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As part of a continuing series, NPR's Performance Today brings together musicians from all over the world to explore the connections between folk traditions and classical music. Hear music from China, Scotland, Brazil and Iceland.
In the final part of a series on the connection between folk and classical music from around the world, Performance Today turns to the world of American jazz with the Turtle Island String Quartet, the music of Chris Brubeck and the Jacques Loussier Trio.
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Dancers twirl in a Carnaval parade in Rio de Jainero, Brazil.
Performance Today's series on folk and classical traditions around the world continues with two Russian performances in NPR's Studio 4A: the Trio Voronezh and celebrated baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky.
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As part of Performance Today's continuing series celebrating the folk roots of classical music, South African a cappella group Ladysmith Black Mambazo offers a performance in Studio 4A and the Kronos Quartet performs Kevin Volans' White Man Sleeps.
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Performance Today travels to the Nordic countries of Finland, Norway, Iceland and Sweden. Hear music from Icelandic composer Jón Leifs, Finnish band JPP, Hardanger fiddler Loretta Kelley and Swedish fiddler Andrea Hoag.
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The sounds of Brazil kick off the second week of Performance Today's popular ongoing series From the Village to the Concert Hall, an exploration of the connections between folk and classical traditions in music.
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Over 100 years ago, farming communities in middle Tennessee produced a folk instrument unique to the area. Similar to a dulcimer, the instrument, called a Tennessee music box, was much more clunky in appearance.
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Banjo player Bela Fleck, bassist Edgar Myer, and violinist Mark O'Connor weave traditional music influences into their compositions.
()As part of a continuing series on the cross currents between traditional music and classical music, Performance Today explores the music of Scotland with fiddler Alasdair Fraser, the ensemble Ferintosh and the Chris Norman Ensemble.
()All week long we've been sampling the similarities between traditional music and classical music. Today we wrap up our series with a look at American music. We begin with an ensemble called Hesperus, playing some early dances in NPR's Studio 4A.
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As part of a continuing series on the connection between folk music from around the world and western classical music, NPR's Fred Child talks about the Spanish national dance with Eva Encinias, director of the National Institute of Flamenco.
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Led by renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the Silk Road Ensemble is the musical face of Ma's Silk Road Project, an artistic, cultural and educational organization he founded in 1998 to "study the ebb and flow of ideas along" the ancient trade route.
()Acclaimed Spanish guitarist Pepe Romero represents one of several generations of guitarists in his family. He joins NPR's Fred Child in Studio 4A to perform the Suite Andaluza by his father, Celedonio Romero.
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During the last two decades, Chinese traditional music has begun to have a real impact on Western classical music. In the third of a five-part series, NPR's Fred Child explores the connections between folk traditions from around the world and the western tradition of art music.
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One of the great composers of the early 20th century, Béla Bartók was also one of the founders of the field of ethnomusicology. Hungarian musicologist Peter Laki joins NPR's Fred Child to explore the folk and classical elements in Bartok's music.
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