Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey Set to Premiere on April 3, 2025 

CINCINNATI, OH — Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey, co-produced by local public television station CET and based on Rick Steves’ performance with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra last September, is scheduled to premiere Thursday, April 3, at 8pm on CET, ThinkTV16 and the PBS App. The concert will also be distributed nationally by American Public Television (APT) starting on April 1.

“Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey touches down in seven different countries to celebrate how Romantic Era music served as a bugle call on the 19th century battlefield of national causes. Hosting this event — combining three of my loves: travel, history and music as a tour guide on stage with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and maestro John Morris Russell — has been one of the creative highlights of my career. It’s a one-hour celebration of live classical music like none other,” said Rick Steves, popular public television host and guidebook author.

In this special, Steves and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, under the direction of Cincinnati Pops Conductor John Morris Russell, take audiences on a musical tour across Europe, performing music by 19th Century Romantic-era composers Edvard Grieg, Richard Wagner, Bedrich Smetana, Johann Strauss Jr., Giuseppe Verdi and others. Steves hosts the program and provides historical and cultural context. CET has paired the stories and music with breathtaking imagery from popular episodes of Rick Steves travel programs. As the one-hour program unfolds, it becomes clear that these pieces are more than nationalistic pride — they are echoes of revolutions, movements, and aspirations for a better future. The program culminates with Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”, the official anthem of the European Union, symbolizing a continent united in its diversity.

“It was a joy working with Rick to curate repertoire for this production that served to tell both his musical stories and showcase the virtuosity of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra,” said John Morris Russell, Cincinnati Pops Conductor. “The vitality and sheer beauty of these works is taken to a whole new level with Rick’s insightful descriptions and the stunning imagery.”

For CET, producing Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey involved six months of pre-planning, recording all three Rick Steves concerts with the Pops in September of 2024 with 18 cameras, scouring hundreds of video clips from Steves’ travels, and months of post-production.

“The Cincinnati Pops has enjoyed a decades-long, collaborative relationship with CET,” said Robert McGrath, President and CEO of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops. “This project with the renowned Rick Steves and CET strengthens our bond and marks the Cincinnati Pops’ return to national broadcast TV after nearly 20 years. Over 5,000 audience members had the opportunity to experience the program live at Cincinnati Music Hall in September, and we are proud to be the orchestra to expand the reach of this program on a national scale.”  

"Public television has always been a gateway to discovery, and Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey is a perfect example of how we bring the world to our viewers in new and engaging ways. Along with our partners, we’re proud to share this inspiring program that celebrates the spirit, history, and unity of Europe through music,” said Kitty Lensman, CET and ThinkTV President and CEO

Learn more about Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey at https://www.cetconnect.org/rick-steves-europe-a-symphonic-journey/

Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey, a Cincinnati Pops and CET broadcast partnership, is made possible by the following: The George and Margaret McLane Foundation, Barbara W. Kellar, Melinda & Irwin Simon, The Friedlander Family, Patti & Fred Heldman, Adele Lippert, The Ladislas & Vilma Segoe Family Foundation, Nancy Wagner & Patty Wagner, Barbara M. Weyand, Jerry Skidmore, and Gail & Dick Stradling.

 

PUBLIC MEDIA CONNECT 

Public Media Connect is the regional partnership of CET in Cincinnati and ThinkTV in Dayton, Southwest Ohio’s PBS stations. The local non-profit broadcasts CET (48), ThinkTV14 and ThinkTV16 in addition to 10 digital subchannels; provides multiple station livestreams; and offers on-demand programming through the PBS App, PBS KIDS App, Local NOW, YouTubeTV and more. In addition to bringing national PBS programming to local viewers and members, Public Media Connect produces major documentaries, tells local stories through programs like The Art Show and Brick by Brick: Solutions for a Thriving Community, creates curriculum-based content for educators across the country, offers in-person workshops for parents and caregivers, and is a part of the fabric of our region.

In all, Public Media Connect serves more than 3 million people in the Greater Cincinnati and Dayton

communities. Through PBS and local programming, innovative multimedia curriculum projects, parent workshops and professional development for teachers, Public Media Connect positively impacts our community with rich and diverse resources. Public Media Connect’s mission is to strengthen the communities and region we serve by providing content and services that engage, inspire and inform, education and entertain, fostering culture and citizenship, the joys of learning and the power of diverse perspectives.

 

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, Rick 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.

Rick is the founder and owner of Rick Steves' Europe, a travel business with a small-group tour program that brings more than 30,000 people to Europe annually. Each year, the company contributes to a portfolio of climate-smart nonprofits, essentially paying a self-imposed carbon tax. He also supports and works closely with many advocacy groups and has been instrumental in the legalization of marijuana in states across the country.

Rick spends about three 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.

