Musical poetry

While many musicians follow a strict, lifelong path to the conservatory, Joaquin Valdepeñas took a winding route. He didn't pick up a clarinet until seventh grade and treated it as a hobby for the school year. He didn't take his first formal lessons until college. He eventually earned a Master’s from Yale and has spent the last 22 years as principal clarinetist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In today's program, Valdepeñas shares that wealth of experience as a conductor and educator. We'll hear him lead the Aspen Wind Orchestra in Charles Gounod's Petite Symphonie, recorded live at the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado.

Raised by a jazz-musician father, horn player David Byrd-Marrow originally set his sights on the trumpet and Juilliard before discovering a passion for contemporary music in New York. He now embraces every musical style, from jazz and Broadway to contemporary chamber music. In today's program, we'll hear Byrd-Marrow perform Carl Czerny's ‘Andante e Polacca’ with pianist Michael Stephen Brown, from a concert presented by the Lillian & Robert Utsey Chamber Music Series in Clemson, South Carolina.

Meet one of our 2026 PT Young Artists in Residence: Soprano Claudia Diaz. In today's episode, Claudia joins Valerie Kahler for music and conversation in our Saint Paul studio.

Francis Malka balances a remarkable career across multiple disciplines: he composes music, writes award-winning science fiction, and develops software. On today's show, we'll hear a quartet of rising Canadian stars perform the world premiere of Francis Malka's String Quartet No. 1, recorded at the Montreal Chamber Music Festival.

Inspired by Charles Baudelaire's poetry, French composer Henri Dutilleux drew on literary lines to set the mood for a concerto he was working on. Tune in today to hear Dutilleux's Tout un monde lointain (A Whole Distant World), featuring cellist Jan Vogler and conductor Kent Nagano leading the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.

From the neon flicker of a glowstick to the summer sparkle of a lightning bug, composer Jessie Montgomery finds musical inspiration in the science of light. Tune in today to hear the Sphinx Virtuosi perform Montgomery's 'Chemiluminescence' at a recent concert presented by Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

John Adams says the final movement of "Road Movies" is for four-wheel drives only and that the driving should be left to the musicians. Join us for Adams’s musical ride on this episode of Performance Today.

The hurdy-gurdy has strings like a violin, a keyboard, and a hand crank that produces a wheezing drone. Composer Missy Mazzoli was fascinated by this sound and wanted to make an entire orchestra sound like a big hurdy-gurdy. Tune in to Missy Mazzoli’s Sinfonia for Orbiting Spheres on today’s episode.

When clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Gloria Chien met in 2006, they bonded over their love of Johannes Brahms's music, a bond that is evident when they play together. They'll play a clarinet sonata by Brahms for us on today's show.

Inspired by Charles Baudelaire's poetry, French composer Henri Dutilleux drew on literary lines to set the mood for a concerto he was working on. Tune in today to hear Dutilleux's Tout un monde lointain (A Whole Distant World), featuring cellist Jan Vogler and conductor Kent Nagano leading the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.