Performance Today®

Pianist Margaryta Golovko was born and raised in Ukraine. She has expressed her love of her home country this past year by playing as much Ukrainian music as possible. On today’s show, we’ll take you to a concert in Moldova to hear Margaryta Golovko play the “Slavic Concerto” by Ukrainian composer Boris Lyatoshynsky.

In 2019, there was a ceremony in Iceland to memorialize the Ok glacier that had melted away. A humble copper plaque was installed in its former spot, and composer Marcus Maroney wrote a piece inspired by the inscription on that plaque. On today's show, ROCO performs Marcus Maroney's ‘OK, Goodbye’ from a concert in Houston.

What can you learn about a person from an object that's important to them? You can learn where and when it came from, but you can also discover the memories and people connected with this object. That's the idea behind a new piece you'll hear on today's show: "Seen" by Nathalie Joachim, played by the Imani Winds at a concert presented by Chamber Music Northwest.

Franz Schubert was shorter than most people, a little self-conscious, and socially awkward. His friends affectionately called him "Schwammerl," the little mushroom. Schubert shared himself with his friends through music that many of us still treasure two centuries later. On today’s show, we’ll hear pianist Orli Shaham play a sonata by Schubert at the Kaufman Music Center in New York City.

We're proud to introduce you to our next 2022-2023 PT Young Artist in Residence: Cellist Leland Ko. Ko recently joined Fred Child at the Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Recording Studio in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hear the conversation and music right here!

On today's show, we'll introduce you to cellist Leland Ko in our latest installment of the 2023 PT Young Artists in Residence series. Leland and pianist Adria Ye join Fred Child for music and conversation at our studio in St. Paul.

Every week, composer Bruce Adolphe joins us for a musical game, our Piano Puzzler. Bruce re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a great composer. We get one of our listeners on the phone who tries to guess the hidden tune and the composer whose style Bruce is imitating. Play along with the PT Piano Puzzler on this episode of Performance Today.

The city of Olinda, Brazil, is famous for massive papier-mâché puppets during the annual Carnival parades. Those “bonecos,” as they're called, can be 20 feet tall. Composer Clarice Assad wrote a piece inspired by Carnival and those big puppets. Join us today to hear “Bonecos de Olinda” by Clarice Assad.

Gloria Chien and Anthony McGill are both as busy as can be; Chien runs three festivals, and McGill is the principal clarinet in the New York Philharmonic. But they still make time to play as a duet. On today’s show, Gloria Chien and Anthony McGill play from the Grand Duo Concertant by Carl Maria von Weber.