Performance

Viennese Composer Egon Wellesz wrote a piece in 1934 inspired by Prospero, the magical character in Shakespeare's The Tempest. On today's show, learn more about Egon Wellesz and hear selections from Prospero's Incantations, from a concert at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.

Jessica Meyer is a violist, composer, and educator. She says she only began to identify as a composer after she started playing her viola through a loop pedal, a tool that enables a solo musician to create layer upon layer of sound and texture. On today's show, hear Jessica Meyer play her piece Source of Joy, from a concert in Charleston, South Carolina.

During the COVID lockdown in 2020, composer Sally Beamish missed her family dearly, and she poured her longing for connection into a new concerto. On today's show, hear the world premiere of 'Distans', by Sally Beamish, from a concert in Stockholm, Sweden.

Viennese Composer Egon Wellesz wrote a piece in 1934 inspired by Prospero, the magical character in Shakespeare's The Tempest. On today's show, learn more about Egon Wellesz and hear selections from Prospero's Incantations, from a concert at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.

A-sharp and B-flat are different spellings of the same note; they're called enharmonics. But Baroque composer Giovanni Valentini viewed those notes as completely different pitches, with different functions in music. On today's show, hear an explanation of Valentini's concept, in words and music, from a concert in Charleston, South Carolina.

In the spring of 1968, conductor Paul Freeman ran into Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Atlanta airport. Their brief conversation was one he never forgot. On this episode of Performance Today, hear about that life-changing encounter in our musical celebration of King's life and legacy.

A recent composition by Jessie Montgomery is the emotional center of a new album by clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Gloria Chien. Join us to hear McGill and Chien perform Peace by Jessie Montgomery from the album Here With You.

Our planet is teeming with life, and the rainforests are the lungs of the earth. Composer Meira Warshauer was moved by that image and the threats our natural world faced when she wrote her first symphony. It's a musical prayer for healing, for our home. On today's show, hear Warshauer's Symphony No. 1, "Living Breathing Earth,” from a performance by the Western Piedmont Symphony in Hickory, NC.

A recent composition by Jessie Montgomery is the emotional center of a new album by clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Gloria Chien. Join us to hear McGill and Chien perform Peace by Jessie Montgomery from the album Here With You.

German violinist Christian Tetzlaff is in the middle of a busy season, playing concerts all over Europe and the U.S. We'll hear from a performance he gave this past September in Prague, playing a piece that was composed in Prague back in 1902: the Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra by Josef Suk.