In short
Rick Steves is an American travel writer and public television host who tours with orchestras as the narrator of "Rick Steves' Europe: A Symphonic Journey," a program that pairs his spoken tour of the continent with orchestral music from each country. He is not a musician by training. On these evenings he speaks between and over the pieces, setting each one in the place it came from. Upcoming dates include the New Jersey Symphony, the Jacksonville Symphony, the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland Pops.
What to listen for
Expect a guided tour with an orchestra attached. The Williamsburg program shows the shape: Johann Strauss II's Emperor Waltz for Austria, Smetana's Vltava tracing a river from a trickle to a broad current, Elgar's first Pomp and Circumstance march for England, Grieg's Peer Gynt music for Norway, Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio espagnol with its guitar-like plucked strings and dancing violin solos, the Prelude to Act III of Wagner's Lohengrin as a blaze of brass, and Verdi's Nabucco overture for Italy. Saint-Saens's Suite algerienne looks toward North Africa. The evening closes with music from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, whose "Ode to Joy" tune is the anthem of Europe. Steves talks between the pieces, so newcomers get the context before the music starts. Most selections run under ten minutes.
Written by OrchestraFinder, reviewed September 2026.