Performance Today®

The trombone players in the Buffalo Philharmonic asked composer Eric Ewazen if he would write something especially for them. Ewazen loved the idea and came up with his Triple Concerto for Three Trombones and Orchestra. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll go to Buffalo to hear it in concert.

From a young age, Sam Shepherd has rejected the idea of neat, tidy musical categories. He studied classical piano growing up, but felt confined by what he calls the "dots on a page." It wasn't until he heard a performer really making a classical piece his own, breaking out of strictly classical feel, that he was hooked. Now, Shepherd writes music under the alias "Floating Points."

Violinist Joshua Bell says that composer Camille Saint-Saens is terribly underrated, and feels that his Violin Concerto No. 3 is beautiful, logical, virtuosic, and a perfect fit for the violin. Hear Joshua Bell play Saint-Saens's Violin Concerto No. 3 at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, on Thursday's Performance Today.

The concert was an experiment - a new composition was played, and the audience was supposed to guess who wrote it. When the music ended, Maurice Ravel's friend leaned over said: "What idiot could have written such a piece?" Well, that "idiot" would be Ravel, and the music is eternal. Ravel's 'Valses nobles et sentimentales', on Wednesday's Performance Today.

With two trumpets and two trombones, The Westerlies defy musical typecasting. A little bit classical, a little bit jazz, and little bit folk music...and a lot of talent. Join us in the studio for music and conversation with The Westerlies on Tuesday's Performance Today.

Listen to the brass quartet The Westerlies perform original compositions from their album live in our studio.

21 year-old American pianist George Li is already a regular at the prestigious Verbier Festival in Switzerland. In a highlight from the 2016 festival, he gives a thrilling performance of the Piano Concerto No. 2, by Camille Saint-Saens, on Monday's Performance Today.

On Saturday's Performance Today, we'll hear from two inspiring young artists, 24 year-old guitarist Chaconne Klaverenga and, our PT Young Artist in Residence, 16 year-old violinist Phoenix Avalon. Also featured, this week's Piano Puzzler with Bruce Adolphe.

Franz Liszt wrote a piano sonata in a fit of artistic rapture after reading Dante's "Divine Comedy," the epic 14th century poem about heaven and hell. Join the audience as pianist Paul Lewis gives a virtuosic performance of Liszt's Dante Sonata on Friday's Performance Today.