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MUSIC, ARTS, ADVENTURE TOURS OF NEPAL
What is so different about our tours?
Our tours let you not just take photos and see the same thing loads of other people see. We let you make actual contacts and make actual friends with some amazing artists and musicians who are off the tourist routes. Yes, you can still see some UNESCO World Heritage sites and lovely views, but our intimately sized tours also let you sign up as a lone person or with a group and make new friends both with your fellow travelers and with the local Nepali people. We also offer components that let you actually try making local crafts, foods, and music, trying traditional dances, and much more. We often hear from our clients that our tour was a positive life changing experience as well as fun and enlightening. Many of our partipants also rave about how much they benifitted from our trips in terms of the restorative adventure opening up new doors within themselves as well as them experiencing amazing sites and sounds as they experience Nepal with us.
Our passion is to create amazing and memorable experiences that have positive impacts on the places we visit. We make your travel matter with our eco-conscious adventures and extensive experience with local artists, musicians, non-profits , and inspired and pioneering educators on the ground in Nepal.
Does One Need to be a Musician or Artist to come on a tour? No! One does not need to be a musician, or an artist , or an athlete to come on a Music, Arts, and Culture Tour. One just needs to have interests in such things and have interests in meeting people who actually make the art and music and live in authentic cultures. We have a great time on the trips and people generally come out of the trip with new life long friends that they made in our groups and along the way. Check out the website for video clips, photos, and testimonials from past participants.
We also can organize and lead customized tours for groups and are happy to work with schools or other organizations to organize and lead student tours.
Each tour is sure to be an amazing tour, meeting wonderful and creative people, doing and seeing so many unique and unusual things, and seeing truly magnificent views. We have a magical trek planned winding through villages and mountains in the famous Annapurna Region of the Nepali Himalayas. We have itineraries to send out if you are interested and are happy to also answer any concerns you may have about the booking, the tours, the weather, what to pack, how good of shape do you need to be in, etc, etc. We can schedule a phone call or video chat by appointment to answer any questions as well.
Optional Voluntourism, Jungle Extension, or Tutorials following the tour are possible. Contact us and we can create and customize your unique and wonderful experience.
“Looking back on my trip, it’s one of the most meaningful trips I have done in my life.”
- Olga, 2019 tour participant
Do EMAIL US to join our mailing list also if you even might possibly be interested in upcoming tours, so you can weigh in on availablities and other possible preference options.
Also EMAIL US if you want to be added to our email list and also let us know if you have any paprtilular interests or might have a group who might be interested in a personalized Custom Tour. You can email through this portal or directly to TaraWorlds@gmail.com to be added to our email us for future opportunities or for more information on any of our tour or programs. CUSTOM TOURS AVAILABLE FOR GROUPS.
Want to travel to Nepal and not worry with all the details and actually get to meet really cool interesting local people who create great arts and do amazing things?
Want to travel but can't get a group of folks excited to go with you and you do not want to travel alone? Want a safe, secure fun way to meet some travel companions?
Discover worlds outside your own. Become inspired. Find empowerment and self-discovery. Make meaningful connections with new people. See and learn about World Heritage Sites.
MUSIC OF NEPAL
We can offer small concerts and jam sessions of Nepali music and dance as well as meeting people of varying expertise in arts and social and/or environmental projects.
Nepali traditional music is similar to American Appalachian Old Time music. The Nepali fiddle (called a sarangi) tends to be the main instrument in the music and is often accompanied by a wooden flute (called the bansuri) and a hand drum, known as a madal (pronounced like the English word “model.”) The traditional musicians of Nepal are living the life of what is now highly endangered in the United States and other places…what some might call real “Old Time music.” For instance, if a fiddler needs a new instrument, they go out cut some wood off of a tree and build themselves a fiddle (sarangi). If their tuning peg isn’t holding or needs to be replaced, they cut up some wood and make a new one. If they need some rosin for their sarangi bow, they go out in the woods and look for a pine tree and pull off some bark to get the rosin off the bark.
