Performance Today®

Choral composer Eric Whitacre says "I thought I was going to be a pop star...I never in my wildest dreams imagined I'd be a classical composer." Now at age 40, Whitacre has it all -- he's a kind of rock star of contemporary composers. He has a dedicated following among singers around the world. (Some young fans have even gotten Eric Whitacre tattoos.) Whitacre joins host Fred Child for a revealing interview about his creative process, and the stories behind his best-loved works.

"True pleasure is a serious business." That phrase, or rather the Latin version of it, is inscribed in the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany. Otherwise known as the home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, a group dedicated to the business AND the pleasure of music-making. In today's show, two performances by the Gewandhaus Orchestra, with Riccardo Chailly conducting. Soloist Janine Jansen joins them in Max Bruch's concerto for violin, AND his romance for viola.

Last month, the London-based "Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment" played their first Beethoven symphony cycle in a decade. We're sampling three of their performances this week. Today: the most famous four notes in music, and the rest of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. Ivan Fischer conducting a performance at Queen Elizabeth Hall, in London. And more from 2010 Pulitzer Prize winning composer Jennifer Higdon. She spoke with PT host Fred Child shortly after she got the news. And we'll hear the rousing finish of her prize-winning Violin Concerto. Violinist Hilary Hahn in concert this season with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.

The great harpsichordist and conductor Ton Koopman loves music by Bach. His email address even includes Bach's name, and an important date from Bach's life. So when Koopman finally got the chance to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic this winter, what music did he select to open the concert? Bach, of course. The Orchestral Suite No. 3. That performance highlights hour 1, and in hour 2, Ivan Fischer leads the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in what one critic called an "exuberantly subversive" and "charming" performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 1. From a concert last month in London. Plus, we'll have late-breaking news on this year's Pulitzer Prize winner for music.

27 year-old Chinese pianist Lang Lang is on an American tour right now with an all-star youth orchestra: the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra from Germany. From their concert two weeks ago at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, Christoph Eschenbach conducts an electrifying performance of the Piano Concerto No. 3 by Prokofiev.

Venezuela's Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra does a great job playing big, high-energy pieces. But at the recent Lucerne Easter Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland, they were able to show off their sensitive side as well. They gave a rousing performance of Tchaikovsky's sixth symphony, under the baton of conductor Claudio Abbado. Known for its mix of energy and pathos, Tchaikovsky's final symphony got its nickname "Pathetique" from the composer's brother Modest, at breakfast one Sunday morning.

Every summer a professional string quartet from New York City travels to the most remote area in the lower 48 states, the northeast corner of Arizona. They meet high school students from the Navajo and Hopi nations, as part of the Native American Composer Apprentice Project, which is part of the Grand Canyon Music Festival. But -- who is teaching whom? We'll hear from Navajo composer Mike Begay, and from members of the string quartet ETHEL. It's part two of this month's Performance Today feature "Music That Matters."

Pianist Mitsuko Uchida has one of the most expressive faces in classical music. Vaulted brows, piercing eyes. Her features sometimes seem to have multiple emotions dancing across them at once. She brings that same depth and breadth of expression to playing piano. Mitsuko Uchida joins conductor Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic in concert in Berlin, playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3. And Part 1 of this month's "Music That Matters" feature: Native American high school students from rural Arizona and Utah meeting a string quartet from New York, and writing their own works for quartet, thanks to the Native American Composers Apprentice Project at the Grand Canyon Music Festival.

Ravi Shankar, the great Indian sitar player and composer, is 90 years old today. Still composing, still playing, still touring, even. He just wrapped up a tour of New Zealand and Australia. We'll celebrate his birthday by revisiting the world premiere performance of his newest sitar concerto, featuring daughter Anoushka Shankar as the soloist, along with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.