Performance Today®

Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly heard Roma bands when he was growing up, and later incorporated some of those tunes into his own music. On today's show, hear Kodaly's Dances of Galanta, from a recent concert in Stockholm, Sweden.

Violinist Daniel Hope is very much at home on stages around the world. When the pandemic closed venues, he brought his concerts, literally, home. On today's show, hear about Daniel Hope's award-winning concert series from his home in Berlin.

Guaguanco is a style of Cuban rumba that is often centered around the human voice and percussion. Recently, Cuban composer Guido Gavilan wrote a guaguanco for string quartet. Can that work? We think it works beautifully. On today's show, hear the Harlem Quartet play the Cuarteto en Guaguanco by Guido Gavilan, from a concert in Colorado Springs.

Among our listeners, it's the most talked about piece of music: Bolero, by Maurice Ravel. You know it, you love it...unless you don't, of course. We'll hear a new take on the piece and keep the conversation going. Who needs a snare drum and a full orchestra? Bolero, played by the Decoda Cello Quartet, on this episode of Performance Today.

Composer Matthew Jackfert spent six months in the seaside city of Qingdao, China. Memories of the waves and wind and local culture stuck with him. On this episode of Performance Today, hear "On the Shores of Qingdao," by Matthew Jackfert, from a concert by the West Virginia University Symphony Orchestra.

On today's show, we'll usher in 2021 with a celebratory Dance of the Hours, courtesy of the US Marine Band. We'll also hear all-star performance of Beethoven's Gassenhauer Trio, from a concert in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

When Maurice Ravel wrote Gaspard de la Nuit, he was trying to make it the most difficult piano music ever written... perhaps even unplayable. On today's show, Benjamin Grosvenor plays the unplayable in a concert presented by Capital Region Classical in Schenectady, NY.

Composer Matthew Jackfert spent six months in the seaside city of Qingdao, China. Memories of the waves and wind and local culture stuck with him. On this episode of Performance Today, hear "On the Shores of Qingdao," by Matthew Jackfert, from a concert by the West Virginia University Symphony Orchestra.

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 faces 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.