Performance Today®

On the day of a big audition, the young violinist Xiang Yu found that someone had taken luggage in the airplane and along with it, his dress clothes for the audition... so he wore sneakers and pajama pants. "It was an adventure," he said, "but luckily I got in." He is now on the roster of the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS Two roster. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll take you back to 2013, when Yu joined us in the studio as our PT Young Artist in Residence.

Imani Winds has been revolutionizing how the music world thinks about woodwind quintets. On Wednesday's Performance Today, hear them perform music by Paquito D'Rivera for an audience in Chicago.

While attending the 2018 Music From Angel Fire Music Festival, Robert Mirabal welcomed PT to his hometown Taos Pueblo, New Mexico. Mirabal gave a deeply personal performance and talked about tradition, legacy and family on the sacred grounds where peyote ceremonies are held.

While attending the 2018 Music From Angel Fire Music Festival, the remarkable Robert Mirabal welcomed PT to his hometown Taos Pueblo, New Mexico. Here, he gives an impromptu performance and talks about the importance of language and culture.

Can you imagine your birthday being declared a national holiday? On December 8th, 1915, the day that composer Jean Sibelius turned 50, the citizens of Finland took the day off. There was good reason to celebrate! On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear conductor JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic present Sibelius's Symphony No. 5.

Hispanic Heritage Month is getting underway and we're celebrating the musical side here at PT. On Monday's Performance Today, cellist Gabriel Cabezas joins us to talk about visibility, music, and his personal hero.

Hector Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique is one part tender love song, one part crazy paranoid hallucination. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll hear highlights from this unusual piece from a concert in the Czech Republic.

At a recent concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic., pianist Mitsuko Uchida walked onstage to a cheering audience. She sat down at the piano... made a funny face... and walked quickly offstage. The story, and the music Mitsuko Uchida played upon returning to the stage, on the next Performance Today.

"If you find yourself elated by my music," composer Wang Jie says, "the credit goes to the muses. If you hate it," she continues, "well, it's only 15 minutes long." On the next Performance Today, a composer who calls herself "part cartoon character, part virtuoso." We'll hear her Symphony No. 1.