Production & Promotional Tool Kit

Materials for planning, producing, and promoting your concert.

To help you plan, promote, and produce this concert we’ve put together a toolkit here. For your convenience you’ll find: sample performances; Rick’s pre-concert talk; promotional videos and photos; graphics and art for your website, social media, and program; promotional and program text (including concert descriptions, Rick’s bio); and more.

Concert Descriptions

Text to be used for press releases, publicity purposes, and your program: short and long.

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Rick Steves' Europe: A Symphonic Journey [70 words]

Usually, you'll find Rick Steves touring the great destinations of Europe. Now you can join him on a different journey: a Symphonic Journey. In this unique concert, Rick Steves appears not in person but on the big screen as he teams up with the talented [Anytown Orchestra]. The result is a performance that combines Europe's most stirring Romantic-era anthems with beautiful high-definition cinematography and Rick's tour-guiding insights into European history.

Rick Steves' Europe: A Symphonic Journey [134 words]

Rick Steves, America's leading authority on European travel, teams up with [Anytown Orchestra] and Maestro [Name] for an inspirational musical journey. The tour begins in the United States and then touches down in eight different European countries. The concert celebrates music's power to stir the patriotic soul. Playing musical tour guide, Steves utilizes his extensive knowledge of European history and culture to set the context for each piece. Then, with the help of evocative video images from his public television series, the orchestra performs a selection of stirring 19th-century anthems by Romantic-era composers, including Grieg, Smetana, Strauss, Saint-Saëns, Elgar, Wagner, and Verdi. Each selection honors a particular nationality, while the finale, Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" (Europe's official anthem), pays homage to the continent's motto of "United in Diversity" and its passion for freedom.

Rick Steves' Bio

Rick’s bio for your program and promotional use: short, medium, and long.

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Short Version (80 words)

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. He is the founder of Rick Steves' Europe, a travel business with a small-group tour program that brings 30,000 people to Europe annually. His mission: to equip and inspire Americans to venture beyond Orlando. Rick lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington, where his office window overlooks his old junior high school.

Medium Version (210 words)

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 fifty years later, he still measures his success not by dollars earned, but by trips impacted.

Rick is the founder of Rick Steves' Europe, a travel business with a small-group tour program that brings 30,000 people to Europe annually. His mission: to equip and inspire Americans to venture beyond Orlando. Each year, the philanthropic wing of his company contributes to a portfolio of climate-smart nonprofits, essentially paying a self-imposed carbon tax. He also supports and works closely with advocacy groups fighting hunger and defending civil liberties. He 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 and relaxes at his family cabin in the Cascade Mountains. He lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington, where his office window overlooks his old junior high school.

Long version (530 words)

Rick taught his first travel class at his college campus in the mid-1970s — and fifty years later, he still measures his success not by dollars earned, but by trips impacted.

Widely considered America's leading authority on European travel, Rick 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 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, Rick produces and hosts public television and radio shows that air across the nation.

Rick is the founder of Rick Steves' Europe, a travel business that operates a successful small-group tour program that brings more than 30,000 people to Europe annually. The company contributes annually to a portfolio of climate-smart nonprofits, essentially paying a self-imposed carbon tax.

Through the philanthropic wing of his company, Rick supports and works closely with many advocacy groups and organizations whose missions fit his own, including Bread for the World. He has been a member of NORML since 2003 and has been instrumental in the legalization of marijuana in states across the country. He has also provided $9 million in funding to build two neighborhood centers in his community, donated a 24-unit apartment building for homeless women and their children to his local YWCA, and owns a hygiene center that ensures homeless people in his town have access to showers, laundry, and other basic services. On the music scene, for 15 years he has paid all the concert hall rental fees for his local orchestra.

And Rick’s connection to music? His father (Dick Steves) was a band director and piano tuner who was beloved by music lovers in the Seattle area for what they called “the Steves sound of music”. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, he imported the world’s finest pianos from Germany and sold them out of his store, “Steves Sound of Music.” When Rick was 14 years old, he traveled to Europe for the first time with his father to visit piano factories, including Bösendorfer and the German Steinway. As a student at the University of Washington, Rick played the sousaphone in the Husky marching band and taught piano lessons in a studio next to his dad’s piano store. Eventually, he gave away his 50 piano students and turned his small recital hall into a lecture hall and the headquarters of his growing travel business. Today, Rick employs 100 Rick Steves’ Europe colleagues on the same street, and — as he has for decades — he 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, Rick plays his fine German grand, relaxes at his family cabin in the Cascade Mountains, and dreams of taking his grandsons (Atlas and Dashel) to Europe someday. He lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington, where his office window overlooks his old junior high school.

Scripts

The scripts Rick uses for his recorded videos.

