Performance Today®

The Shanghai Chinese Orchestra are not like a standard Western orchestra - they play traditional Chinese instruments. They are dedicated to traditional Chinese music AND music by young composers. On today's show, hear the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra play "Homeland" by Yunfei Wang, from a recent concert in Shanghai.

A concerto usually features one soloist on one instrument, but composer Jennifer Higdon has a concerto that features a single soloist on about THIRTY instruments. On today's show, hear Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto, with Cameron Leach dashing from instrument to instrument, on stage with the Dallas Winds.

Violinist Ray Chen is often up for new challenges. He has has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media and is a pioneer in how musicians are interacting these days. On today's show, hear selections from Ray Chen's new album Solace, recorded at his home in Taiwan.

Mike Begay is an Indigenous American composer from the Dine nation. He has a new podcast profiling teenage Indigenous composers as they develop their works from page to stage. On today's show, hear music and stories from the Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project.

Harry Burleigh was the first black composer to help develop a characteristically American style of music. He wrote the first formal orchestral arrangements for more than 100 Negro spirituals. On today's show, violinist Samuel Nebyu and pianist Bethany Brooks play a piece Burleigh wrote in 1916: Four Southland Sketches.

Fanny Mendelssohn wrote an overture when she was around 25 years old, but her manuscript sat in a library in Germany for over 150 years. In the 1990s, the piece was resurrected and it's been played around the world ever since. On today's show, hear the Overture in C Major by Fanny Mendelssohn, from a concert in Charleston, South Carolina.

A concerto usually features one soloist on one instrument, but composer Jennifer Higdon has a concerto that features a single soloist on about THIRTY instruments. On today's show, hear Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto, with Cameron Leach dashing from instrument to instrument, on stage with the Dallas Winds.

Double bassist Aaron Olguin is classically trained, but he also loves rock and roll. Olguin says that when a double bass concerto by Andres Martin premiered in 2012, it shook the double bass world. On today's show, hear Aaron Olguin play a classical concerto with undercurrents of rock: the Double Bass Concerto No. 1 by Andres Martin.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone in so many ways. Pianist Simone Dinnerstein could hear the change that took place in New York City last March. She said, "The sound had been turned down...and that quiet was not necessarily a peaceful quiet." On today's show, we'll share Dinnerstein's musical response to that unsettling quiet.