Performance Today®

Stories of obsession in today's show. A conductor who obsesses over every detail of every performance, who says there's no room for democracy in his musical world. A composer so obsessed with his unfaithful wife that he murdered her and her lover, and spent the rest of his life anguishing over what he had done. And finally, a slightly manic piece for solo violin by Eugene Ysaye (pictured), aptly titled "Obsession."

In January of 1987, a new arts show hit the public radio airwaves for the first time. It was called Performance Today. A number of talented hosts and staffers have worked on the show in the intervening years. But the thing that has stayed during that time has been the immediacy of the show. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma calls it the "I was there" feeling you get from Performance Today. Join us and help us celebrate 25 years of Performance Today.

In January of 1987, a new arts show hit the public radio airwaves for the first time. It was called Performance Today. A number of talented hosts and staffers have worked on the show in the intervening years. But the thing that has stayed during that time has been the immediacy of the show. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma calls it the "I was there" feeling you get from Performance Today. Yo-Yo Ma, guitarist Jason Vieaux, and the Parker Quartet all help us celebrate 25 years of Performance Today.

Love or death? It's a question that's posed at some point in most every dramatic opera. And unlike everyday life, opera heroines generally have to choose between the two. In today's show, PT Young Artist in Residence Elizabeth Zharoff addresses the question in the role of four different opera characters: Iolanthe, Juliet, Elvira, and Pamina.

The young Sergei Prokofiev was fed up with critics who thought he could only write crunchy, avant-garde music. So he threw them a musical curve ball, his "Classical" symphony, written in a Haydnesque style. He called it "a challenge to make the geese angry." James Conlon leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in concert at Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles.

Young Artist in Residence Elizabeth Zharoff joins host Fred Child in the PT studios again today. She talks about the joys and challenges of singing opera. "There's so much you can find out about yourself when you're trying to become another person." In today's show, Zharoff assumes the role of Marguerite, singing excerpts from Charles Gounod's "Faust."

Soprano Elizabeth Zharoff can remember the exact moment she decided to become a professional musician. While she was singing in a high school competition, Zharoff saw and felt the audience lean forward anticipating her next note. Since then her star has continued to rise. Zharoff is now a master's candidate at the Curtis Institute of Music and she'll join host Fred Child all week long as Performance Today's Young Artist in Residence.

The term child prodigy gets thrown around so often in the musical world that we sometimes forget just how remarkable youthful talent can be. Felix Mendelssohn was writing music that had emotional and spiritual and intellectual depth before he even started shaving. In today's show, Vadim Repin plays Mendelssohn's first violin concerto, the product of an unparalleled 13-year-old mind.

The term child prodigy gets thrown around so often in the musical world that we sometimes forget just how remarkable youthful talent can be. Felix Mendelssohn was writing music that had emotional and spiritual and intellectual depth before he even started shaving. In today's show, Vadim Repin plays Mendelssohn's first violin concerto, the product of an unparalleled 13-year-old mind.