ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE TRAVEL
Take your orchestra beyond the rehearsal room with performance opportunities, clinics, cultural experiences, and unforgettable destinations. These are some of Student Adventures’ Top Destination Picks, but every trip is fully customized around your ensemble, goals, schedule, and interests.
Student Adventures Top Destination Picks
We help you dream about where your music can take you next.
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Where Will Your Orchestra Go?
From the strings and studios of Nashville to the aloha spirit of Hawaii and the symphonic energy of Chicago, these destinations give orchestra directors a starting point for creating an incredible student performance trip.
Choose the destination that fits your goals, and we’ll customize the experience around your orchestra.
Nashville
Nashville is a city where string playing refuses to stay in one lane. Fiddle traditions, bluegrass, studio recording, songwriting, and symphonic performance all rely on players who listen, phrase, and collaborate at a high level. Your orchestra can move from a university clinic to RCA Studio B and the Nashville Symphony while keeping its own sound at the center of the trip.
Performance Opportunities
- Grand Ole Opry Plaza
- Country Music Hall of Fame
- NMAAM
- General Jackson Showboat
Workshops / Clinics
- Vanderbilt Orchestra Clinic
- Belmont Orchestra Clinic
- RCA Studio B Recording
- Songwriting Workshop
Hawaii
Hawaii offers orchestras a destination that feels both musically refreshing and program defining. Students can perform in beautiful public or sacred spaces, work with university musicians, and encounter Hawaiian musical traditions that ask them to listen differently to rhythm and gesture — all alongside Pearl Harbor, Kualoa Ranch, and the island’s coastline.
Performance Opportunities
- Ala Moana Center
- USS Missouri
- USS Bowfin
- Kapiʻolani Park Bandstand
Workshops / Clinics
- University of Hawaii Clinic
- Local Ensemble Exchange
- Hawaii Youth Orchestra
- Ukulele Workshop
Chicago
Chicago is one of the most natural orchestra destinations in the country. Hearing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra can reset students’ expectations for ensemble sound, while focused clinics let them apply that inspiration to their own repertoire — all surrounded by museums, architecture, and lakefront energy.
Performance Opportunities
- 360 CHICAGO
- Field Museum
- Skydeck Chicago
- Navy Pier
Workshops / Clinics
- Chicago Symphony Orchestra
- New Trier Orchestra Clinic
- DePaul Faculty Clinic
New York
New York lets orchestra students move fluidly between symphonic, chamber, and theatrical playing. Wicked focused experiences reveal how a pit orchestra supports pacing and character with exacting consistency, paired with the New York Philharmonic, conservatory clinics, and iconic performance settings across the city.
Performance Opportunities
- Carnegie Hall
- Lincoln Center
- Riverside Church
- Holley Plaza at Washington Sq
Workshops / Clinics
- Dan Micciche Workshop
- Wicked Performer Workshop
- Broadway Pit Workshop
- Broadway Score Workshop
New Orleans
New Orleans challenges orchestra students to listen beyond the printed page. Jazz, improvisation, rhythmic flexibility, and Second Line traditions create a valuable contrast with notation centered work, while sacred and public performance settings and the French Quarter add historical context to everything students hear.
Performance Opportunities
- Jackson Square
- St. Louis Cathedral
- The National WWII Museum
- New Orleans Jazz Museum
Workshops / Clinics
- Kids in the Hall
- Louisiana Philharmonic Clinic
- School Orchestra Exchange
- University String Clinic
Washington, DC
Washington, DC gives orchestras a destination where artistry and meaning reinforce one another. Students can perform near memorials and national institutions, hear or work with National Symphony musicians, and connect their repertoire to themes of history, remembrance, and service.
Performance Opportunities
- Lincoln Memorial Steps
- World War II Memorial
- Union Station
- Mount Vernon
Workshops / Clinics
- NSO Clinic
- NSO Open Rehearsal
- Air Force Strings Clinic
- George Mason Orchestra Clinic
Orlando
Orlando gives orchestra students a direct line between the music they study and the soundtracks that shape popular culture. Soundtrack sessions, festival clinics, and performance opportunities help students hear orchestral color at work, then bring that heightened awareness back to their own playing.
Performance Opportunities
- Disney’s Waterside Stage
- Universal’s Lagoon Stage CityWalk
- OrlandoFest
- SeaWorld SoundWaves
Workshops / Clinics
- Festival Disney
- Music and The Art of Foley
- OrlandoFest Clinic
- Soundtrack Sessions: Instrumental
Ready to Build Your Perfect Trip?
These destinations are Student Adventures’ Top Destination Picks, but your trip does not have to follow a template. Every performance trip is fully customized around your orchestra — from destinations and performance opportunities to clinics, cultural experiences, and the moments your students will remember.