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.

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.

A recent composition by Jessie Montgomery is the emotional center of a new album by clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Gloria Chien. Join us to hear McGill and Chien perform Peace by Jessie Montgomery from the album Here With You.

After studying the many ways people play music by Bach, violinist Hilary Hahn has concluded: "You can play it however you want, as long as you can make it convincing...that's up to the audience to decide." On today’s show, hear Hilary Hahn play a Bach violin concerto with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

For more than 20 years now, students from top music schools have joined us as PT Young Artists in Residence, and today we'll introduce you to the next Young Artist in this year's series. Join us for music and conversation with a truly inspiring artist and music advocate, flutist Tyler Martin.

The Manhattan skyline, the majesty of the Teton Mountains, and indigenous communities living in the American West. Those are some of the elements that inspired a musical reflection on our nation: American Scene by William Grant Still.

Horn player Sarah Willis says she has always loved playing Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 3, but it’s challenging to play well. So, Willis took a decidedly lyrical approach to practicing the concerto. Hear Sarah Willis and the Lyceum Orchestra of Havana perform it at a concert in Germany on today's show.

In the year 2000, Composer Gabriela Lena Frank wrote one of the first of her pieces that were inspired by her multi-ethnic background. Her father is Lithuanian Jewish, and her mother is Chinese-Peruvian-Spanish. On today's episode, we'll hear that piece - with sounds reminiscent of the Andes: Elegia Andina (Andean Elegy), by Gabriela Lena Frank.