Performance Today®

London-based composer Arthur Jeffes joins Ria Misra, host of the second season of our Music is Music podcast, to kick things off with a two-part episode on music in space.

In the spring of 1873, Giuseppe Verdi went to Naples to oversee a production of his opera, Aida. Rehearsals were postponed when the star soprano got sick. Verdi had some free time, so he wrote a string quartet, and it has stood the test of time. On Wednesday's Performance Today, hear Orion String Quartet play Verdi's Quartet in E minor, from a concert in Athens, Georgia.

In 1825, Ludwig van Beethoven got terribly sick. For a month, all he could do was lie miserably in bed. He began to think that he may not survive the illness. Beethoven recovered, and, so grateful for the gift of life, he expressed his gratitude in music. Hear the Pacifica Quartet play Beethoven's heartfelt "thank-you", his String Quartet No. 15, on Tuesday's Performance Today.

Drew Petersen is the 2017 winner of the American Pianists Award. He is currently pursuing his Masters in Music degree at Juilliard with Robert McDonald, and is a recipient of the prestigious Kovner Fellowship. On Monday's Performance Today, Petersen joins host Fred Child for music and conversation in the Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio in St. Paul, MN.

Drew Petersen, winner of the 2017 American Pianists Award, joins host Fred Child in the PT performance studio. He plays two fiendishly difficult pieces of music, and discusses his education and the musical process of constructing a fugue.

The Vera Quartet are currently Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, studying with the Pacifica Quartet. They're also our latest PT Young Artists in Residence. Get to know them on Saturday's Performance Today, and hear them perform Beethoven's String Quartet No. 9 at the Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio in St. Paul, MN.

"Tales of Hemingway" by Michael Daugherty won THREE Grammys this year. It's a musical tour through the life and literature of Ernest Hemingway, ending with a bullfight scene from "The Sun Also Rises." On Friday's Performance Today, travel back into Hemingway's Lost Generation as the Nashville Symphony plays "Tales of Hemingway" by Michael Daugherty.

At the age of 70, composer Leos Janacek wrote a sextet recalling his youth as a choirboy at St. Thomas Abbey in the Czech city of Brno. On Thursday's Performance Today, hear Mladi (Youth) by Leos Janacek, from a concert in Round Top, Texas. In addition, we'll continue our conversation with the Vera Quartet, our PT Young Artist in Residence, including a performance of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 9.

The Vera Quartet is currently Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, studying with the Pacifica Quartet. They're also our latest PT Young Artist(s) in Residence. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll introduce you to the Vera Quartet, and hear them perform Ravel's String Quartet in F Major.