By Janelle Gelfand
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The logistics are complex, and the trip is expensive. But taking the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to Japan is worth every detail and penny it takes, says Daniel J. Hoffheimer, chairman of the orchestra's board.

"It's part of getting and keeping a world-class conductor, and it's critical in getting and keeping world-class musicians," Hoffheimer says. "We're putting Cincinnati on the map in the world."

BY THE NUMBERS

CSO Japan tour (Nov. 3-16) by the numbers 103: musicians 2: conductors 103: boxes 360: items in boxes (musical instruments, sound gear, wardrobe) $3 million: value of cargo 18,509: pounds of cargo $500,000: cost per week of international touring 20: musicians who will hand-carry their instruments 1: airline seat purchased for a cello 1: tour physician (Dr. Eric Warm) 7: flights within Japan 2,000: number of schoolchildren who will attend a rehearsal in Kyushu 1,496: seats in the smallest hall, in Yamagata Other facts Presenter: Japan Arts Tour sponsor: Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America Virtual tour: www.cincinnatisymphony.org

The seven-city, eight-concert tour will be the orchestra's first trip to Asia since 1990, although the Pops visited twice in the '90s. It also comes during trying economic times, when other orchestras, such as Pittsburgh's, have had to cancel tours. Cincinnati, also struggling, expects a $400,000 operating deficit for the year that ended Aug. 31.

Just how expensive is this trip? Moving 103 musicians and 18,500 pounds of equipment around a foreign country costs about $500,000 a week. The orchestra's trip will last 14 days.

The package offered by the promoter, Japan Arts, will include fees for performing. Those, plus Toyota North America's $50,000 sponsorship, should cover the trip expenses, orchestra president Steven Monder says.

The Cincinnati Symphony, which operates on about $30 million a year, is among the country's top 10 orchestras, measured by budgets. It's able to compete with the best orchestras because of more than a century of deep community support and strong feeling for the 109-year-old ensemble.

The decision to tour "says you've got leadership both in the corporate community and on the board that's looking forward. They're looking beyond the current economic times, and looking to growing, rather than circling the wagons," says Jack McAuliffe, chief operating officer of the American Symphony Orchestra League, a support organization with 850 members.

Yet touring is never easy. The logistics of the Japan tour are as complex as the most sophisticated musical score. About $3 million in musical instruments will be packed in specially designed crates, and trucked city to city.

Musicians who do not carry theirs will have to arrange practice times with the stage crew. They worry about finding time to eat dinner and adjusting to the 14-hour time change. Because they'll be constantly on the move, few are bringing children or spouses.

"It's like Survivor," violinist Stacey Woolley says. "Who will be the last one left on the island?"

Because of the long distances, there will be no time for trains - not even Japan's high-speed bullet train. The orchestra will take seven internal flights and ride on numerous buses. New laws since 9-11 have affected how cargo is handled. It's not allowed on trains going through tunnels, for instance.

As late as last week, Monder noted, "the challenge for us is to get from Sapporo to Tokyo."

"Our crew is there when the instruments are loaded on and off the trucks and planes. The trucks will be traveling right after the concert through the night to get to the next concert."

Japan is a prestigious tour destination, and the orchestra will perform in the country's most important halls. As the Cincinnati Symphony is flying over, the Chicago Symphony will be returning from concerts in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka.

"Everyone knows Japan is a very important musical capital," says Eiji Hashimoto, professor emeritus at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a harpsichordist who tours Japan regularly.

The Japanese "adore classical music," Hashimoto says. "Lots of European orchestras go there: Vienna, Berlin, London, Paris. All the big orchestras go to Japan."

The Japan tour could be the start of a major international presence for the Cincinnati Symphony, which was the first orchestra in the country to make an around-the-world tour, a 1966 trip sponsored by the State Department.

In the works is a tour of the major musical capitals of Europe, including Paris, Berlin and Vienna, planned for November 2004, if sponsors are found.

"We're cautiously optimistic that we'll find the money," Hoffheimer says.

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com