For its size, Eugene, Oregon with a population that rose to about 138,000 in the 1990's had and has now a remarkable array of cultural opportunities. Credit for that should go in great part to the University of Oregon and its prestigious School of Music that spawned a fine symphony orchestra, opera, concert choir, dance, music festivals and more. The Eugene Symphony was formed in 1965. Then came the Eugene Symphony Guild in 1968, an army of extraordinary women that works to promote the orchestra including fund-raising. For that purpose, in 1987, the Guild suggested to me as a travel agent, the concept of devising musical tours. On the first try, there was a successful and lucrative excursion in 1988 to Charleston, South Carolina with its kaleidoscopic Spoleto Festival plus Hilton Head and Savannah, Georgia. Thus the Eugene Symphony Guild musical tour project was launched. The next effort in 1989 was an even more productive tour of the Colorado Rockies, called "Mountains of Music." And that was how and where I found a great partner, named Nancy Adams, in what would become a company called Travel to Music. Over a dozen years, there would be 20 of these excursions to benefit the Eugene Symphony along with more for the sake of Eugene Opera. And eventually, the Rogue Valley Symphony in Ashland, OR glommed onto this idea with gusto. In all of this, we sought great music in North America, Europe, the Caribbean and Mexico. The timing was magical as Marin Alsop, who was already a conducting super star, picked up the baton as Music Director for the Eugene Symphony to begin its 1989-1990 season and a seven year tenure with that orchestra. In 1988, she had won Leonard Bernstein's Conducting Fellowship to Tanglewood Music Center, where she became a student of Bernstein, Gustave Meier and Seiji Ozawa. The next year, Alsop was a prize winner in the Stokowski Conducting Competition with the American Symphony Orchestra in New York City. That same year, she was awarded the Koussivitsky Conducting Prize at Tanglewood, the first and only woman to receive that honor. Before becoming conductor of the Eugene Symphony, Alsop had formed her String Fever band plus Concordia Orchestra in New York. And she had most recently won the Associate Conductor position of the Richmond Symphony. While serving as Music Director for the ESO, she assumed the same title for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, CA. Then she became Music Director of the Colorado Symphony in Denver, followed by Creative Conductor Chair with the St. Louis Symphony. And the list continued to grow. In 2005, Alsop was chosen to be the Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony, where she made history as the first woman to lead a major orchestra. We have a lot to say about Marin Alsop, because she and her orchestras kept popping up during our Travel to Music expeditions. With the same spirit that she exudes on stage, she gave to our tours in the Green Room, at receptions, even at a picnic and on a "boat" called the QE2.