Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

Saturday, March 11, 2023 at 7:30 pm

Sunday, March 12, 2023 at 2:30 pm

ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL

Yaniv Dinur, conductor

Rick Steves, host

PROGRAM

USA: FRANCIS SCOTT KEY, arr. Smith & Gearhart

The Star-Spangled Banner

Austria: JOHANN STRAUSS II

Blue Danube Waltz, Opus 314

Germany: RICHARD WAGNER

Prelude to Act I of Die Meistersinger

Czech Republic: BEDŘICH SMETANA

The Moldau [Vltava]

Italy: GIUSEPPE VERDI

Triumphal March” from Aida

INTERMISSION

Britain: EDWARD ELGAR

Pomp and Circumstance March in D major, Opus 39

Norway: EDVARD GRIEG

“Morning” from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Opus 46

France: HECTOR BERLIOZ

“Marche Troyenne” from Les Troyens

All of Europe: LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Opus 125 “Ode to Joy”

This weekend’s media sponsor is WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO.

The length of this concert is approximately 2 hours. All programs are subject to change.

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra can be heard on Telarc, Koss Classics, Pro Arte, AVIE, and Vox/Turnabout recordings. MSO Classics recordings (digital only) available on iTunes and at mso.org. MSO Binaural recordings (digital only) available at mso.org.

Guest Artist Biographies

RICK STEVES

RICK STEVES

Rick Steves is a popular public television host, a best-selling guidebook author, and an outspoken activist who encourages Americans to broaden their perspectives through travel. But above all else, Steves considers himself a teacher. He taught his first travel class at his college campus in the mid-1970s – and now, more than 40 years later, he still measures his success not by dollars earned, but by trips impacted.

Widely considered America’s leading authority on European travel, Steves produces a best-selling series of guidebooks and is the author of Travel as a Political Act. He is dedicated to providing all Americans with access to travel information, and he has made extensive resources available for free on the Rick Steves’ Europe website, via the Rick Steves Audio Europe™ app, and in Rick Steves Classroom Europe™, a searchable database of short, teachable video clips.

A longtime supporter of public broadcasting, Steves produces and hosts public television and radio shows that air across the nation.

Steves is the founder and owner of Rick Steves’ Europe (RSE), a travel business with more than 100 full-time employees. RSE operates a successful tour program, which brings more than 30,000 people to Europe annually. The company contributes annually to a portfolio of climatesmart nonprofits, essentially paying a self-imposed carbon tax.

Steves works closely with several advocacy groups and makes regular financial contributions to more than 170 organizations, including annual contributions to Bread for the World. He is a board member of NORML and has been instrumental in the legalization of marijuana in several states. He has also provided $8 million in funding to build two new neighborhood centers in his community, and he has donated a 24-unit apartment building for homeless women and their children to his local YWCA.

Steves spends about four months a year in Europe, researching guidebooks, fine-tuning his tour program, filming his TV show, and making new discoveries for travelers. To recharge, he plays piano, relaxes at his family cabin in the Cascade Mountains, and spends time with his son, Andy, and daughter, Jackie. He lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington, where his office window overlooks his old junior high school.