Performance Today®

In the spring of 1968, conductor Paul Freeman ran into Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Atlanta airport. Their brief conversation was one he never forgot. On this episode of Performance Today, hear about that life-changing encounter in our musical celebration of King's life and legacy.

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.

Our planet is teeming with life, and the rainforests are the lungs of the earth. Composer Meira Warshauer was moved by that image and the threats our natural world faced when she wrote her first symphony. It's a musical prayer for healing, for our home. On today's show, hear Warshauer's Symphony No. 1, "Living Breathing Earth,” from a performance by the Western Piedmont Symphony in Hickory, NC.

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.

German violinist Christian Tetzlaff is in the middle of a busy season, playing concerts all over Europe and the U.S. We'll hear from a performance he gave this past September in Prague, playing a piece that was composed in Prague back in 1902: the Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra by Josef Suk.

When Richard White was a young boy, he was homeless, living on the streets of Baltimore. At the age of four, he was adopted and discovered the joy of making music in middle school. He became the first African-American to earn a Doctorate of Music in tuba performance and is Principal Tuba in two American orchestras. Hear the inspiring story and music of Dr. Richard White on today’s show.

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

What would you do for love? Could you write a song expressing your passion? And if the person you care for fell in love with somebody else, could you let them go so they could be happy? We'll hear that these answers can be found in classic operas on this episode of Performance Today. Plus, Bruce Adolphe has this week's Piano Puzzler!

What do we mean when we say "American classical music"? Composer Derrick Skye sought to answer that question in the form of a string quartet. On today's show, hear music that draws on the musical traditions that reflect our multicultural American society: American Mirror by Derrick Skye.