Performance Today®

On Friday's Performance Today, we'll go to Tokyo to hear legendary pianist Murray Perahia and the London Symphony Orchestra give a thrilling performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4.

Christopher Tignor is a composer, violinist, and software engineer. His emotionally charged scores and unique focus on live, performance-based electro-acoustic practice has won acclaim within both the classical and experimental communities.

Thirty years ago, the Performance Today theme was heard on public radio for the first time. And ever since then, listeners have been asking, "which piece by Mozart is that?" On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll have a conversation the composer of our theme, Jim Pugh, to celebrate our 30th anniversary.

Every week on our Piano Puzzler, composer Bruce Adolphe re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a great composer. Then, one of our listeners calls in and tries to guess two things: the tune, and the composer whose style Bruce is mimicking. Play along with our weekly musical game, on Wednesday's Performance Today.

Listen to a never-before-broadcast show theme song from the 1986 pilot episode of the program. Fred Child also interviews the show's first executive producer, Wes Horner, and Jim Pugh, composer of the Performance Today theme song.

Anthony McGill is principal clarinet with the New York Philharmonic. In this special online-only Puzzler, he joins Fred and Bruce Adolphe in the studio to take a crack at our weekly musical game.

Aaron Copland was from Brooklyn. He was a city slicker who captured -- and to a certain degree, created -- what we think of as the sound of the old American West. On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear selections from his cowboy ballet, "Billy the Kid."

The Chinese lute, or pipa, has been around for more than two thousand years. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet perform a modern piece written for this ancient instrument.

Concerts where the electricity was rippling from the stage. Moments of intense musical drama. Astonishing virtuosity, ethereal serenity, and most of all, beauty. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll look back at musical highlights from the past year.