Pianist Connor Chee is a member of the Navajo nation. He wanted to preserve traditional songs his grandfather sang, but they wouldn't fit neatly into standard musical notation...so Chee wrote his own music, based on those old songs. Hear Connor Chee's "Navajo Vocables" on this edition of Performance Today.

Episode Playlist

Hour 1

Ryan May: For String Quartet
The Linden String Quartet
Album: The Chickasaw Nation Young Composers Recording Project
Azica Records

David Yeagley: Wessi vah-peh for American Indian Flute and Orchestra
Timothy Archambault, flute | National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra | David Oberg, conductor
Album: Boyadjian: Armenian Suite - Retzel: Tamarind for Orchestra - Yeagley: Wessi Vah-Peh for American Indian Flute and Orchestra
Opus One 198

Franz Schubert: Impromptu in A-Flat Major, Op. 90
Connor Chee, piano
Album: Connor Chee, Piano - F. Chopin - L. Beethoven - C. Debussy - F. Schubert - F. Haydn
Connor Chee

Patrick Connor Chee: Navajo Vocable for Piano No. 9-12
Connor Chee, piano
Album: The Navajo Piano
Connor Chee

Aubrey Halford: Finally Beautiful
Linden String Quartet
Album: The Chickasaw Nation Young Composers Recording Project
Azica Records

Savannah Smith: Identity Crisis
Linden String Quartet
Album: The Chickasaw Nation Young Composers Recording Project
Azica Records

Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 'From the New World': Movement 2
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana | Markus Poschner, conductor
Stelio Molo Auditorium, RSI, Lugano, Switzerland

Hour 2

Johannes Brahms: Sonata No. 1 for Clarinet & Piano Movement 3 Allegretto grazioso
Jon Manasse, clarinet | Jon Nakamatsu, piano
Album: Brahms: Clarinet Sonatas
Harmonia Mundi 907430

Muzio Clementi: Sonata in F-sharp minor, Op. 25 No. 5
Jon Nakamatsu, piano
Southeastern Piano Festival, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Columbia, SC

Erich Korngold: Suite for Piano Left Hand, Two Violins, and Cello, Op. 23: movements 4 &5
Wu Qian, piano | Danbi Um, Sean Lee, violins | Mihai Marica, cello
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, New York, NY

Anna Clyne: This Midnight Hour
National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic | Michael Stern, conductor
National Orchestral Institute + Festival, Dekelboum Concert Hall at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, College Park, MDY