Life On The Road...

I've had some requests from people who are interested in knowing how Manuel's schedule is in details and what it is like for him on the road.

-- Asgerdur Sigurdardottir

January/February 2003

Well, finally, it happened...!

Manuel was scheduled to play the Fantasía para un Gentilhombre with the Andorra Chamber Orchestra in October. The first rehearsal was scheduled for October 26th, with a concert on the 27th. Nothing unusual about that; he usually only does one rehearsal, plus the general rehearsal.

The conductor, Ignacio Yepes, who is the son of the late guitarist Narciso Yepes, picked Manuel up at his hotel, and as they were driving to the rehearsal, Manuel asked him, "So, what else is on the program?" The conductor said, "Well, we open with Mozart, and then we do the Aranjuez..."

Manuel said, "Oh, the Aranjuez... Who will be playing the it?" The conductor sort of looked at Manuel laughingly and said, "Ha ha ha, how funny... I'm sure we can find someone to do it! "

Manuel said, "No, really, who will be playing the Aranjuez?" The conductor looked at Manuel and laughed some more and looked at the concertmaster, who was there too, and made a comment about how funny Manuel was. Then he said, "Well, YOU are playing the Aranjuez!"

Manuel, who had been filing his nails in preparation for the rehearsal, stopped filing, looked at him seriously, and said, "No, I'm not. I was asked to do the Fantasía para un Gentilhombre, which is what I have prepared."

At this point, there was total silence in the car as everyone stared at each other, trying to figure out who was pulling whose leg...

Well, it turns out that there was a miscommunication somewhere. The orchestra thought they had asked for the Aranjuez, while what got to Manuel was that they wanted the Fantasía.

Now what? Manuel had not played the Aranjuez for 7 months, not even touched it, and the orchestra did not have the score of the Fantasía, so they couldn't play it. All this, on their way to the only rehearsal...

What Manuel ended up doing was trusting his memory and his numerous encounters with the Aranjuez, and simply going for it. The rehearsal went well, no problems at all, and the following day, they had a run-through and the concert.

Luckily, the concert went well, despite a stressful couple of days. Come to think of it, it is actually amazing that this has not happened before during 27 years of touring. We certainly hope that this will be the first and last time this happens!

January/February 2002

Many of you have emailed, asking about Manuel's travel arrangements with the guitar. Airplane travel with a guitar is often a hassle. Through all the years of traveling, Manuel has experienced his share of misadventures, ranging from seeing his guitar fall from the top of a 747's baggage conveyor belt to playing a concert in jeans when his suitcase did not arrive. Although Manuel has never (knock on wood) had to play a concert with a guitar other than his own, he always carries a couple of sets of his favorite strings with him on the plane, just in case! There have been some very close calls -- a few years ago in Athens his guitar arrived just one hour before the concert!

The following will give you an idea of how we make travel arrangements to make things run as smoothly as possible and to minimize the risk of losing the guitar:

The following stories refer to when Manuel flies coach; when he flies first class, there usually are no problems bringing the guitar on board without a ticket for it.

First of all, if Manuel travels on a day of a concert, we ALWAYS buy a seat for the guitar. However, if not flying on the concert day, there are a few things to consider before deciding whether to check the guitar or buy a seat for it. For example, will he absolutely need the guitar right away? Is he going to a place where we can easily find a good replacement guitar if necessary?

If we decide to check it, we of course will bring the safest and strongest case possible, cross our fingers, and follow these rules:

1. Avoid connecting flights. If we absolutely have to connect somewhere, we avoid airports with lots of traffic such as New York, Chicago, and London, as, in our experience, these airports greatly increase the chances of misplacement.
2. Avoid tight connections. A delay of the first flight can easily cause the baggage not to make a connection, even if you do.
3. Avoid taking the last flight of the day to your destination. Usually, bags will arrive on the very next flight if they don't make the connection, but if there are no more flights that day...
4. Know your airport codes and make sure that the bags are being checked to the right destination. Manuel has caught agents checking the guitar to the wrong destination a couple of times...

Manuel rarely will try to take the guitar on board without a seat for it. The fact is that regardless of the regulations, it is completely unpredictable whether the airline will allow one to take the guitar on board. Although it is true that by explaining (and sometimes fighting), they might give in, sometimes they don't. Besides, with all Manuel's traveling, his life could easily become one long fight with the airline people. For those few times that he tries taking a guitar on board, the rule we follow is to ask for seats in the back of the plane, to be able to board before the bins get filled up.

