Cincinnati Pops Partners with CET, Cincinnati’s PBS Station, for the Live Filming and Recording of Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey
CINCINNATI, OH (August 21, 2024)—The Cincinnati Pops and CET, Cincinnati’s public television station, announced today that they are partnering for the live filming and recording of the Pops’ September 13-15 program, Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey.
Available to PBS stations nationwide, the television program will feature the Cincinnati Pops led by its conductor John Morris Russell, with live, on-stage narration by popular public television host and best-selling guidebook author Rick Steves. Russell and the Pops will take audiences on a musical tour across Europe, performing music by composers Edvard Grieg, Camille Saint-Saëns, Bedřich Smetana, Johann Strauss Jr., Giuseppe Verdi and others. Steves will host the program and share personal stories of his extensive travels across the continent as well as insights into European history. All three performances of the Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey, including occasional shots of Music Hall audiences, will be filmed and made available for PBS stations across the country.
“It's long been my dream to weave music, travel, and history together to tell the story of how Romantic Age music served as a bugle call on the battlefield as the nations of 19th century Europe were winning their freedom, to do it with a great American orchestra, and to have it filmed to share with our entire country on public television,” said Steves. “And, with the help of the Cincinnati Pops and maestro John Morris Russell and CET, I'll be doing exactly that. Please join us on September 13, 14 or 15!”
"It's going to be an extraordinary show having Rick Steves and the Cincinnati Pops performing together. CET is honored to be asked to produce this special, and we’re delighted that our viewers and members will have the opportunity to enjoy this program on their local PBS stations," said Kitty Lensman, CET and ThinkTV President and CEO.
“I have been a great admirer of Rick Steves—his broadcasts and guide books have been a staple in our household and on our travels for many years,” said Russell. “It has been a thrill to set great music to his storytelling, and to highlight the context from which these classics came to be. This unique concert and television presentation will be packed with beloved orchestral showpieces, familiar to everyone, featuring the splendor and virtuosity of our Cincinnati Pops. Like all of our live recordings and television productions, the audience will be part of the show and help bring Cincinnati to the world.”
Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey, a Cincinnati Pops and CET broadcast partnership, is made possible by the following: Barbara W. Kellar, The George and Margaret McLane Foundation, The Friedlander Family, Melinda & Irwin Simon, Patti & Fred Heldman, Adele Lippert, The Ladislas & Vilma Segoe Family Foundation, Nancy Wagner & Patty Wagner, Deborah Campbell & Eunice M. Wolf, The Castellini Foundation, DeeDee & Gary West, and Barbara M. Weyand.
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 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.
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., Lea Salonga and Mandy Gonzalez.