Jim Stephenson: Persephone

‘Performance Today’ has selected performing-arts advocate Deborah Borda as the 2024 Classical Woman of the Year. This annual award recognizes women who have made significant contributions to the classical music art form and have inspired our listeners. Find out more!

Composer Richard Danielpour found musical inspiration in a sculpture made by his mother—an image of an Iranian woman breaking away from her veil. He contemplated recent protests in Iran, led by young women who want to choose whether to wear a headscarf. On today's show, we'll hear music inspired by the brave women of Iran: Breaking the Veil by Richard Danielpour.

In 1940, Paul Hindemith wrote a piece music based on themes written more than a century earlier by Carl Maria von Weber. He kept Weber's basic ideas intact but gave them some inventive 20th-century twists. Hear that piece on today's show: the ‘Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber’ by Paul Hindemith, from a concert in Taipei, Taiwan.

On today's show, we'll hear some fascinating new music by Navajo composer Juantio Becenti. Becenti found a unique parallel between the Navajo creation story and his own musical journey. Join us to hear the ensemble A Far Cry play The Glittering World by Juantio Becenti at a concert in Rockport, Massachusetts.

Imagine we’re strolling in a sunny meadow in the Swiss Alps. Birds call from overhead, boat horns echo from nearby lakes, and a gentle cow joins our walk with her bell chiming along the way. On today's show, hear a piece that Franz Doppler wrote with the intent of capturing that idyllic scene.

Pianist and composer Courtney Bryan recently wrote a piece that she says is a love letter to all the pianists who have inspired her. The music depicts a house where pianists hang out, talk, and jam. Tune in to hear Courtney Bryan play the world premiere of her new piano concerto, House of Pianos, backed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and conductor Louis Langree.

Composer Anna Clyne heard a connection between a moment in Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata and the early 20th-century American tradition of "stride" piano. The pulsating, driving rhythm in the bass line is the starting point for her new piece called Stride. We'll hear it in concert on today’s show.

Composer Brian Nabors feels as though the universe is connected through a unified pulse. In 2019, he composed a piece with examples of that unwavering pulse set in different life scenarios, and it's up to you to decide for yourself what those settings are. On today's show, we'll hear Pulse by Brian Nabors from a concert with Marin Alsop conducting the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic.

Pianist and composer Courtney Bryan recently wrote a piece that she says is a love letter to all the pianists who have inspired her. The music depicts a house where pianists hang out, talk, and jam. On today's show, Courtney Bryan will play the world premiere of her new piano concerto, House of Pianos, backed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and conductor Louis Langree.

In 2006, composer Adam Schoenberg went to a show of paintings by Mark Rothko, and he had what he calls a "visceral reaction." Schoenberg was inspired to write music based on four of Rothko’s paintings. On today's show, we'll take you to Houston to hear Finding Rothko by Adam Schoenberg.