
Violinist/composer André Rieu announces his extensive North American tour, which starts in April. The Dutch-born Rieu, who began studying violin at the age of five, formed the Johann Strauss Orchestra in 1987 and began touring throughout Europe, North America and Japan.
A string of successful public broadcasting specials led to his popularity in this country, and he remains one of today's top-selling artists in classical music.
André Rieu, the "Waltz King", will begin the first leg of his tour on April 17th at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. The tour will continue through June 25th at the Usana Amphitheatre in Salt Lake City, Utah. Additional United States cities include Syracuse, Newark, Baltimore, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Denver, Portland, Oakland, Los Angeles, Glendale, and Las Vegas. The Canadian portion of the tour will perform at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Scotiabank Place, General Motors Place in Vancouver and Bell Centre in Montreal.
Rieu issued a DVD entitled "Songs From My Heart." The disc captures one of Rieu's performances in the Dutch city of Maastricht. The DVD was matched with the simultaneous CD release of the same performance.
From the André Rieu website: André states "For at least the last twenty years, my personal life has been so bound up with my work that the story of my personal life would sound pretty much the same as the story of my career – especially as my wife Marjorie has been so closely involved from the start. My life is simply music, music is what we are always doing, and it never gets boring!