Performance Today®

Pianist Saleem Ashkar says he never heard classical music growing up in Israel. Then, when he was six years old, Saleem's father traded a truck for a piano... and Saleem found his calling. On Tuesday's Performance Today, Saleem Ashkar plays Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Luxembourg Philharmonic.

Violinist Simone Porter is 21 years-old, and has been soloing with major orchestras for years. Porter made her professional solo debut at age 10 with the Seattle Symphony, and in March 2015, she was named a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. On Monday's Performance Today, Simone Porter takes the stage with the Nashville Symphony, performing the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by Samuel Barber. Valerie Kahler guest hosts.

Composer Aleksandra Vrebalov visited a bunch of taverns in preparation for one of her compositions. She wasn't looking for a liquid muse. She was seeking the sounds of Romanian folk music. On Saturday's Performance Today, the Apollo Chamber Players perform Vrebalov's Pannonia Boundless, with Jade Simmons filling in as guest host.

Composer Aleksandra Vrebalov visited a bunch of taverns in preparation for one of her compositions. She wasn't looking for a liquid muse. She was seeking the sounds of Romanian folk music. On Friday's Performance Today, the Apollo Chamber Players perform Vrebalov's Pannonia Boundless, with Jade Simmons filling in as guest host.

Arnold Bax was an English composer, but when he went to his beloved Ireland, he adopted the persona of poet Dermot O'Byrne. He tried to keep his alter ego secret but his music betrayed his love of all things Irish. Music by Arnold Bax (aka Dermot O'Byrne) on Thursday's Performance Today.

Johannes Brahms was forty-four when he wrote his Symphony No. 1. Even though he was being hailed as Beethoven's successor, Brahms would not premiere his first symphony until he felt he had a command of the medium. On Wednesday's Performance Today, hear the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, with conductor Louis Langree, perform Brahms's Symphony No. 1 in C minor.

At first, Rafal Blechacz didn't want to play piano. He had dreams of playing the organ... but he came to realize that the piano was the right instrument for him. We won't argue with that! On Tuesday's Performance Today, pianist Rafal Blechacz plays Brahms in concert with the Minnesota Orchestra and conductor Osmo Vanska.

Hans Christian Anderson once said, "where words fail...music speaks." For stroke survivors and people with Alzheimer's, that can literally be true. On Monday's Performance Today, stories of how music has reconnected people after brain injuries, after strokes, and while living with Alzheimer's.

In the early 1900s, Bela Bartok traveled the dusty back-roads of eastern Europe with a heavy Edison recording machine. He recorded thousands of folk songs that, in turn, inspired his own work. On this weekend's Performance Today, the Romanian Dances by Bela Bartok, from a concert by the Sinfonietta of Riverdale, New York.