Brilliant 9-Year-Old Pianist & More with Orli Shaham / Show 476

Alexander Zhou, 9, performs “Sparks” and speaks with co-host/creative Orli Shaham.

About

Sparks fly when 9-year-old pianist Alexander Zhou takes the keys. Co-host/Creative Orli Shaham is in New York with today’s young performers. We’ll also meet a trumpeter who plays Gershwin, a 17-year-old violinist performing Beethoven, a violist performing Rebecca Clarke’s beautiful viola Sonata. Plus Orli sits down at the piano with a teenage pianist for a four-hands Mozart Sonata.

Pianist Orli Shaham has a new album of chamber music, “American Tapestry,” that she recorded with members of the Pacific Symphony in Southern California. It’s a diverse collection of American chamber music, including a sextet by Avner Dorman commissioned by Pacific Symphony, a solo piano piece by Sarah Kirkland Snider, and music by Margaret Brouwer, Jessie Montgomery, Viet Cuong, Reena Esmail, Peter Dayton, and Ari Barack Fisher.

Listen to “American Tapestry” on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming platforms.

Guests

• Co-Host/Creative: Orli Shaham
  

Performers & Repertoire

• Violinist Amie Shen, 17, from Englewood, New Jersey

  Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major, Op. 24 "Spring": I. Allegro by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
• Pianist Polina Strela, 17, from New York, New York

  Sonata for Piano Four-Hands in C major, K.521: I. Allegro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
• Trumpeter Khalid Abdallah, 17, from Flushing, New York

  Someone to Watch Over Me by George Gershwin (1898-1937), arr. Joseph Turrin (b. 1947)
• Pianist Alexander Zhou, 9, from New York, New York

  Étincelles, Op. 36 No. 6 "Sparks" by Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925)
• Violist Yoonsa Lee, 18, from Amherst, Massachusetts

  Excerpts from Sonata for Viola and Piano - I. Impetuoso by Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979)

Release Date

• Monday, March 2, 2026

Release date is when this show is released to NPR stations, here on our website, and to our podcast. Shows are released on a weekly basis; please check your local NPR station listing for the actual airtime in your market. If you'd like, you can visit NPR's "Find Stations" page to look for your station.

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