 

JOHN MORRIS RUSSELL

John Morris Russell’s embrace of America’s unique voice and musical stories has transformed how orchestral performances connect and engage with audiences. As conductor of the Cincinnati Pops since 2011, the wide-range and diversity of his work as a musical leader, collaborator and educator continues to reinvigorate the musical scene throughout Cincinnati and across the continent. As Music Director of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina, Russell conducts the classical series as well as the prestigious Hilton Head International Piano Competition.  

Russell has contributed seven albums to the Cincinnati Pops discography, including the 2023 holiday

album JOY! In 2018, he created the “American Originals Project,” which has won both critical and popular acclaim and features two landmark recordings: American Originals (the music of Stephen Foster) and the Grammy-nominated American Originals 1918 (a tribute to the dawn of the jazz age). Russell’s American Soundscapes video series with the Pops and Cincinnati’s CET Public Television has surpassed one million views on YouTube since its launch in 2016. For over two decades, Mr. Russell has led the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s wildly successful Classical Roots initiative honoring and celebrating Black musical excellence, which has garnered record-breaking in-person and online audiences. Guest artists have included Marvin Winans, Alton White, George Shirley, Common and Hi-Tek.

A popular guest conductor, Mr. Russell has worked with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles

Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, the Boston Pops and the National Symphony of Washington, D.C. Since 2014, Mr. Russell has regularly led the National Orchestral Institute and Festival in College Park, Maryland, one of the nation’s premiere training orchestras. A Grammy-nominated artist, JMR has worked with leading performers from across a variety of musical genres, including Aretha Franklin, Emanuel Ax, Amy Grant and Vince Gill, Rhiannon Giddens, Hilary Hahn, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Cynthia Erivo, Sutton Foster, Steve Martin, Brian Wilson, Leslie Odom, Jr., Mandy Gonzalez, and Bob Weir.

 

CINCINNATI POPS ORCHESTRA

Since 1977, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra has entertained audiences in Cincinnati and around the globe with its trademark “Cincinnati Sound,” presenting a diverse array of musical genres that has garnered national and international acclaim for the ensemble. The alter ego of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Pops was founded in 1977 by the late Erich Kunzel and is currently led by Conductor John Morris Russell with Damon Gupton serving as Principal Guest Conductor. Notable collaborations with artists have included Dave Brubeck, Kristin Chenoweth, Ella Fitzgerald, Ben Folds, Aretha Franklin, Rhiannon Gidden, Audra McDonald, Smokey Robinson, and Lea Salonga.

Committed to sharing music with the world, the Cincinnati Pops has a long legacy of domestic and international tours and was the first Pops orchestra from the United States to perform in China. Recent tours have included Shanghai and Taiwan in March 2017 and Florida in December 2014. Previously, the Pops traveled to Beijing as part of the Opening Festivities of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, and in 2005, the Pops completed a historic tour to China and Singapore, performing in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The Cincinnati Pops has also appeared before audiences in New York’s Carnegie Hall, Washington D.C., and Japan.

Digital performances and recordings have long been hallmarks of the Cincinnati Pops. National telecasts of the Cincinnati Pops on PBS have been viewed by an estimated 30 million people, and American Soundscapes, an online video series produced in partnership with CET Public Television, has surpassed one million views on YouTube since its inception in 2016. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Cincinnati Pops performances were livestreamed for free to viewers from around the world; select performances continue to be livestreamed each season for accessibility. The Cincinnati Pops discography is expansive and tens of millions of recordings have been sold worldwide through the decades. In 2012, the Pops released Home for the Holidays, the first recording on the Orchestra’s own Fanfare Cincinnati label, and in 2015, the Pops released American Originals, which received widespread acclaim for its reimagining of the Stephen Foster songbook, followed by the release of American Originals: 1918, which received a Grammy nomination for “Best Classical Compendium.”

 

AMERICAN PUBLIC TELEVISION

American Public Television (APT) is the leading syndicator of high-quality, top-rated programming to the nation’s public television stations. Founded in 1961, APT distributes 250 new program titles per year and nearly one-half of the top 100 highest-rated public television titles in the U.S. APT’s diverse catalog includes prominent documentaries, performance, dramas, how-to programs, classic movies, children’s series and news and current affairs programs. America’s Test Kitchen, The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross, The Chavis Chronicles, Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Television, Doc Martin, Hope Street, Lidia’s Kitchen, Midsomer Murders, My Life is Murder, Pati’s Mexican Table, The Real Wild West, Rick Steves’ Europe, Samantha Brown’s Places to Love, Table for All with Buki Elegbede, Willie Nelson's 90th Birthday Celebration and NHK Newsline are a sampling of APT’s programs, considered some of the most popular on public television. APT also licenses programs internationally through its APT Worldwide service and distributes Create®TV — featuring the best of public television's lifestyle programming — and WORLD™, public television’s premier news, science and documentary channel. More information at APTonline.org.

 

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