ARTS & CULTURE
One may also see and meet some various types of artists, craftspeople, dancers, farmers, shopkeepers, Buddhist monks or nuns, non-profit workers, woodcarvers, and many more.
THE WEATHER
In March, October, or November the weather is usually lovely. Nepal is generally sunny and temperatures are in the 70's (Farenheit) in the daytime. It is a truly lovely time of year to be there enjoying the sunshine.
Many people who come on our tours often do not do group tours and love our tours because we have more intimate sized groups so it feels more like a group of friends traveling together. Many maybe friends who have just met on the tour, but we very soon become a fun and friendly group.
"There are no strangers here, only friends who have not met yet."
~ W.B. Yeats
Limited spots are available for our tours to keep them an intimate size, so if you are interested do not delay in contacting us! We have limited availablity so register early and don't miss out.
Contact us to find more info, to get on our email list, or to register for our next tour at TaraWorlds@gmail.com.
A portion of tour proceeds will go to music and arts education programs for needy kids in Nepal.
MUSIC, ARTS, ADVENTURE TOURS OF NEPAL
YOUR GUIDES
Tara Linhardt
Tara Linhardt is the founder of Music Arts Advenutures and one of your guides. She first began studying Nepali culture in college when she attended the University of Wisconsin College Year in Nepal Program. During this year, she studied tabla (classical Indian drumming), yoga, massage, Bhuddhist meditation, woodcarving, and traveled around Nepal working with a Nepali Environmental organization, along with her studies of Nepali language, history and culture. She also lived and studied in a woodcarving village and intensely studied Nepali arts. While doing her studies, she lived with local Nepali families and learned constantly from her helpful and gracious Nepali hosts and friends.
She then lived and studied for a year in Chiang Mai, Thailand and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Wisconsin. She furthered her studies with a Masters in Education from Shenandoah University.
After college, she followed her interests in music and culture back in the US, where she went back to the culture of her home state of Virginia and became a professional bluegrass musician. She has spent years playing, performing, and teaching traditional styles of music. She has won numerous awards for her mandolin playing and song writing. She has taught privately, at festivals, and at numerous music camps up and down the east coast, sometimes running her own camps.
She has been performing and educating about traditional American music and Nepali traditional music. She has performed with well known and respected Nepali musicians in Nepal and the US performing and giving cultural talks at The Smithsonian Folklife Festival, National Geographic, The Asia Society, The Rubin Museum, The Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, and many universities and arts organizations throughout the US.
She is a founding member of the non-profit, The Mountain Music Project, with which she has helped to make a documentary film comparing Nepali and Appalachian traditional music cultures and to make a collaborative CD featuring the two musical styles. A direct link to watch the film on Amazon is here. The non-profit seeks to help encourage the preservation and appreciation of traditional music communities. Below is a picture of her playing Nepali music at the National Geographic debut of the documentary film in Washington, DC. For the past decade she has worked with The Mountain Music Project to set up music education programs at numerous orphanages and centers for needy children around the Kathmandu Valley and has organized and helped to sponsor music festivals and workshops in Nepal to encourage the preservation and promotion of traditional music and arts. Some of the income generated from the Music Arts Adventure Tours also has gone to buying instruments for needy children as well as helping them get school supplies and access to the internet for learning purposes and instruction in how to use those new tools.
Ian Poole
Music Arts Adventures has the expertise of Ian Poole on our tour staff as well. He has studied, and headed up building , and renovating traditional and modern structures in a number of Asian countries with particular expertise in the countries of Nepal, Laos, and Bhutan as well as in Australia and the USA. He has trekked and explored throughout South and Southeast Asia while studying their arts and architecture. His insights, energy, and enjoyable personality add a fantastic component to any group. He has also taught construction techniques and strategies in South Asia working with local communities to help solve their problems and maximize their resources. We are honored to have Ian also on our staff.
Giving
A portion of the proceeds from each tour are donated to Arts and Music education programs for disadvantaged children in Nepal. Email us to find out how to donate.
WARNING: High risk of inspiration, breathtaking views, and fun on our trips.
Contact us for more info, to get on our email list, or to register for our next tour at TaraWorlds@gmail.com.
