Performance Today®

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.

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.

On today's episode, meet our new PT Young Artist in Residence, violist Jordan Bak. Jordan joins Fred Child for music and conversation at the Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser studio in St. Paul, Minnesota. Jordan Bak is accompanied by pianist Ji Yung Li.

Hungarian composer Bela Bartok was one of the founders of the field of ethnomusicology. He traveled the dusty back roads of Hungary and Romania, recording tens of thousands of folk songs, and that work inspired many of his own compositions. On today's episode, join us for Bartok's Hungarian Folk Tunes, from a concert at the Music@Menlo festival.

Violist Jordan Bak is Performance Today's current Young Artist in Residence. Jordan recently joined Fred Child for conversation and music at our studio in Saint Paul. You can hear it all here!

On today's show, we'll introduce you to our new PT Young Artist in Residence, violist Jordan Bak. Jordan joins Fred Child for music and conversation at the Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser studio in St. Paul, Minnesota. Jordan Bak is accompanied by pianist Ji Yung Lee.

Pianist Andras Schiff calls it a 'finger breaking piece.' Stephen Kovacevich said he worked on it for so long, he nearly paralyzed his hands. On today's show, Yefim Bronfman takes us beyond the strenuous side of Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 2 in a thrilling performance with the Houston Symphony.

The Symphony No. 7 by Gustav Mahler opens with a gorgeous solo for the unusual tenor horn. The Oregon Symphony has a fine horn section, but they called in Demondrae Thurman to get that particular sound. On today's show, Thurman steps in with the Oregon Symphony for the opening movement of Mahler's Symphony No. 7, conducted by Carlos Kalmar.

Violinist Angele Dubeau and her all-female ensemble La Pieta are based in Montreal. On Today's show, Dubeau explains that there are many ways to interpret the title of their new album: Pulsations. Join us for music and conversation with Angele Dubeau, on this episode of Performance Today.