The story of Symphonic Rock For Europe began in April 1991. U.J.R. had just performed a short series of Jimi Hendrix concerts in Germany and Belgium together with Randy Hansen. At the end of the show in Brussels Uli did an impromptu version of his "Beethoven Paraphrase" and one of the organizers of the Festival De Guitare from Liege happened to be in the audience. After he heard Uli play this piece he spontaneously invited him to do something similar for the festival, but this time with a full orchestra.

The theme for the festival that year was to celebrate the opening of the internal borders across the member states of the European Union. Due to this the Festival organizers suggested to U.J.R. that it would be nice if he wrote a special symphonic piece for this occasion. Uli accepted the challenge and the result was Uli’s first symphony, "Europa Ex Favilla", which is a truly amazing piece of music.

U.J.R. dedicated to Michael Gorbachev the statesman who shaped Europe’s destiny more than any other during the last quarter of that century.

Uli finished the score for "Europa Ex Favilla", literally the day before the stage rehearsals and the orchestra tremendously enjoyed tackling the musically and technically demanding piece.
The first rehearsal took place in Brussels, a few days prior to the show and further rehearsals with the band, the singers and the choir followed onstage in the city of Liege.