Hello, I'm Pia Toscano, coming to you from Nashville, Tennessee.

And this is Classicalia, our quest to find the greatest young classical musicians in the world, amazing performers from across the globe entered this contest, and we picked the 12 absolute best to bring to you.

In this PBS series, they'll be battling it out to see who is the champion of Classicalia.

Right now, we're in round one of the senior category.

Solène Le Van is a soprano from Indiana.

She's about to enter a music showdown with an accordion player from Spain, Sofia Ros Gonzalez.

Both are sensational, but the judges can only select one of them to go on.

Who will it be?

To find out, let's go to our host in Vienna, Arabella Fenyves, who's with Sophia right now.

Hi, Sophia.

Hello How many generations have been playing the accordion in your family?

Well, both my parents are musicians and my mom used to play accordion and she was young.

And my granddad plays as well, the accordion.

So it's always been in the family.

So you're the third generation?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Where is your instrument from?

It's from Italy.

So it's a small village school.

It called Castelfidardo.

It near Ancona, and there's a village where 50 years ago there used to be like more than 80 factories for accordion.

For accordion!?

So it's always been very popular in there.

What would it mean to you if you won Classicalia?

Well, it's been so far, it's been a great experience and it would be really nice.

But I think the most important thing is to enjoy the whole process and just being able to travel again.

Coming to Vienna, it's a dream.

So it's a win for you already?

It's already a win.

Yeah.

Well, take that feeling into your performance then.

I'm really looking forward to hearing it.

Thank you very much.

Joining us from Southern California is Solène.

Solène, you look and sound like an angel.

I'm so excited to hear you sing.

Tell us how you're feeling right now.

I'm feeling tremendously excited, as one should always feel right before performing.

How do you like to celebrate after a big performance or an audition?

How do you like to just unwind and relax?

That's a wonderful question.

Oftentimes after a performance that - especially the ones that go well - it's impossible to wind down.

It's impossible even to sleep.

And so you'll still be in the world of enchantment that was created on stage for many hours afterwards.

So usually in the European style, a big dinner with friends and a lot of laughter and jokes.

And at the end of the night, at least a little time with family to celebrate in a more intimate way.

I love that.

And I couldn't agree with you more.

I always find it very challenging to come down after a performance, and I love to unwind with my family and friends.

Thank you so much for being here with us and we cannot wait to see you perform.

Thank you very much.

It's a great honor and pleasure for me.

Likewise.

Good luck.

Sofia and Solène are both amazing young artists, but so different.

It will be hard for the judges to choose one of them to move on to the next round.

We have two world-renowned judges for this round of Classicalia.

Gerald Grünbacher is the founder and managing director of the Vienna Mozart Orchestra and a former clarinetist with the Vienna Philharmonic and Albert Frantz is a concert pianist, educator and a Bösendorfer artist.

Let's hear what they have to say about Sofia and Solène performances.

Gerald?

Indeed, it a hard decision to compare an accordion with a singer.

You, Sofia Ros Gonzalez.

It was amazing to listen to your music and the dynamic of the instrument and the range of the instrument and what you can do with the instrument is amazing.

I want to say.

Solène, I enjoyed, like the spirit of your performance.

And it was so impressive.

You nailed the high notes.

I did have maybe a feeling that might be worth taking into consideration that there's even more to draw from that particular aria.

Maybe more in the you could explore some of the softer dynamics.

Just.

Just a thought.

Just an idea.

Take it or leave it.

And Sofia, I've actually never heard the accordion played so expressively.

I didn't know it was capable of so much.

It's not that I haven't heard accordion by any means.

It was just a truly moving performance.

And the sheer dynamic range, the expressive range just showed true mastery.

Congratulations.

Thank you so much.

Now it's time to hear the judge's decision and who will go on to the next round of classical Aliyah in the senior division of Young Artists.

The winner is Sofia Ros Gonzalez.

Congratulations.

Thank you very much.

How do you feel after that performance?

I'm really happy.

I'm just to make music and to be able to be here.

I'm so grateful.

Yeah.

You said you were happy to be in Vienna, and that was, like, already?

Yeah the journey itself.

But you're taking the journey further.

Yeah, and I look forward to playing the second round.

Thank you for joining us for Classicalia.