Performance Today®

The Cavatina Duo - flutist Eugenia Moliner and guitarist Denis Azabagic - became curious about music of the Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal when they discovered that they both had Sephardic roots. They asked several composers to write new pieces for them based on old Sephardic melodies. On today's show, hear the Cavatina Duo and the Avalon String Quartet perform one of those pieces: the Sephardic Suite, by Clarice Assad.

When cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins first heard a piece by Fanny Mendelssohn, she was astonished. "My first reaction was 'Wow. What is this, and why does no one play this?" PT Young Artist Annie Jacobs-Perkins plays music by Fanny Mendelssohn on this episode of Performance Today.

Russian violinist Alena Baeva says it's a great privilege to be a musician, to be able to communicate the most important things in life without any words. On today's show, Alena Baeva communicates via the Violin Concerto No. 5—the "Turkish" concerto—by Mozart, from a concert in Lugano, Switzerland.

The Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland was set to have a big comeback series this summer, but then, twenty-four musicians tested positive for COVID. The festival had to think on their feet to protect their musicians...and their audiences. Hear a highlight from the reimagined 2021 Verbier Festival on this edition of Performance Today.

Composer David Kirkland Garner is fascinated by a wide range of American roots music, and the legacies of the people who made it happen. On today's episode, we'll hear a piece he wrote honoring the blues legend Mississippi John Hurt. It's a dance called MELT, by David Kirkland Garner, from a concert presented by the Atlanta Chamber Players.

The Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland was set to have a big comeback series this summer, but then, twenty-four musicians tested positive for COVID. The festival had to think on their feet to protect their musicians...and their audiences. Hear a highlight from the reimagined 2021 Verbier Festival on this edition of Performance Today.

The history of the entire universe, told in twenty minutes of music. That might seem ambitious, but that's what composer Jean-Féry Rebel had in mind when he wrote a piece in 1738.  On this edition of Performance Today, hear Rebel's Les Élémens (The Elements), from a concert presented by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

When composer Joaquín Turina was 27 years old, he turned a musical 180; he stopped trying to imitate German and French styles, and began to embrace his Spanish identity—and you can hear it in (what turned out to be) his best known work. On today's show, hear an Oregon Symphony performance of Danzas Fantasticas, by Joaquín Turina.

In 1947, Spanish composer Manuel Palau wrote an exciting, rhythmic guitar concerto. Surprisingly, that piece hadn't been played outside of Spain until just a few months ago. On today's show, hear a rare performance of an extraordinary piece: Manuel Palau’s Concierto Levantino, featuring guitarist Jongho Park, from a concert in Seoul, South Korea.