Performance Today®

The piece started out as a wind octet, and then Beethoven revised it into a quintet for strings. Then, in the 21st century, a bassoonist arranged the string quintet back into music for wind quintet. Don't worry if you've lost the plot—just join us to hear the group WindSync play great music by Beethoven on today's show.

Tessa Lark played a Stradivarius violin for several years, but that violin was on loan, and she had to give it back. Now, she has a different violin; it’s not a Stradivarius, but she loves it even more. On this episode of Performance Today, we'll hear Tessa Lark play that violin at a concert presented by the Seattle Chamber Music Society.

Composer Christopher Gunning often advised emerging composers not to wait to write their symphonies until they were too old and tired to do so, and he followed his advice by completing THIRTEEN symphonies before he died in 2023. On today's show, conductor Kenneth Woods leads the Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra in a performance of Christopher Gunning's Symphony No. 10.

Composer Julio Medaglia was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1938. He studied conducting in Germany for ten years before returning to Brazil to conduct and compose. For 30 years, he hosted a daily radio show in Sao Paulo that sounded similar to PT, combining concert highlights and contemporary music. On today's show, we'll hear the Imani Winds play Julio Medaglia's 'Belle Epoque en Sud-America.’

Sharon Isbin is a master of Western classical music. Amjad Ali Khan is a master of Indian classical music. Together, they're building Musical and cultural bridges. Join us at a concert in Aspen for a highlight from Sharon Isbin's and Amjad Ali Khan's Strings for Peace project.

Every week, composer Bruce Adolphe joins us for a musical game: the Piano Puzzler. Bruce re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a great composer, and we get one of our listeners on the phone who tries to guess the hidden tune and the composer whose style Bruce is imitating. Play along with the Piano Puzzler on today’s show.

Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, New York, is a magical place for composer Wang Jie. She says she feels transported by the warm orange glow of the hall, and she wrote a piece for the Buffalo Philharmonic to play in that space. Join us today to hear the world premiere of The Winter that United Us by Wang Jie.

Violinist Juan Ramírez has been a member of the Atlanta Symphony for almost 50 years. He is also an avid gardener with a particular passion for chili peppers.  When he's not tending his peppers or practicing his violin, he's composing. On today's show, we'll hear a piece he wrote in 2002: Suite Latina by Juan Ramírez.

Every week, composer Bruce Adolphe joins us for a musical game: the Piano Puzzler. Bruce re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a great composer, and we get one of our listeners on the phone who tries to guess the hidden tune and the composer whose style Bruce is imitating. Play along with the Piano Puzzler on today’s show.

Two decades after he wrote his Negro Folk Symphony, composer William Dawson traveled to West Africa. Based on what he heard there, he revised his music to convey “...the missing elements that were lost when Africans came into bondage outside their homeland." On today's show, hear Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony played by The Orchestra Now with conductor Leon Botstein.