From May 22 to May 30, members of PHS Orchestra along with vocalist Tess Boyle’28 traveled on their European Performance Tour, playing in Amsterdam, Paris, and London. Between concerts, the students visited a local Dutch high school, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Headquarters, as well as a variety of famous museums and landmarks.
PHS Orchestra was invited to perform as part of the 2026 UNESCO Culture and Arts Education Week, an annual event that aims to inspire lasting peace across the globe. UNESCO aims to strengthen international cooperation and foster a world of greater equality. As a part of this goal, PHS Orchestra participated in the “In Harmony with Peace” tour.
“I think it’s important for artists and musicians to be able to relate to the larger world in general. And it’s a beautiful thing that music is able to connect people, and that's essentially what UNESCO is all about: the aspect of being able to reach out and bring people together for greater understanding,” said orchestra director Robert Loughran.
The first stop on the orchestra’s tour was the Netherlands. After exploring Amsterdam and attending a concert of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” they spent a day performing at Hofstad Lyceum, a UNESCO network high school in Den Haag. After the performance, PHS students spent the afternoon with Dutch students.
“I think the best part [of the trip] was the Dutch high school students, just being able to connect with them. ... It felt like these small high schoolers really just [took] on such a big matter. ... It was such a big connection, and a bunch of the people on the trip are still texting with [the Dutch high school students],” said Boyle.
In Paris, PHS students also got the opportunity to tour the UNESCO World Headquarters. Here, Sophia Budny ’28 and Elif Cam ’26 were able to share how they think music helps to connect people across cultures in an interview for a short video on UNESCO’s Instagram. During the tour, Moksh Rajpal ’28, a violinist for PHS Orchestra, enjoyed learning more about the organization’s initiatives and operations.
“We got to tour the facility and we got to learn about all the peace work that they do,” said Rajpal.
The orchestra’s only performance in Paris at L’église de la Madeleine, a church in the eighth arrondissement, featured music from Bach, Ravel, Fauré, and Morricone.
“My favorite venue was the [L’église] de la Madeleine in Paris, and it was this gorgeous, huge church. Coco Chanel had her funeral there and it was huge It was [so] cool. ... The best part was that it was so famous, it’s a tourist attraction, [so] even when we were rehearsing, not only just our performance, so many people were just coming in to watch,” said Boyle.
The last stop on the tour was London, with a performance at St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden alongside the Choir of King’s College London.
“‘Imagine’ [by John Lennon] was a really fun piece especially. We got to hear Tess, everyone in the King’s choir, and we got to sing along with them,” said Rajpal.