Performance Today®

Today's show offers evidence of the many ways that music changes people's lives. We'll hear about the Kimbanguist Symphony Orchestra of Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The musicians in the orchestra are like other Congolese. They struggle with every aspect of daily life: food, shelter, medical care, raising families. And yet, they're immensely dedicated. And music is changing the lives of the dedicated young musicians of the Aspen Festival. We'll hear a couple of knockout performances from Aspen, and meet young Aspen conductor Case Scaglione.

England and Scotland haven't always been the best of friends. They're both part of Great Britain now, but there's still a bit of healthy rivalry between them. So when Scottish conductor Donald Runnicles brought his orchestra from Glasgow, the BBC Scottish Symphony, down to London to play at the Proms, he did quite a remarkable thing. He chose an all-English program. Effectively out-Englishing the English, one critic called it "the most purely English concert of this Prom season." We'll hear part of that concert, the final two movements of Edward Elgar's First Symphony.

All this week and next, host Fred Child will be at the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen Colorado. Performance Today will be coming to you from the studios of Aspen Public Radio. We'll have great performances from Aspen, and hear from the artists themselves what it's like to participate in the nation's largest classical music festival. Conductor Nicholas McGegan calls it "paradise." McGegan leads an A-list cast in a performance of a Vivaldi double violin concerto.

Violinist Joshua Bell remembers being a 15-year-old student at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and how it changed his life. He'll tell the story, and we'll hear Gil Shaham, Cho-Liang Lin, Ingrid Fliter, and others share their Aspen memories. And from this summer's Aspen Music Festival, Joshua Bell joins the Aspen Chamber Symphony to play the Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn. Also from the 2010 Aspen Festival: David Finckel and Wu Han play Beethoven's Cello Sonata No. 2, Ingrid Fliter plays a pair of Chopin Waltzes, and flutist Marina Piccinini and the Brasil Guitar Duo play "Doce de Coco" by Brazilian composer Jacob do Bandolim.

We spent the past week on Performance Today featuring the legendary Marlboro Music Festival in Marlboro, Vermont. Host Fred Child spent some time there recently. It's a rare "republic of equals," as its founder Rudolf Serkin called it, with young professionals and seasoned veterans playing side-by-side. This weekend, we'll hear about the magic of Marlboro from the people who make it their home for seven weeks each summer. Plus, Bruce Adolphe drops by for another Piano Puzzler.

Mitsuko Uchida's phrasing at the piano is lilting and expressive. Her speaking voice can take on similar musical qualities -- swooping melodies, delicate pauses, sudden passionate crescendos, bursts of evocative laughter. Uchida is one of two Artistic Directors at Marlboro Music in Vermont, along with fellow pianist Richard Goode. They'll reflect on the essence of Marlboro, and how their experiences there have changed them. And cellist Peter Wiley takes us inside his rehearsal process this summer at Marlboro, deconstructing and rebuilding the Brahms C-Major Piano Trio. We'll hear the results from a concert three weeks ago, and a pair of chamber pieces for winds by Beethoven and Strauss, all from Marlboro Music in Vermont.

At Marlboro Music in Vermont, every chamber music ensemble brings together top-notch young professional musicians with living legends. Their intense rehearsals continue for weeks at a time, and young players arriving for their first summers at Marlboro can feel intimidated at the prospect. Today, musicians young and old will talk about their wide-eyed awe at arriving at Marlboro for the first time, and how the Marlboro process helped bring out their own creativity and confidence. And we'll hear an all-star septet in concert at Marlboro two weeks ago: harpist Sivan Magen leads a performance of the Introduction and Allegro by Maurice Ravel. Plus, Hilary Hahn plays Beethoven's Violin Concerto at the Proms, and the Cleveland Orchestra plays Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade at Severance Hall.

We're continuing our week-long look at the Marlboro Music Festival in Marlboro, Vermont. Co-artistic director Mitsuko Uchida sums up the magic of the place: "Time passes very slowly in Marlboro, and at the same time very fast. You blink, and seven weeks are gone. But it seems as if you had eternity in your hands." We'll hear a couple of standout Marlboro performances today. Plus, the New York Philharmonic, at home and on the road in Hanoi.

The serious and the silly from Marlboro Music, in Vermont. We'll hear an astonishing 2007 performance that exemplifies the Marlboro practice of teaming young professionals with chamber music veterans: the then 17-year-old violin phenom Benjamin Beilman with an ensemble that includes venerable violist Samuel Rhodes, and pianist Richard Goode, co-Artistic Director of Marlboro Music. We'll hear their performance of the f-minor Piano Quintet, by Brahms. With so much intense rehearsal and performance every summer at Marlboro, there are some long-standing traditions for blowing off steam: elaborate pranks, and throwing wadded-up napkins in the dining hall. Half a dozen musicians from this year's festival weigh in on the joy (and the distraction) of Marlboro's napkin balls and pranks.