Performance Today®

Cristina Cutts Dougherty says the tuba is capable of anything. "We're still figuring out how to play this instrument," she said, "but we're going to take over." Our first tuba-playing Young Artist in Residence, Cutts Dougherty joins us on the next Performance Today, from APM.

Composer Robert W. Butts he was working on a new piece when he took a break to attend a concert of Irish music. When the musicians started playing jigs, he decided that that sound—celebratory Celtic dance music—was just what he needed in his final movement. On today's show, hear the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey perform Robert W. Butts' new Viola Concerto. It's classical music with a Celtic kick.

Last year, composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich premiered a new concerto for cello and full orchestra. Zwilich then reimagined that piece for a smaller ensemble of only six players—the limitations of the pandemic made that idea all the more timely, appealing, and safe. On today's show, we'll hear the Cello Concerto for chamber ensemble, by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, performed for a live (online) audience from the spacious Brungard Aviation Hangar, in Boulder, Colorado.

In his later years, Gioachino Rossini scribbled notes on his old manuscripts. On one piece, he wrote, "Six terrible sonatas composed  by me at a most youthful age..." On this edition of Performance Today, hear one of Rossini's "terrible" sonatas—which isn't terrible—composed when he was just 12 years old.

Cristina Cutts Dougherty says the tuba is capable of anything. "We're still figuring out how to play this instrument," she said, "but we're going to take over." Our first tuba-playing Young Artist in Residence, Cutts Dougherty joins us on the next Performance Today, from APM.

In the hands of a great pianist, Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 is romantic, expressive and wildly virtuosic. Powerhouse pianist Simon Trpceski brings this piece to life from a concert in Norway on the next Performance Today, from APM.

Pianist Heng-Jin Park spent her early years living with her large family in Korea. A series of tragedies led her and her mother to emigrate to the U.S., temporarily leaving her three siblings behind with relatives. We’ll hear how music became her consolation on the next Performance Today from APM.

Composer Scott Joplin is known for his rags, but he also left a fascinating opera called Treemonisha. It wasn't fully staged until long after he died. Joplin was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer for the work in 1976. We'll hear highlights from Scott Joplin's Treemonisha from a concert in Italy on the next Performance Today, from APM.

There's a long tradition of music inspired by visual art, and that continues right up to this day. On today's show, hear the world premiere performance the Violin Concerto by French composer Pascal Zavaro — music that Zavaro says was written "under the influence" of images by Jean-Michel Basquiat.