on this trip, it was truly amazing. You guys were all so amazing. The concerts
were so much fun and we couldn’t do it without you. Thanks so much.
Love, April Beisser

Thank you so much for being so welcoming, and for being amazing. The tours were awesome, and the trip
was so well planned!
Thank you for everything and for making this trip one of the best experiences of my life!
Love, Kelsey

You guys did such beautiful work with welcoming us to a new country. It was my first time on a plane,
in a new country, and all I can say it has been one of the most amazing weeks of my life. The culture,
the churches… I’m coming back here one day later in life, and hopefully all of the memories of this
week will flash by. Especially singing in the church for our second concert. You all did so much and
were very chill. Thanks for everything!!
Ryan Hart

This trip was the best experience of my life! I have learned so much and will take this new knowledge
and apply this to my life. Thank you so very much and I can’t wait to come back and visit!
Thank you
Love
Cassandra

I don’t know where to begin, this was one of the most wonderful & life changing experiences I have had
so far in my life.
Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity!
You guys were amazing (Vicky)
Love
Cosette Carlomusto ♪ ♫

Gracias. Gracias. Gracias for giving me one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I will
truly miss this, and can only hope that I will be able to visit South America again. Thank you so, so
much.
Love, Kathleen Lewis
Great job

Thanks so so so much for making this trip perfect. I never expected to see some of those monuments, or
eat so much alfajores. So sad to leave today, but this trip will be in my forever.
always
Erica Palladino

THANK YOU sooooo much for everything you have done for us this past week… This trip will be
unforgettable to all of us, and that is because of the unbelievable amount of work that was put into
this trip. Thank you so much, again!
Rebecca Warzer

This was a truly life-changing experience for me that I’ll always remember & endure. I will never
forget of the unbelievable time I had here. I’ve made so many friends, was able to experience the
culture & able to experience what it’s like in another country. Thank you so much.
Max Korten

This trip in this beautiful country has been a once in a lifetime opportunity. I want to thanks all of
you for making it possible. Especially Juan Martin, if I ever use Facebook, I’ll look you up. Thanks
again!
Rob Wiesmann


Thank you so much for everything you guys put in! I had a blast doing all of the activities that you
guys had planned for us! I could not have had a better time while I was here! Thank you again!
Chloe Ghillani

The trip was amazing. I got to see so many places and things that were new to me. Thank you so much
for planning this trip. It could not have been any better. I wish we could stay longer.
Mitchell Goidel

Thank you so much for this amazing experience. I learned a lot of Argentina´s culture and had a great
time.
Leila Sharifi

I had a great time! This trip was awesome. I loved the tango lessons! Gonna miss this 
 Dylan Mendelsohn

This was an awesome experience that you provided for us. Thank you so much for making this trip so
fantastic and enjoyable.
Anna Shelkin

There is not enough space to describe all the joy and experiences on this trip. The trip was very
organized which made it very productive and fun at the same time. The tour guides were very nice and
knew a lot about what was around us which added to the joy of this trip. Thank you for a great
experience I will never forget.
Max Sirlin

This trip had been such an experience thanks to you guys. It was great getting to know everyone,
especially the staff on the lower level of bus 1! You put in tons of effort into making this trip
happen only to end up with no sleep & your door covered in tape. I am truly grateful for everything
you have done, including having the sense not to lick the ceiling on the bus
Take care with everything
Amanda Sobhy


Thank you for making this trip truly unforgettable.
I had a great time and I will miss Argentina soooo much! Maybe I will visit in the future.
Don’t forget… NO ALCOHOL!!
Love, Abbey

This trip has been absolutely amazing! Thank you so so much for everything.
I’ll never forget this trip!
always
Nicole

Thank you so much for allowing us to come to Uruguay & Argentina. It was an experience I will never
forget and it was so much fun. Hopefully see you soon.
Sarah McNulty

Thank you for this trip and for giving us such a great tour! I had so much fun the entire time even if
it rained.
Nikki Appel