Performance Today®

Trolls, goblins, and gnomes. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll join them all in the Hall of the Mountain King, when we hear Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite performed at the Artosphere Festival. Then, we'll head to New York to hear two special pieces: one old, one new...but both blue.

Aaron Copland was from Brooklyn. He was a city slicker who, to a certain degree, created what we think of as the sound of the old American West. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear selections from his cowboy ballet "Billy the Kid."

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. 5 at a time when when honest words could be mortally dangerous. The symphony helped people in the USSR feel and experience what they were not allowed to say. On Wednesday's Performance Today, learn more about Shostakovich's fifth symphony, then hear it performed by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, from a concert in Birmingham, England.

The 5 Browns have a goal of introducing classical music to a wider, more diverse audience. They perform in various combinations, from duos to complex five-piano arrangements. On Tuesday's Performance Today, hear The 5 Browns perform an arrangement of The Planets by Gustav Holst, from a concert in Athens, Georgia.

Join us at Performance Today for a Christmas celebration! We're playing some of the best holiday music on Christmas Day, from an 18th century Christmas Concerto to favorite carols you'll want to sing along with. Christmas music, old and new, on Monday's Performance Today.

On this weekend's Performance Today, we celebrate Venezuelan Christmas traditions. Pianist Gabriela Montero and flutist Marco Granados share Venezuelan carols, dances, and their own Christmas memories.

Ask a few bakers about sugar cookies, and you'll hear an endless list of recipe variations. The musical equivalent might be the traditional song Greensleeves... there are countless variations, all centered around that irresistible theme. On Friday's Performance Today, hear a tasty Greensleeves recipe by Ralph Vaughn Williams, as well as a wide-ranging selection of holiday music.

'Tis the season for Christmas and winter holiday concerts. On Thursday's Performance Today, join us for festive music from across the country, featuring highlights from the St. Olaf Christmas Festival in Minnesota, the BYU Christmas Celebration in Utah, and more!

Every Christmas, the Romero family always finds a way to be together... and that means a big guitar jam session. On Wednesday's Performance Today, hear a Christmas suite played by two generations of Romero family guitarists.