What We Do All Day

Sometimes people ask us what we do when we have no concerts for a few weeks. Watch tv? Go shopping?

Nope. We practice and rehearse and write each other an obscene amount of e-mail. On all conceivable topics, but lately mostly about travel.

We plan all of our own flights, rental cars, hotels, etc. because we have made an art out of finding the most economical options possible, and it is this art that allows us to make a modest living as touring chamber musicians.

For those of you wanting to volunteer to be our personal travel agent, please consider our schedule for the month of February, review the following example of Claremont Trio E-mail, and then let us know how you feel about pro bono work.

Claremont Trio E-mail - 1/7 #43

"no, sorry. I was proposing we pick up a car in Long Beach on the 7th... then we could actually return it to Long Beach on the 12th cause it's kind of on the way to Auburn from El Cajon. then rent one other car from long beach (12) to smf (14). But it turns out that 12 - 14 rental is very expensive relative to the weekly rentals, so this plan doesn't help us.

"what is worth factoring in is that if we fly, we then have to rent a new car at smf for 12 - 14, which is definitely adds expense to this plan over just keeping one care for 7 - 14 weekly rate. i'm seeing smf 12 -14 for just under $150. (car for 7 - 12 long beach to san is actually the same price - $362 - as car for 7 - 14 long beach to smf)

"extra drivers usually cost like $3 per day, right? so for 7 - 14 it'd be like $63 for all of us? We could double check that. Gas for 8 hours... at least $80? $100?

"flight is $80 so, for 4 it's $320. add $45 for 3 bags at $15 each - $365 add $150 for smf rental. - $515

"SOOO... $160ish to drive... $515 to fly. (either way, we'll pay $362 for the car we rent in long beach, so i left that out)"