Performance Today®

Performance Today visited the Grand Canyon Music Festival, where high school students from nearby reservations learn to speak their minds through the voice a string quartet.

The Grand Pianola Music by American composer John Adams is big, bold, and unapologetic. Adams says it's "a kind of Whitman-esque yawp -- an exhilaration of good humor." On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear it played by the University of Texas Wind Ensemble.

On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll hear three American treasures, including the original jazz band version of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue; Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; and, of course, this week's Piano Puzzler with Bruce Adolphe.

On Tuesday's Performance Today, we're going to the biggest classical music festival on the planet -- the BBC Proms in London -- to hear flutist Emily Beynon play a concerto by Carl Nielsen.

At a time when armed conflicts are flaring across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, the very idea of an International Day of Peace might seem absurdly idealistic. But maybe that's exactly what we need. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll mark the International Day of Peace with music by Beethoven, Bach, and more.

In 2005, the Washington Saxophone Quartet asked composer Thomas Albert to write a set of variations based on the theme from NPR's All Things Considered. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll hear the Washington Saxophone Quartet play the resulting piece: Thomas Albert's Anonymous Fame.

In 2005, the Washington Saxophone Quartet asked composer Thomas Albert to write a set of variations based on the theme from NPR's All Things Considered. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear the Washington Saxophone Quartet play the resulting piece: Thomas Albert's Anonymous Fame.

Pianist Andras Schiff recently said that Bach's Goldberg Variations sound best when played on harpsichord for an audience of one. But just two weeks after those comments, he was scheduled to play the Goldberg Variations on a modern piano for an audience of 5,000 in London. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll go to this year's BBC Proms in London to hear how it went.

Sixteen-year-old Youlan Ji was one of three finalists at this summer's Van Cliburn Junior Piano Competition. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll hear her give a stunning performance of a piano sonata by Beethoven. Plus, more highlights from the 2015 BBC Proms in London.