Performance Today®

Paul Desenne is a founding member of the Simon Bolivar Youth Symphony Orchestra. These days, he writes the music they perform. Every week on PT we highlight music composed in the 21st century. This week: Paul Desenne, a composer from Caracas, Venezuela. Hear his piece Hipnosis Mariposa on Friday's Performance Today.

The BBC Proms in London is the biggest classical music festival on the planet. One of the highlights of the 2016 Proms was a return visit by the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela with their charismatic conductor, Gustavo Dudamel. Latin American music from the Proms on Thursday's Performance Today.

Not many pieces can match the romantic drama and sheer virtuosity of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. Join the audience for a thrilling concert performance by pianist Joyce Yang and the Nashville Symphony, on Wednesday's Performance Today.

Picture some eggs nested in a chicken coop. Suddenly, little legs poke through the shells and the eggs stand up and start dancing around. It's the Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks, from a Houston Symphony performance of "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. Hear this and more from concerts around the world, on Tuesday's Performance Today.

At the age of 20, German composer Felix Mendelssohn wrote down a musical sketch, inspired during a trip to Scotland. The composer was well into his 30's when he finally got down to completing that idea. Hear Mendelssohn's initial sketch and then travel forward to Mendelssohn's "Scottish" Symphony No. 3, performed by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, on Monday's Performance Today.

On Saturday's Performance today, cellist David Garret discusses the teamwork between an orchestra's cellists. You'll hear David and fellow cellists, without an orchestra, playing music written for four cellos, by composer Joseph Jongen.

Composer Arvo Part works in a style that he calls "tintinnabulation". Inspired by the sound of bells, and diving deep into that sound as an analogy for a spiritual quest. Sound abstract? The power and beauty of music is that it evades description by words alone. Listen to "Fratres" by Arvo Part, from a concert at the Grand Teton Music Festival on Friday's Performance Today.

On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear Joshua Bell discuss the art and science of finding a musical partner. Take a front row seat as he performs with one of his favorite collaborators, pianist Sam Haywood, playing a violin sonata by French composer Gabriel Faure.

On Wednesday's Performance Today, join us for a multi-chorus musical feast. The Emerson Quartet plays music by Dvorak and Bach from a concert in the city of Prague. We'll also hear violinist Hilary Hahn playing music by Robert Schumann. Plus, Bruce Adolphe joins us for this week's Piano Puzzler.