Performance Today®

As Detroit Symphony's Caen Thomason-Redus points out, the audience that classical music has traditionally attracted is becoming a smaller percentage of society, while the audience that classical music has traditionally not attracted is becoming a bigger portion. What does this mean? On Tuesday's Performance Today, Caen Thomason-Redus will join Fred for conversation as we continue our series on classical diversity.

Jessie Montgomery is a violinist and composer. As a kid, she didn't feel like being African-American was an issue in the world of classical music. That changed when she went to a conservatory. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear more from Montgomery, as we begin our year-long exploration of diversity in classical music.

English composer Benjamin Britten was one of the great child prodigies in the history of music. And although he wrote his Simple Symphony as a grown-up, it's based on music he had written as a boy. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll hear Britten's Simple Symphony in concert from Florida.

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges was a fine marksman, a fencer, and one of the great French violinists of the 1700s. He was also the first classical composer of African descent. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear a Violin Concerto by the Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

They're in love, and not ashamed of a May, extremely December romance. He's 40. And she's...279. Violinist Renaud Capucon has admitted that he has a crush on his violin, which is nicknamed Panette. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear Capucon and Panette play Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in concert with the LA Philharmonic.

After the pain of a broken heart, some people reach for self-help books to feel better. Not composer Hector Berlioz. Instead, he became obsessed with novels about...pirates. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll hear his "Corsaire Overture", a piece inspired by Berlioz's fascination with pirates.

Jean Sibelius' final symphony unfolds in a single riveting movement; one unbroken weightless flow of music. It evolves from a quiet opening, to a warm, life-affirming ending -- a full 25 minutes later. On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear Sibelius' Symphony No. 7 from a concert in Bergen, Norway.

Sergei Taneyev's Symphony No. 4 is a great piece of Romantic Russian music, and it's not played nearly often enough. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra play it in concert in Rotterdam.

Jonathan Biss believes that Robert Schumann is the most poetic of all composers, because of his effortless ability to create intensely emotional music. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll hear Biss play Schumann's heart-piercing Forest Scenes in concert in Schenectady.