Sold Out
The St. Olaf Jazz People-to-People trip to Cuba is sold out. However, we are beginning a waiting list for those who remain interested in this opportunity should we have the ability to expand the size of our group.
Contact Jean Parish with questions:
- If you wish to be added to the waiting list, complete the registration form and submit a refundable deposit of $500 (see details below). Completing these two components will add you in chronological order to the waiting list.
- The package available via the waiting list will be only Option 2 (land package and charter flights Miami/Havana/Miami). You will be responsible for your own domestic flights to and from Miami.
- We will contact people in the order in which registration and deposit were received if/as spots become available. At the moment you are notified that a spot becomes available you will have 48 hours to accept or reject the space; if you accept, you will need to pay the full balance of the trip costs at that time.
- Your $500 deposit will be refunded in full February 3 if you have registered but have not been confirmed on the trip.
Note that St. Olaf Study Travel is offering a separate, faculty-led trip to Cuba in spring 2016.
Patron Tour Details
March 20–25, 2016
Deposit deadline: December 7
This opportunity is limited to only 20 people, and the type of travel and our timing require quick commitment.
St. Olaf College is offering an unprecedented opportunity for you to experience Cuba with St. Olaf Jazz. Led by David Hagedorn, St. Olaf Jazz was named “the best college jazz band in the country” by Downbeat Magazine in 2012.
Recent developments in American-Cuban relations have made it easier to explore the island nation’s rich jazz heritage. We are offering you the opportunity to visit Cuba in the company of St. Olaf students as they perform and collaborate with local musicians. St. Olaf Jazz is the college’s first ensemble to tour Cuba.
Music and Culture
As a member of the St. Olaf Jazz Patron tour, you will see the band perform in Havana and Matanzas. Other highlights will include an architectural tour of Havana’s Old Town, visits to Revolutionary Square and the Hemingway House, dance lessons, a private rum tasting and tobacco factory visit, a vintage car ride, dinner at a residential paladar, and a visit to the home and studio of José Fuster — the “Picasso of Cuba.”
You’ll also observe our students interacting with students of Cuba’s top magnet high school for the performing arts — for masterclasses and sectionals led by local faculty and concluding with a St. Olaf Jazz concert. You’ll be treated to collaborations with renowned jazz trumpeter Rodolfo Jorge Horta Hernandez, the Banda Provincial de la Ciudad de Matanzas, and Joaquin Betancourt and his La Joven Jazz Band. You also will get to mingle with local musicians.
The tour includes deluxe hotel accommodations and a farewell dinner featuring the best of Havana’s afro-Cuban jazz.
Join us for what promises to be a memorable adventure.
Sign up now
Contact Director of College Relations for Music Organizations Jean Parish (507-786-3360) with questions.