Performance Today®

Every four years, the American Pianists Association holds a competition for emerging classical pianists. Angie Zhang is one of five finalists for the 2025 awards—we'll hear her play music by Enrique Granados on today's show.

Beethoven loved going for long walks in the countryside around Vienna. He once told a friend that the birds they saw on their hikes helped him write his Symphony No. 6. Tune in today—we'll get the story and hear Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony No. 6 from a concert performance featuring conductor Marin Alsop and the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic.

When violinist Ilya Gringolts was a kid in the USSR, his first teacher told him to quit the violin because he had no talent. Fortunately, he didn't let that stop him. Now, he's THRIVING. On today's show, we'll take you to a concert in Switzerland to hear Ilya Gringolts play Pablo de Sarasate's Spanish Dances.

We're pleased to introduce our next 2024 PT Young Artist in Residence: harpist Jane Yoo. On today's show, Jane joins Fred Child for music and conversation at our Saint Paul studio. Plus, Bruce Adolphe has this week’s Piano Puzzler!

In 1948, American composer William Grant Still was inspired by some poems about the natural beauty of the American South. On this episode of Performance Today, take a break with us and hear Wood Notes, William Grant Still's work of quiet musical contemplation.

Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1984. He studied at Stanford University and has been a leading scholar and performer of harpsichord music for the last dozen years or so. If you find harpsichord music harsh or brittle, we have a performance that might help change your mind. Hear Mahan Esfahani play music by C.P.E. Bach on today's show.

When Felix Mendelssohn was 14 years old, he wrote music for a family party. Afterwards, the manuscript was stashed away in the Mendelssohn household and forgotten about. It wasn't played again until 1999. The lost and found Double Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn on Performance Today.

Pride Month is a wonderful time to celebrate our unique identities and to reflect on how authenticity shows up in our lives. We asked classical musicians in the LGBTQIA community to share their thoughts on Pride. Listen now. [Support for Pride Month programming is provided by At Sara’s Table/Chester Creek Cafe and Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church.]

Violinist Bella Hristova and composer David Ludwig were married in 2015. In the months leading up to the wedding, Ludwig wrote a piece for Hristova—not a 2-minute bon-bon for the reception, but a full concerto for solo violin and orchestra. On today's episode, we'll hear Bella Hristova play Ludwig's concerto with JoAnn Falletta conducting the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.