Performance Today®

It seems to be human nature that when something is forbidden it becomes all the more enticing. When Jon Nakamatsu was a boy, no one in his family was allowed to touch the piano. Can see where this is going? On today's show, the story of how Jon Nakamatsu became a pianist.

When Arturo Marquez was a teenager in Mexico in the 1960s, he played in a Mariachi band. He went to school and became a composer of orchestral music, but he's still especially fond of a dance from the city of Veracruz, Mexico. On today's episode of Performance Today, hear the Danzon No. 2 by Arturo Marquez, from a concert at the Aspen Music Festival.

On today's show, meet one of our most recent PT Young Artists in Residence, violist Jordan Bak. Jordan joins Fred Child for music and conversation at the Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser studio in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Violinist Nicola Benedetti says that when composer Wynton Marsalis wrote her a new piece, he wasn't worried about anybody's expectations but his own. Benedetti told us "It is very genuinely and definitively HIM." On today's show, Nicola Benedetti plays the new Violin Concerto in D by Wynton Marsalis.

The United States Marine Band is the longest-running musical organization in our country's history. They celebrated their 220th anniversary in 2018 with a new piece by Peter Boyer. On today's show, it's music to celebrate the rich history of the U.S. Marine Band: "Fanfare, Hymn, and Finale," by Peter Boyer.

Carlos Simon learned to play piano by ear, playing hymns in the church that his father started. Over those years, he learned that music had the ability to reach people on an emotional and spiritual level. On Wednesday's episode of Performance Today, hear an homage to a family's deep spiritual roots: "Amen" by Carlos Simon.

In 1933, Florence Price became the first female African American composer to have her work performed by a major symphony orchestra. When she died, boxes of music remained in her house, which was then abandoned for almost 50 years. Recently, a trove of works by Price has been rediscovered. On Tuesday's Performance Today, hear about the remarkable discovery and revival of Florence Price's music.

There's a photo of a young boy in an abandoned train station in Albania. The boy turns an old water bottle into a toy and he's lost in his world of play, despite the refugee crisis going on around him. On today's show, hear music inspired by that photo, "A Boy with a Makeshift Toy" by Armenian-American composer Mary Kouyoumdjian.

In pop music, it's Beyonce and Jay-Z. Here in the classical world, the big power couple is Wu Han and David Finckel. They're musical visionaries, mentors, and chamber musicians with incredible chemistry. On today's episode, they'll play a piece that Bruce Adolphe wrote for them, simply titled "Couple."