Performance Today®

Harry Burleigh was the first black composer to help develop a characteristically American style of music. He wrote the first formal orchestral arrangements for more than 100 Negro spirituals. On today's show, violinist Samuel Nebyu and pianist Bethany Brooks play a piece Burleigh wrote in 1916: Four Southland Sketches.

Fanny Mendelssohn wrote an overture when she was around 25 years old, but her manuscript sat in a library in Germany for over 150 years. In the 1990s, the piece was resurrected and it's been played around the world ever since. On today's show, hear the Overture in C Major by Fanny Mendelssohn, from a concert in Charleston, South Carolina.

A concerto usually features one soloist on one instrument, but composer Jennifer Higdon has a concerto that features a single soloist on about THIRTY instruments. On today's show, hear Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto, with Cameron Leach dashing from instrument to instrument, on stage with the Dallas Winds.

Double bassist Aaron Olguin is classically trained, but he also loves rock and roll. Olguin says that when a double bass concerto by Andres Martin premiered in 2012, it shook the double bass world. On today's show, hear Aaron Olguin play a classical concerto with undercurrents of rock: the Double Bass Concerto No. 1 by Andres Martin.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone in so many ways. Pianist Simone Dinnerstein could hear the change that took place in New York City last March. She said, "The sound had been turned down...and that quiet was not necessarily a peaceful quiet." On today's show, we'll share Dinnerstein's musical response to that unsettling quiet.

Hey diddle diddle, a section of fiddles; the horn jumped over the moon. The audience cheered to hear such sport, and the flute ran away with the tune. On today's show, Matthias Pintscher conducts the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the Mother Goose Suite by Maurice Ravel, from a concert in Interlochen, Michigan.

Do you know any couples who are always arguing and disagreeing, but it's also clear that they truly love each other? On today's show, hear music inspired by a similar couple. Pianist Andre Watts and the Nashville Symphony perform Edward MacDowell's Piano Concerto No. 2.

Composer Jimmy Lopez was working on a piece when his father unexpectedly died. Suddenly, the music had deeper meaning for Lopez; he said it came to represent his father's transcendental journey. On today's show, hear Guardian of the Horizon by Jimmy Lopez, from a concert presented by the St Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Double bassist Aaron Olguin is classically trained, but he also loves rock and roll. Olguin says that when a double bass concerto by Andres Martin premiered in 2012, it shook the double bass world. On today's show, hear Aaron Olguin play a classical concerto with undercurrents of rock: the Double Bass Concerto No. 1 by Andres Martin.