Violinist Ben Sayevich has performed challenging programs in front of hundreds of audiences with only the slightest bouts of concert jitters.

But the Kansas University violin professor expects the pressure will be greater than usual next week when he returns to his home country with pianist and KU School of Fine Arts Dean Toni-Marie Montgomery to play at two Lithuanian music academies.

“For me to go to the country that I was born, it’s always a little different than to go to just any other country,” Sayevich said. “I’ve played many places, but it is maybe in some ways more stressful, I would say.”

Sayevich and Montgomery will sweep through Europe ” they’ll also perform in Latvia and Poland ” from Nov. 16 to 26. During the duo’s stop at the Lithuanian Academy of Music, Montgomery will start to tie up the loose ends of an exchange program in the works between the academy and KU’s department of music and dance. In early December, one administrator and a faculty member from the Lithuanian academy will travel to KU to finalize the agreement.

Already, five Lithuanian music students are studying at KU in the areas of percussion, violin, cello, piano and clarinet.

The Lithuanian students’ work ethic is tremendous, Montgomery said, noting that the student studying violin practices six hours a day ” a practice load that far surpasses that of most violin students.

The Lithuanian exchange program will be an opportunity for enlightenment on both ends, Sayevich said.

“I think more and more in the last few years we’re getting people from Europe and Asia, and I think it’s a very, very positive blend,” he said. “When we get students from Europe or Asia, there is a very healthy fusion between them from a musical standpoint, also from just a cultural point of view. I think it adds a lot of color to our school.”

Sayevich and Montgomery will be gone for 10 days ” a duration relatively unheard of for a dean. In fact, Montgomery is something of an anomaly. Few university deans who are performers continue to be as active as Montgomery after moving into administrative jobs. She routinely performs individual and group recitals in Lawrence and across the country.

Kansas university violinist Ben Sayevich rehearses with KU School of Fine Arts dean and pianist Toni-Marie Montgomery. The duo is preparing for performances next week in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. During the trip, Montgomery will discuss finalizing an exchange program between KU's School of Music and the Lithuanian Academy of Music.

“It’s been a priority for me since, truthfully, 1987, my second year of working in the profession,” she said. “I looked to the future and said as long as I can physically perform, that it was a priority for me.

“Through the years, it continues to be a priority because when I am evaluating faculty and students and saying this is the level that you should achieve, they see that it’s something that I have first-hand knowledge about.”

She and Sayevich have been practicing their difficult program since early October.

It includes Giuseppe Tartini’s “Devil’s Trill Sonata in G minor,” Sergie Prokofiev’s “Sonata No. 1 in F minor,” Richard Strauss’ “Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 18” and Pablo de Sarasate’s “Zigeunerweisen” (Gypsy Airs).

For Sayevich, it will be his first trip to Lithuania since 1995, when he performed there with an orchestra. Before that, he hadn’t been back since 1971, when he was 11 years old and his family immigrated to Israel.

“It’s a kind of spiritual experience,” he said.