Vienna is bathed in sunshine as the members of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra journey here by tour bus.

They are scheduled to arrive late this afternoon from Prague with a stop at the Zentralfriedhof, the Viennese cemetery where Schubert, Johann Strauss, Jr., Beethoven, and Brahms are buried.

This city is all about classical music. When I arrived at the airport I was amused to see the entire libretto and score of Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow engraved on a wall.

The young musicians should be merry at this moment, coming off their triumph in Prague. The first concert of their first international tour was a smash hit with seven curtain calls.

Vivian Goodman is traveling with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra to Europe on the group’s first international tour. Her stories begin with a preview on Friday, June 15 and continue the next week in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Listen for her live daily reports during Here and Now each day at noon. Vivian will be adding audio and images to a special page at www.wksu.org/news/feature/coyo2012 and posting blogs here as her adventure continues.

Seventy-five students from 37 different schools in Northeast Ohio perform in the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. This tour includes concerts at historic venues in Prague, Vienna, and Salzburg, as well as guided sightseeing tours of the three cities.  The concert program features pieces by Brahms, Elgar, Wagner, and Dvořák, and will be conducted by Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra Music Director James Feddeck.

The tour itinerary includes (Vivian joins the group in Vienna):

Fri Jun 15, Prague
Concert in the Dvorak Hall of the Rudolfinum

Mon Jun 18, Vienna
Concert in the Minoritenkirche

Wed Jun 20, Salzburg
Concert in the Grosse Saal of the Mozarteum