EAST WEST TRAVEL GROUP

Travel Arts Ltd.  ·   Shijiazhuang Huihuang Cultural Organization

The East West Travel Group, based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, specializes in customized tours to China for Performing arts groups.  Drawing on over 15 years of experience in international travel and event management, the owners and operators of East West Travel Group are highly experienced and dedicated to offering unique travel opportunities to creative artists interested in expanding their horizons.  By working closely with their highly qualified and influential partners in China, they tirelessly work to ensure that every group’s trip is truly the trip of a lifetime.

East West Travel Group’s areas of expertise include:

•  Carefree, safe and comfortable touring to exotic locations for reasonable prices

•  Friendly, responsible, informed and flexible tour consultation and management

•  Expert air and ground shipping and/or procurement of equipment including all documentation and customs clearance requirements

•  Superior booking and production expertise for all types of professional as well as informal indoor and outdoor venues and events

•  Outstanding publicity material design, production and distribution experience

•  Relevent cultural and educational interaction with local individuals and/or groups

•  Exceptional organization of unique cultural activities

As former educators and passionate travelers East West Travel Group owners and operators John Crozman and Jana Wyber have a lifelong interest in fostering cross-cultural exchange.  They have arranged countless international tours for amateur and professional groups as well as welcomed thousands of exceptional young people to unique educational events.  Their fascination with and unique knowledge of China is infectious!

Jana Wyber is a founder of the East West Travel Group with nine years of experience in group travel for arts organizations.  She joined the staff of Travel Arts Ltd. as a group consultant in 1995 where she specialized in providing administrative and logistical expertise to a wide variety of non-profit performing groups touring Europe, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and North America.   From 1996 until 2000, she was the Executive Director of the Banff International Festivals held at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Banff, Alberta, Canada.  This prestigious, invitational event welcomed an average of seven hundred young musicians from around the world to a week of master classes and performances with world-renowned teachers, performers and conductors.

In her capacity as one of the Executive Producers of the professional theatrical troupe Barrage, Ms. Wyber manages various aspects of artistic development, international touring, publicity, recording and filming activities.  She is also the Executive Director of the Barrage High Performance Fiddle Camp and a Manager of the String Alternatives Workshop for music educators.

Jana Wyber is a former professional orchestral musician.  She earned a Bachelor of Music degree with Honours in Performance from McGill University in Montreal and was a participant in the winter cycle program at The Banff Centre for the Arts.  Ms. Wyber also holds an MA degree with a specialization in Musicology from the University of Calgary.

John Crozman is a founding partner of the East West Travel Group and former owner of Travel Arts Ltd. of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  He has also been an Executive Director of the international professional theatrical troupe Barrage since its inception in 1996.  His extensive experience organizing and administering international touring for both amateur and professional groups spans well over 15 years of activity in Asia, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. 

Mr. Crozman has a longstanding interest and involvement with music education.  He is a founder of Swath Publishing and a co-author of The Fiddle Club series of publications.  He was a founder of the Banff International Festivals for youth orchestras, high school orchestras and wind ensembles and served as a Director of the festivals from 1996-2000.  He was the Managing Director of The Calgary Fiddlers from 1986-1996.  Under his leadership, this ground-breaking amateur performing group released four recordings, made multiple tours of the U.K., Europe, Australia, Japan, the U.S. and Canada and performed an average of over two hundred public and private performances a year.

John Crozman earned an undergraduate degree in music education from the University of Western Ontario and an MBA from the University of Calgary with a specialization in marketing.  He is also an awarding-winning violinist and fiddle player who was asked to perform for the 80^th birthday celebration of Sir Yehudi Menuhin.  He studied violin and viola performance for two years at the Guildhall School of Music in London, England.

Travel Arts Ltd.

Travel Arts Ltd. has operated for over 20 years as an accredited, full service IATA travel agency, with a major focus on customized group travel for high school and other amateur performing organizations.  Choirs, marching bands and orchestras interested in performance tours and cultural exchanges involving homestays have traveled throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand on tours arranged by Travel Arts. 

Some of the performance tours organized by Travel Arts include:

Youth Singers of Calgary (Canada)                               Mainland China, Summer 2004

Portland Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (USA)            Australia and New Zealand, Spring, 2000

English Schools Orchestra (England)                            Western Canada, Spring 2000

Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra (Canada)             Western Canada, Spring 2000

Midland Youth Orchestra (England)                             Western Canada, Spring, 2000

Youth Singers of Calgary (Canada)                               Australia and New Zealand, Summer, 2000

Medicine Hat Girls Choir (Canada)                              United Kingdom and Europe, Summer, 2000

British Columbia Boys Choir (Canada)                          Europe, Summer, 2000

Westlake Festival Orchestra (New Zealand)                 Western Canada, Spring, 1999

St. Joseph’s College (Australia)                                    Western Canada, Spring, 1999

Springfield Youth Symphony (USA)                              Western Canada, Spring, 1999

Dorset Youth Wind Orchestra (England)                       Western Canada, Spring, 1999

Worcestershire Youth Wind Orchestra (England)          Western Canada, Spring, 1999

Epsom Girls Grammar Symphonia (New Zealand)         Western Canada, Spring, 1999

Gorokan High School Wind Orchestra (Australia)         Western Canada, Spring, 1999

Campbelltown Community Band (Australia)                  Europe, Summer, 1999

Ayrshire Fiddle Orchestra (Scotland)                            Western Canada, Summer, 1999

Melbourne Youth Orchestra (Australia)                        Western Canada and U.S., Spring, 1998

Portland Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (USA)             Western Canada, Spring, 1998

Columbus Youth Orchestra (USA)                               Western Canada, Spring, 1998

Flemish Youth Orchestra (Belgium)                              Western Canada, Spring, 1998

Cheltenham Girls Choir (Australia)                              Western Canada and U.S., Summer, 1998

Marburg Community Band (Germany)                          Australia, Spring, 1998

Manurewa High School Band (New Zealand)   Western Canada, Spring, 1997

Choeur de mon coeur (Switzerland)                              Western Canada, Summer, 1997

Guangzhou Children’s Palace Choir (China)                  Western Canada, Fall, 1997

Shijiazhuang Huihuang Cultural Organization

The Shijiazhuang Huihuang Cultural Organization (SHCEO) was founded in 2004 to facilitate China’s growing interest in hosting visitors from other countries and fostering educational and cultural exchange.  The Government of the People’s Republic of China has granted the SHCEO permission to invite appropriate youth groups on performance and educational tours of various regions of the country.

As a standing member of Hebei Artists Association, Mr. Yu fei has been active in the artistic and cultural exchange field for 16 years.  He has held positions as the Director of the Hebei Foreign Affairs Department, President of the Hebei Performance Company, and Director of the Hebei Public Culture and Art Bureau. Mr.Yu fei is Executive Director of the Shijiazhuang Huihuang Cultural Exchange Organization and President of the Shijiazhuang Huihuang Business and Advertising Company.  He has a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Protection and Philosophy.

Mr. Jia Re (Andy) is currently the Vice President of the Huihuang Business and Advertising Company and the Manager of the Shijiazhuang Huihuang Cultural Exchange Organization. Over the past three years, he has organized  national tours of China for dozens of professional and amateur artists from around the world. In 2004, Mr. Jia was invited to be an international delegate by the Canadian government to the East Coast Music Awards in Canada. He possesses a Masters Degree in English Culture and Literature and is a faculty member at the Hebei Normal University.

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