Performance Today®

Earlier this year, American composer John Luther Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for his epic musical fable, "Become Ocean." Recently, Fred spoke with Adams about this piece; we'll hear that conversation and a performance of "Become Ocean" on Friday's Performance Today.

Composer John Luther Adams won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for his composition, Become Ocean. The Seattle Symphony has just released a recording of its performance of the piece.

When pianist Jeremy Denk played Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 with the San Francisco Symphony at Carnegie Hall, the New York Times raved that Denk's performance was "superb." On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll take you to Carnegie Hall to hear it.

Each week on our Piano Puzzler, composer Bruce Adolphe re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a classical composer. We then get one of our listeners on the phone to try to guess the tune and the composer whose style Bruce is imitating. Play along with our Piano Puzzler, on Wednesday's Performance Today.

When Alessio Bax was nine years old, he wanted to play the organ. One problem: his legs weren't long enough for his feet to reach the pedals. Bax took piano lessons instead, impatiently waiting for the day when he could switch to the organ. Wouldn't you know it, that day never came. Bax fell in love with the piano. He joins us in the Performance Today studios to play music by Bach and Brahms on Tuesday's Performance Today.

Conductor Valery Gergiev hopped into a cab, and when the driver asked where he was going, Gergiev said, "It doesn't matter - I'm in demand everywhere." Gergiev leads major orchestras around the world and takes almost no breaks in his schedule. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear the hardest working man in show biz conduct the Mariinsky Orchestra.

Peter Tchaikovsky wrote one of his most brilliant pieces, his Violin Concerto, while reeling from a failed marriage. And to add insult to injury, the violinist for whom he wrote it said it was "impossible to play." On Monday's Performance Today, violinist Joshua Bell proves just how possible it is at a concert in Houston.

Israeli-American composer Ofer Ben-Amots combines Jewish folk music with contemporary textures. This past summer, he joined Fred onstage at the Grand Teton Music Festival. On this weekend's Performance Today we'll hear highlights from that conversation, plus a stirring performance of his Odessa Trio.

On Friday's Performance Today we'll hear highlights from the Aspen and Ojai Music Festivals, including a symphony by Brahms, a Strauss waltz, and a string quartet by Janacek.