Performance Today®

On Friday's Performance Today, we learn about a musician's journey from metal rocker to classical composer. Then take a seat as the Nashville Symphony plays Conversations with Nijinsky, by Kip Winger. Guest-hosted by Jade Simmons

Philippa Schuyler achieved national acclaim as a child prodigy on the piano, and was known as Harlem's Mozart and the Shirley Temple of American Negroes.

It's music that pianist Elizabeth Roe says sounds like the end of the world. On Thursday's Performance Today, the Anderson and Roe Piano Duo give a wild performance of La Valse by Maurice Ravel, from a concert in Winona, Minnesota.

For the Ebene Quartet, great music has no boundaries; they love playing a huge range of music. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll hear the Ebene Quartet play and improvise on a jazz classic: Milestones by Miles Davis.

Rafal Blechacz did not want to play piano at first; he had dreams of playing the organ, but he eventually realized that the piano was the right instrument for him. On Tuesday's Performance Today, hear Blechacz play J. S. Bach's Italian Concerto from a concert in Schenectady, NY.

Maurice Ravel wrote a piano trio in 1914, shortly before he began serving as an ambulance driver for the French army. On Monday's Performance Today, hear Ravel's Piano Trio in A Minor, from a concert in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

When Sang Yoon Kim was a student, his teacher had him play the clarinet... while riding an excercise bike. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll discuss the cardio-musical benefits of clarinet cycling, and hear a thrilling clarinet performance by Sang Yoon Kim.

Russian composer Mily Balakirev was a piano virtuoso, yet by the time he was nearly finished with one of his compositions, even HE couldn't play it. So he wrote easier alternate passages... just in case the original is too hard. On Friday's Performance Today, hear pianist Vadym Kholodenko give a wonderful performance of Islamey by Mily Balakirev.

Joseph Douglass, the favorite grandson of prominent American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, had a career in classical music that spanned more than three decades.