Performance Today®

Samuel Barber was more than an American composer. He was an American soldier and veteran as well. Barber served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Today, in honor of Veterans Day, we'll hear a march Barber wrote during his time in service to his country. Plus, Lee Hoiby's moving "Last Letter Home," based on a letter by PFC Jessie Givens, who died in Iraq in 2003.

A few years ago, violinist Gil Shaham was introduced to a piece he'd never heard before. As his friend played the piece for Shaham, his friend burst into tears. The piece is based on an old story about two star-crossed lovers. After their tragic death, they're reincarnated, and reunited as butterflies. On Friday's Performance Today, Gil Shaham talks about his moving discovery of the Butterfly Lovers Concerto, a piece written in 1959 by two Chinese composers.

Every day on Performance Today, we hear great musicians in concert. How did they get to be so good? And how to they maintain that level of playing? On today's show, we'll meet double-bass player David Grossman, a member of the New York Philharmonic. As part of our occasional series that we call the Art of Practice, Grossman tells us what life is like at the bottom of the orchestra, and how he works to stay on top of his game.

Like a seasoned antique hunter with a nose for overlooked gems, conductor JoAnn Falletta has a real knack for bringing hidden treasures to light. In today's show, Falletta leads the Buffalo Philharmonic in Franz Schreker's "Prelude to a Drama." Schreker is largely forgotten today, but was an important opera composer in the early 20th century. Schreker's "Prelude to a Drama" comes from his opera "The Marked Ones."

When you think of three instruments that just naturally belong together, it's not likely your first thought would be banjo, string bass, and tabla (Indian drums). Banjoist Bela Fleck, bassist Edgar Meyer, and tabla player Zakir Hussain come from very different musical backgrounds, but they've formed a unique and compelling trio that is capturing the attention of music lovers. PT's Fred Child hosted a live event recently in Miami, featuring interviews and performances by Fleck, Meyer, and Hussain. We'll hear highlights on today's show.

Live performance with Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Zakir Hussain

There's a new movie opening this weekend. It's called "A Late Quartet," the story of a string quartet that's been together for 25 years. The movie does a good job portraying the very close, and sometimes very messy, relationships that develop when a quartet plays together for 25 years. Jealousy, passion, conflict, boredom. In the final scene, we see them on stage playing Beethoven's Op. 131 quartet. You can hear some of the beautiful intimacy and beautiful messiness of the human condition in Beethoven's music. The film's stars, including Christopher Walken and Philip Seymour Hoffman, do a passable job of pretending to play instruments. Today, we'll hear the real musicians who recorded soundtrack of "A Late Quartet," the Brentano Quartet.

Perhaps no other instrument has as many facets as the guitar. It's part of nearly every culture and sub-culture in the world. John Dearman, one of the members of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, says that's the key to its success. He says, "The way to make classical guitar work is to exploit the diversity." John Dearman and the other members of the LAGQ will be in the PT studios today, following their own advice, exploiting the diversity of the guitar. We'll hear them in everything from 17th century Spain to modern-day jazz.

When he was a teenager in the early 1920s, Dmitri Shostakovich played piano in movie theaters for silent films. A few years later, he wrote a Piano Concerto that in places almost sounds like music he might have riffed for a Charlie Chaplin comedy. It's the rollicking, jazz-inflected Piano Concerto No. 1 by Shostakovich. We'll hear a powerhouse performance by Olga Kern (pictured) and the Nashville Symphony.