Performance Today®

PT celebrates great female composers and performers.

We are honored to announce that Deborah Borda is our 2024 PT Classical Woman of the Year. So many things we love about today's classical music world wouldn't be what they are without her work. Deborah was chosen for her tireless advocacy and support for the arts and her vision of making classical music accessible for generations to come. On today's show, learn why she has been—and still is—one of the most influential players in the classical music world...and we'll get to hear from Deborah Borda herself!

Spanish composer and pianist Joaquin Rodrigo was blind from age three. He wrote his music in Braille, and his wife Victoria helped translate it to traditional notation. Remarkably, Rodrigo did not play the guitar…yet he wrote one of the world’s most iconic guitar concertos. On today's show, guitarist Jason Vieaux plays Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, backed by the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra and conductor Michael Butterman.

The Serra Chapel in Shandon, California, is one of the venues for the annual Festival Mozaic, based in nearby San Luis Obispo. On summer evenings, concerts take place at the chapel, which offers seating inside and out—it's just one of the idyllic settings that make up Festival Mozaic. On today's show, we'll take you to Serra Chapel to hear a flute concerto by Vivaldi, with Alice K. Dade playing the flute alongside the Festival Mozaic Baroque Ensemble.

On today's show, we'll hear the Philadelphia Orchestra in concert at their summer home in Saratoga Springs, New York. Conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin leads a performance of the Prelude to Act One of Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin.

As a teenager, Julia Perry found her passion in composition. In her 20s, Perry spent five years studying composition and conducting in Paris and Rome. She had a powerful sense of her place in the world; she signed her passport: "Julia Perry, Composer." On today's show, we'll hear the world premiere recording of the Violin Concerto by Julia Perry.

Composer Miguel del Aguila imagined a meeting between two characters: one is Justice, the blindfolded woman holding scales and a sword, and the other is Law, the man holding a book and gavel. We'll hear Imani Winds play the world premiere of Miguel del Aguila's 'Blindfold Music' on today's show.

When the French army rained artillery on Vienna, Beethoven took cover in a bomb shelter.  These days, the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine takes cover in bomb shelters as they hope to survive the Russian invasion of their country. We'll hear the Lviv National Philharmonic play music by Beethoven on today's show.

Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero was our 2023 PT Classical Woman of the Year. Join us for a special hour of music and conversation, co-hosted by Gabriela Montero and Fred Child.