Performance Today®

It's hard to imagine the pressure that was on pianists at the Van Cliburn Piano Competition last week. "It's pretty difficult to deal with the pressure," competitor Beatrice Rana said. "Thirteen people —they decide your fate as a pianist." Luckily for Rana, the jury sided in her favor. She took home the silver medal on Sunday and won the audience award. We'll hear that winning performance of the Schumann Piano Quintet with Beatrice Rana and the Brentano String Quartet on Thursday's Performance Today.

Pianist and composer Conrad Tao has a deep appreciation for a huge range of music. "You talk about Rachmaninoff's lyricism," he says, "but you can also talk about Brian Wilson's (of The Beach Boys) lyricism." On Friday's Performance Today we'll hear brand new music by Conrad Tao that draws on that huge range of music. Tao is an accomplished classical pianist who plays concerts around the world. He writes and produces his own indie rock and dance music. He just oversaw a three-day music festival in Brooklyn. We'll hear a new piece he wrote for solo piano called vestiges.

It's hard to imagine the pressure that was on pianists at the Van Cliburn Piano Competition last week. "It's pretty difficult to deal with the pressure," competitor Beatrice Rana said. "Thirteen people —they decide your fate as a pianist." Luckily for Rana, the jury sided in her favor. She took home the silver medal on Sunday and won the audience choice award. We'll hear that winning performance of the Schumann Piano Quintet with Beatrice Rana and the Brentano String Quartet on Thursday's Performance Today.

There's nothing quite like a best friend. On Wednesday's Performance Today we'll hear two pieces by famous composer written for their less-famous closest confidantes. One piece is a horn concerto by Mozart composed for his friend Joseph Leutgeb. On the original music manuscript, Mozart scribbled in little notes to Leutgeb all through the music such as, "come on, quicken up here" and, "be a good fellow, have courage!" But at the end, Mozart wrote "thank heavens, that's enough, enough!"

Beethoven was 17 when he began work on what would become his first major orchestral piece, his Piano Concerto in B-flat. When he was 21, he took it along when he moved to the big city of Vienna. He kept working on it, and, four years later, he played the concerto at his official coming-out party - his public debut as a pianist in Vienna. On Tuesday's Performance Today we'll hear the first piano concerto Beethoven started, but not the first one he finished.

After two and a half weeks of incredible keyboard artistry - not to mention some intense musical drama - the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition wrapped up last night. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll bring you the big stories, the new Gold Medalist, and a Gold Medal winning performance.

Music was a part of movies since before they even had sound. During the silent film era, pianists or organists would play along in the theater. From the 1930s on, Hollywood has known the value of music in supporting, and even sometimes creating a sense of emotion and drama. On Wednesday's Performance Today we'll sample powerful music from the movies. A symphony by Mozart that helped to create just the right sense of dread in the 1984 film 'Amadeus.' Music by Grieg, artfully adapted for the 2010 film 'The Social Network.' And Joshua Bell joins Fred Child to talk about a 21st-century violin concerto based on music John Corigliano wrote for the 1993 film 'The Red Violin.'

"I thought I was going to be a pop star," Eric Whitacre told Performance Today. "I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I'd be a classical composer." In a sense, Whitacre is now both. He is a choral composer. When it comes to the world of choral music, though, Whitacre is welcomed like a rock star. On Friday's Performance Today we'll hear Eric Whitacre's latest, a 2013 composition for the Tallis Scholars.

The 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is heading down the homestretch. We began two weeks ago with 30 pianists. Now we are down to six finalists. The judges will pick a winner Sunday night. For the first time since 1997, there is an American among the finalists: Sean Chen. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear a highlight from the first round of the competition performed by the 24 year-old pianist from Los Angeles.