Unfortunately, even buying a seat for the guitar does not guarantee you a seat for it on the plane! Not all airplanes allow cabin baggage and most reservation agents have no idea about the regulations. Even the check-in agents and the boarding agents usually don't know. Yes, yes, yes, I know, it should be as simple as: Airline sells you ticket = you have seat. But no, it is not so simple.

Here is a little story to illustrate my point: Manuel went to South Bend, IN, last season from Baltimore. I bought a seat for him and the guitar from Northwest, making sure to tell them that this was for cabin baggage, a guitar, and asked the agent to make sure it was ok. No problem, I'm told. To make a very long story short, on the outbound flight there were no problems. Coming back, however, Manuel is on the plane in South Bend with the guitar strapped in the seat when the baggage handler tells him that the guitar cannot stay there, that it has to be put in the cargo. Manuel tells him that he bought a seat for the guitar, that it has a boarding pass, and that he had come in on this particular plane a couple of days earlier -- but no luck. In few words: The captain said: "Either your guitar goes in the cargo, or you and the guitar get off the plane!"

Manuel had no choice but to take that flight because of other engagements and was forced to give them the guitar. When connecting in Detroit, he was given the guitar at the gate and went on to his connecting flight. Well, that flight was overbooked, and although Manuel had a boarding pass for the guitar and himself and was on the plane with it, the flight attendant told him the guitar could not stay in the seat (although this time not because of regulations, just "because"...) and took the guitar and put in its place another passenger who had been on a waiting list!

This is not the only time this has happened. On a tour here in the U.S. a couple of years ago, we bought a seat for the guitar for the whole tour (7 flights on United) and on none of them -- NONE -- did we keep the guitar in its seat, but in the overhead bin!!! The overhead bin??? Would that be the same overhead bin they tell us the guitar doesn't fit in when we try to board the plane without a boarding pass for the guitar? What irony is that?

January/February 2001

Well, some tours are more difficult than others and many times the schedule can be very hectic. For tours like these, everything needs to be organized to the last detail to allow the artist to practice and sleep. Yes, sleep!

An example of a difficult tour was the Jan/Feb tour, when Manuel went from home to Munich to San Francisco to the Canary Islands (Spain) and back home again.

Manuel left Baltimore at 5pm, arriving in Munich at 7 the following morning. Luckily, his hotel room was ready; often, hotel rooms do not become available until around noon or so. He took a nap and did a little practicing in the evening. The following morning at 10 am (4 am for him), he rehearsed the Aranjuez with the Munich Rundfunkorchester and Miguel Angel Gomez Martinez. He then had to stay awake for the rest of the day to get used to the time zone. Why? Because the concert was at 11 am the following day and it was necessary for him to sleep that night. After the concert and a scheduled meeting, he practiced the repertoire that he had to play later that week.

The following day, he flew to San Francisco (a 13 hour flight!), arriving at 3pm. Later that evening (and with very little rest), he had to rehearse with Kent Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony at 9pm (6am for him and without having slept!). Once again, he had to try to get used to a new time zone right away, as the concerts and rehearsals were in the evening -- which is actually morning in Munich!

After playing the Aranjuez on Wednesday and Thursday, he played a short one hour recital at 2pm that Saturday. The plan was to have a car waiting to take him straight to the airport for a 4:45pm flight to the Canary Islands (leaving little time to meet and greet people after the recital). The car didn't show up, so a friend took him to the airport, arriving just 40 minutes before an international departure to London. Because of a delay, Manuel missed his connection from London to Barcelona, finally arriving in Tenerife after 23 hours of total travel time!

Though he didn't get to the hotel until around 10pm, he still did a little practicing because now he had to play the Fantasia with the Helsinki Philharmonic and Leif Segerstam.

After the Canary Islands, he finally came home -- but for less than a week. Then off again for recitals in Mexico on Friday and Ann Arbor, Michigan on Sunday afternoon, but not before having taught one day of lessons and a masterclass at the Peabody Conservatory.

Speaking of sleeping, Manuel ran into Al Di Meola at the Oporto airport in Portugal early one morning this past Summer. They had both played the night before, only 5km apart. They were both very tired. Al talked about some restaurant where they had been taken to dinner after the concert, so Manuel asked him "Did you sleep?", to which Al answered, "Sleep? What's that?"