How would you describe the atmosphere of what you're absorbing so far?

Well, I think you captured it perfectly, that the sort of broad sort of experiences one can have here from cultural, historical, culinarily, musically, topographically is really exciting.

I think it's sort of a feast for the students in all respects in terms of what they're experiencing here, in terms of just, again, capturing a little bit of the ancient history and learning about it, but also just kind of seeing the land and experiencing the sort of – vibrant Mediterranean culture here and getting a taste of local food, which we had last night at a wonderful restaurant right by the water.

So I think it's really been a good start in terms of opening their horizons and expanding their horizons to the world of Greek culture.

Would you tell me anything else that you'd like folks to know about this tour so far?

Well, I mean, it's early days, but at this point, as Evan indicated, the...

The concerts are really very popular.

We've sold out here in Thessaloniki, and we've sold out in Athens.

What do you think listeners might wanna know? We just met AJ, spectacular guy, amazing man.

Indeed, and just representative of so many of the students in the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Really, a, um, a, a wonderful, vibrant, talented group that I think, uh, listeners who are tuning in tonight will get to hear, um, in an ensemble, uh, fashion.

Uh, first, uh, the first selection, the, the Beethoven, um, Creatures from Prometheus will feature the winner of PYSO's 2025-26 conducting competition.

So Albert Dong, our cellist, um, won that competition, so he will step out on the stage of Heinz Hall and onto the podium and conduct the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra in that selection, which is an extraordinary opportunity, uh, for any person, but, but the young musicians of, of the orchestra and, and he earned it in, through a competition that we have, so that's wonderful.

And then the, the program that we're pre- presenting tonight, actually we will take, um, in about a month and a half, or actually less, about four weeks, um, on our international concert tour to Greece.

So we're going for 11 days, uh, four concerts in cities, uh, taking this program with us, so this'll be an opportunity for the Pittsburgh audience to hear these selections before we board a plane and land in the ancient and historic, uh, country of Greece and perform for, for that country.

in, in the, uh, realm of society.