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Rick's Concert Narration

The full narration script for Rick's remarks during the concert.

Localized Promo Clip from Rick – [shorter, 30 seconds]

Hey, I’m Rick Steves, and I’m happy to be joining the Anytown Orchestra for “Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey.” It’s a musical tour of the Romantic Age that visits countries across Europe with beautiful video accompaniments… and I get to be your tour guide, not in person, but up on the big screen. It’s at 7:00 on Friday, November 7th, at the Anytown Performing Arts Center, and you’re invited. Thanks!

Localized Promo Clip from Rick – [longer, 55 seconds]

Hey, I’m Rick Steves, and I’m happy to be joining the Anytown Orchestra for “Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey.” It’s a musical tour that visits countries across Europe and features powerful Romantic-era anthems by composers such as Strauss, Grieg, Wagner, and Verdi, with gorgeous video accompaniment from my public television shows. And I get to be your tour guide, not in person…but up on the big screen. Together, we’ll be inspired by Europe's history, its passion for freedom, and how, back in the 19th century, music served as a bugle call on the battlefield while, across the continent, nations were establishing their independence and winning their freedom. The concert begins at 7:00 on Friday, November 7th, at the Anytown Performing Arts Center, and you’re invited. Thanks!

Concert Intro from Rick [can be localized, 70 seconds]

Hi, I’m Rick Steves. And I want to thank you for being here to enjoy this wonderful and unique concert. I wish I could be with you in person, but I’m thrilled to be joining your local orchestra [Name?] and wonderful conductor [Name?] virtually, up here on the big screen. I’ve been hosting this concert in person around the country for over a decade now. But I thought, wouldn’t it be great if I could ship the scores & parts in a bag like this and make this concert available to orchestras everywhere — big and small. And, voila, I arrived at what you’ll experience today: What I’m calling a “Symphony in a Suitcase,” where orchestras can use inspiring video clips from my public television series, and I can join you up here and still be your tour guide. I’ll be with you from start to finish as your travel partner, both in spirit and up on this big screen. It’s “Europe: A Symphonic Journey.” Enjoy the concert…and the trip! Now, give me just a sec, as I gotta go put on a suit and tie.

Welcome Back After Intermission from Rick – [about 2:00, cue to play after tuning]

[Rick plays trumpet] This trumpet was my first real souvenir. I purchased it in communist Czechoslovakia back in 1969 — rotary valves…they’re stuck now…so I play it like a bugle.

OK, it’s now that I generally need to say, “Back on the bus!” [pause] But, especially with that bugle call, I imagine you’re already there. [pause] I hope you’re having a good trip! I’m so thankful that we’re travel partners today…with all this amazing music.

BTW, as you came in, I hope you were given a copy of my 64-page travel newsletter. [show newsletter] (If you missed that, it’s all on my website.)

This is a fun way to clue you in on the work my hundred colleagues and I do in Seattle — where our mission is to “equip and inspire Americans to venture beyond Orlando.” [pause] We’ve been really busy lately: Our travel series on public television includes about 150 episodes and specials now, and they’re all available anytime using “Passport” on the PBS app or streaming free on my website at ricksteves.com. We also publish lots of guidebooks covering all of Europe. And each year, we take over 30,000 Americans around Europe on 40 exciting itineraries…small groups, great buses, and wonderful Rick Steves guides.

In the newsletter, I’ve collected some of my favorite travel writing to illustrate how — whether you’re traveling on your own or with a tour — the mark of a good trip is experiences — connecting with the culture… meeting the people. People — that’s what carbonates your experience. And another theme of mine lately as a tour guide is how the more understanding you bring to your sightseeing, the more you’ll enjoy what you’re looking at…or (when it comes to music) what you’re listening to. In fact, that’s what I’m demonstrating tonight as your musical tour guide.

OK, we’ve got lots more travels ahead: Italy, Norway, France, a big European finale…and more.

Hey, before we keep on travelin’ …Let’s hear it again for all of you for supporting live classical music in your community and for this amazing orchestra! [clap!]

Promotional Assets

Artwork and graphics for promotional use.

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11 x 17 Poster; 8½ x 11 Program Cover

Editable Adobe Illustrator CC and PDF files with links, set up as CMYK for print. The program cover contains no type. (471 MB)

Web Ad, Print Ad, Postcard

Web ads in three sizes as layered RGB Photoshop files. 7x7" print ad and postcard as CMYK Illustrator and PDF files. (331 MB)

Publicity Photos

Images of Rick Steves for promotional use.

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Rick At Kunsthistoriches Museum Vienna 300

Rick at Vienna's Kunsthistoriches Museum.

Rick in Copenhagen

Rick at Cambridge University in England.