Performance Today®

Composer Matt Jackfert has a particular interest in Appalachian music. On today's show, hear a piece by Jackfert inspired by three scenes from West Virginia, featuring an instrument that isn't typically associated with Appalachian music: the euphonium.

It's a concerto for three saxophones, but NOT for three saxophone players. The concerto is a showcase for one musician trading off alto, tenor, and soprano saxes. On today's show, Jess Gillam gives a riveting performance of the Concerto for Three Saxophones by Barbara Thompson, backed by the NDR Philharmonic Orchestra.

When Charles Gounod was a young composer, he walked away from music and entered a monastery | but he fell in love with the ancient sacred music he heard there, and that inspired him to go back to composing. Hear music by Charles Gounod, his Petite Symphonie, on this edition of Performance Today.

Tim Bradley recently arranged a piece by Clara Schumann for his group, the Copper Street Brass. Join us today to hear the Copper Street Brass play Bradley's arrangement of Soirees Musicales from a concert in St Paul, Minnesota.

In 2017, Composer Hannah Kendall wrote a piece inspired by a poem about women who worked in match factories in the 1800s. The piece, aptly titled The Spark Catchers, is full of kinetic energy and driving rhythms. On today's show, we'll hear The Spark Catchers played by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at a recent concert in Sweden.

Fei Xie is the Principal Bassoon for the Minnesota Orchestra. Before that, he was the principal bassoonist of the Baltimore Symphony. When he won that role with the Baltimore Symphony in 2012, Xie became the first Chinese-born bassoonist to hold a principal position in a major American orchestra. We'll hear Fei Xie play a Mozart bassoon concerto with the Minnesota Orchestra on today's show.

Every week, composer Bruce Adolphe joins us for a musical game, our Piano Puzzler. Bruce re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a great composer. We get one of our listeners on the phone who tries to guess the hidden tune and the composer whose style Bruce is imitating. Play along with the PT Piano Puzzler on this episode of Performance Today.

In the early 1800s, Lord Byron wrote an epic poem imagining a melancholy young man traveling in the Alps: Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. French composer Hector Berlioz was deeply inspired by that poem and wrote Harold in Italy. We'll explore the place where poetry meets music on this episode of Performance Today.

Jessica Meyer is a violist, composer, and educator. She says she only began to identify as a composer after she started playing her viola through a loop pedal, a tool that enables a solo musician to create layer upon layer of sound and texture. On today's show, hear Jessica Meyer play her piece Source of Joy, from a concert in Charleston, South Carolina.