The search below will show you some of the most beautiful photos I’ve ever seen of England’s countryside, the region that has inspired generations of English composers. It’s Stratford, Bath and Oxford, where you’ll find thatched roofs and true Tudor architectural homes along winding country roads rolling through undulating hills. These images make the countryside in Lord of the Rings look like old abandoned factories in former eastern-block Soviet nations.

England’s countryside

A sudden violent thunderstorm broke the oppressive heat wave this evening in Salzburg, but it also kept the audience at Salzburg’s Mozarteum from being as big as it could have been. At least 400 people who had tickets were stranded on tour buses because of flooding on the Salzach River.

Those who braved the storm got a real treat, though. The young musicians seemed determined to make the finale of their first European tour the best concert yet.

After a morning of sightseeing including a visit to Mozart’s birthplace the orchestra is at the Mozarteum in Salzburg rehearsing for tonight’s concert. 

Here is one of the happiest Northeast Ohio families in Austria this week. Brian Gerber of Sterling has never been abroad before, so when he learned his two sons, bassist Evan and trumpeter Elliot (at left) were heading to Europe with COYO, he and their sister Hayley were delighted to tag along.

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra spends a lot of time together back home with four-hour rehearsals every weekend nine months out of the year, three major concerts at Severance Hall each season, plus “run-out” concerts to schools and community gatherings. They are friends and colleagues so it’s no surprise that togetherness has really been a keynote of this first international tour. Violinist Gabe Napoli says he’s actually made new COYO friends in these past few days, and Steve and Patty Roberts of Shaker Heights say their daughter Faith, a violist, won’t even have a meal with them because she’s having too good a time hanging with her buddies.

But Patty Roberts says she has no regrets about tagging along. “When we learned that our daughter was going to Prague, Vienna, and Salzburg to perform with COYO in the great concert halls of Europe there was no way we were not going to be there.”

The photo shows COYO musicians having breakfast together before touring Vienna’s famous Musikverein  and leaving Vienna for Salzburg this morning.