Performance Today®

At the age of 70, Leos Janacek wrote a wind sextet recalling his youth as a choirboy at St. Thomas Abbey in the Czech city of Brno....the same abbey where Gregor Mendel famously experimented with the hereditary traits of pea plants. On Friday's Performance Today, we hear Janacek's musical recollection, Mladi (Youth), from a concert in Round Top, Texas.

Is it a tree? Is it a silk cloth? Is it a whip? It's music inspired by a famous parable about perspective. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll take you to a concert in Portland, Oregon, to hear "Aspects of an Elephant" by American composer Kenji Bunch.

In 1948, American composer William Grant Still was inspired by some poems about the natural beauty of the American South. On Wednesday's Performance Today, take a break with us and hear Houston's River Oaks Chamber Orchestra play "Wood Notes," William Grant Still's work of quiet musical contemplation.

Jeremy Cohen, of Quartet San Francisco, says that one of their most popular pieces is a Michael Jackson medley. On Tuesday's Performance Today, Quartet San Francisco performs the medley at a concert in Edgartown, Massachusetts - on Martha's Vineyard.

If you're ready to step into a different world, follow us through medieval gates into a storybook world created by composer Anton Bruckner. On Monday's Performance Today, Marek Janowski conducts the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in concert peformance of Bruckner's Symphony No. 4.

At 37 years old, composer Angelica Negron is well into adulthood. But her memories of childhood are a vital part of her grown-up creations. She's fascinated by childhood not for its simplicity, but for the complexity. On the weekend edition of Performance Today, we'll hear one of Negron's latest compositions that's tinged with nostalgia both sweet and a little tart.

Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles has a pipe organ with a distinctive look. It has the friendly nickname...the "French Fries." We'll hear those french fries in action, in a world premiere of a new concerto by Nico Muhly. On this edition of Performance Today, Organist James McVinnie and the L.A. Philharmonic present Register, for Organ and Orchestra.

In 2013, at the age of 30, Caroline Shaw won the Pulitzer Prize for music. Her ambition and expressive ability as a composer have only continued to grow. On Thursday's Performance Today, hear the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra perform new music by Caroline Shaw: Entr'acte for String Orchestra.

Back in the 1980s, Ani Kavafian had the opportunity to play one of Arno Babajanian's trios with the composer himself, and she came away with some secrets. On Wednesday's Performance Today, Kavafian shares a few of those secrets with Fred, and we'll hear a concert performance of Babajanian's "Trio in F sharp minor for Piano, Violin and Cello."