Performance Today®

Undine Smith Moore (1904 – 1989) was an American composer and music educator. Known as the "Dean of Black Women Composers," Moore was a prolific composer, creating works for orchestra, choir, chamber ensembles, and solo instruments. We'll hear the Mallarme Chamber Players play the Afro-American Suite by Undine Smith Moore on today's show.

When Stewart Goodyear was a child, he spent quite a few summers with his family in Trinidad, where he was immersed in the sounds of calypso. Now, as a grown-up pianist and composer, he's combined calypso with classical music. We'll hear that combination on today's show: Callaloo by Stewart Goodyear.

So, what is a Piano Puzzler, you might ask? Well, it's a familiar tune that Bruce Adolphe has re-written in the style of a classical composer. See if you can name the hidden tune and the composer whose style Bruce is imitating. Join us for this week’s Piano Puzzler on this episode of Performance Today.

There's romantic love, of course, but love means so much more than that...familial love, the loyalty of friends, the care for our communities, and even the love we can cultivate for ourselves. Join us today for music that can evoke all these feelings this Valentine’s Day and any other day of the year.

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

We'll introduce you to saxophonist Salvador Flores, one of our 2023 PT Young Artists in Residence, on today's show. Salvador joins Fred Child for music and conversation at our studio in St. Paul.

In the Roaring 20s, composer William Walton and poet Edith Sitwell created a playful work called 'Façade: An Entertainment.' And according to conductor JoAnn Falletta, the title says it all. She says, "It's not something to worry about. It's something to just be charmed by." Hear highlights from Façade on this weekend's episode of Performance Today.

Sergei Rachmaninoff was a young unknown when he met his hero, composer Peter Tchaikovsky, who died only a month later. The very night Rachmaninoff got the news, he began writing a piece in honor of Tchaikovsky. On today's show, we'll hear members of the Seattle Chamber Music Society play the Trio élégiaque No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Ethiopian-Hungarian violinist Samuel Nebyu played at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland…and his entire concert was music by composers of African descent. On today’s show, we’ll revisit that special concert to hear Nebyu play "Deep River” by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.