Performance Today®

Aaron Copland was from Brooklyn. He was a city slicker who captured -- and to a certain degree, created -- what we think of as the sound of the old American West. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear selections from his cowboy ballet, "Billy the Kid."

In 1933, Florence Price became the first female African American composer to have her work performed by a major symphony orchestra. When she died in 1953, she left boxes of music in her house, which was then abandoned for almost 50 years. Recently, a trove of works by Price has been rediscovered. On this weekend's Performance Today we'll hear the 2015 world premiere of a quartet that she wrote in 1929.

In 2011, composer Clarice Assad wove together a dozen tunes by Bach. The violas and cellos play the melodies, so it's called the "Suite for Lower Strings, based on themes of Bach." On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear this 18th century-inspired modern music from a concert in San Francisco.

Earlier this month, 19-year-old Peruvian violinist Eduardo Rios was named the winner of the annual Sphinx Competition; a competition for young African American and Latino string players. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll talk with Rios, and we'll hear a selection from his Gold Medal performance of Sibelius' Violin Concerto.

Every year, talented young Black and Latino classical string players compete in the Sphinx Competition. The 2015 winner is violinist Eduardo Rios, a 19 year-old student at the Colburn School. He's originally from Lima, Peru.

Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto has all the energy of Paris in the 1920s, including a hint of jazz here and there. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll hear it from a concert this season in Paris, featuring pianist Fazil Say and the National Orchestra of France.

On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll have recent concert highlights from near and far. We'll hear a Haydn symphony from a concert in Latvia; tango from a performance in Minnesota; string quartets from Brooklyn; and pianist Simone Dinnerstein playing Bach in concert in San Antonio.

There's no cake big enough to hold all the candles for George Frideric Handel's 330th birthday. So to celebrate, we'll go to a concert in Philadelphia to hear Tempesta di Mare play Handel's Concerto Grosso in F.

On this weekend's Performance Today, we're going to the movies. In anticipation of the upcoming Academy Awards, we'll hear concert performances of music written by past Oscar winners. Plus, we'll sample some of this year's Oscar soundtrack nominees.