Welsh conductor Grant Llewellyn has been the music director of the North Carolina Symphony since 2004, but his music history can be traced all the way back to his childhood. His cockney grandmother used to sit at the decrepit piano in the family’s living room in Wales. There she would play badly from her limited repertoire of waltzes. Grant’s musical abilities were more auspicious. He trained from an early age in the piano and the cello, but in his late teenage years, he became fascinated with another aspect of music: conducting. Since embarking on that path, his work has spanned the globe.

Wake County School officials are holding information sessions for parents starting today. The five events are designed to help families navigate a school choice plan that will take effect next year.

The five information sessions will take place in churches, preschools, and town halls in an attempt to reach out to populations that may not be easily reached otherwise. One of the sessions will be held in Spanish.

Fans of sustainable farming are meeting in Durham this weekend. The 26th Annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference seeks to address the growing demand for local and organic food. Fred Broadwell is with the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. He says one hot trend is permaculture. It uses observations of nature to design self-sufficient ecosystems.

Katherine Whalen has been a force on the local music scene for 20 years, from her time with The Squirrel Nut Zippers to her current band The Fascinators. But her new CD, "Madly Love" is her first truly solo venture. She is artistically in command of the entire process from songwriting to recording. Katherine Whalen joins host Frank Stasio today to sample her new CD.

Writer Steve Almond is celebrated for his dark humor and imaginative prose. He chose to publish his latest collection of short stories, "God Bless America"(Lookout Books/2011) with Lookout, the new press at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. The book features an array of discontented Americans coming to terms with their pasts and futures in a country unsure of its present. He's touring the state in support of his short story collection and Lookout. He stops by our studios to visit with host Frank Stasio today.

As the nation honors its war veterans today, host Frank Stasio talks with two men who fought in Vietnam about returning from war. Stephen Miles is a veteran, and playwright and poet who lives in Fayetteville. The town, adjacent to Fort Bragg, is hosting an extended series of events this month called Heroes Homecoming, aimed at paying tribute to Vietnam veterans. Miles' work was staged at Fayetteville's Gilbert Theater as part of that celebration. Carmen Russioniello is an associate professor who directs East Carolina University's Psychophysiology Lab and Biofeedback Clinic. He studies ways to help today's veterans deal with post traumatic stress disorder and re-entry.

Communities all over North Carolina will gather today to honor the country's military veterans. Raleigh will play host to an Air Force band performance as well as the annual Veterans Day parade. In Johnston County, high school students are producing a video presentation for local veterans. District spokeswoman Terri Sessoms says ROTC students will also perform an armed exhibition drill.

Officials say a livestock building at the State Fair is the likely source of an E-coli outbreak that made 27 fairgoers sick.

State officials say their investigation doesn't point to any specific animal or breed of animal. But they're confident the bacteria came from the Kelley building at the fairgrounds, where cows, goats and sheep were housed. Megan Davies is the state epidemiologist.

Megan Davies: "It is shed intermittently by these animals naturally, so it's likely to be on an animal or in their environment at any given moment. "

Yiddish has been called a dying language, but the number of Yiddish speakers is actually on the rise. Just over a thousand years old, Yiddish developed among Jews who had come to Germany from other parts of Europe. Over time it has found its way to every corner of the globe.

The roots of today’s global economy can be traced all the way back to Peru in 1569. That’s when a new Spanish viceroy arrived in pursuit of silver that would be used to fund the empire of Spain. Spain’s riches would filter throughout China and Europe, eventually helping fund England’s industrial revolution. But that silver was not easy to get. A popular method of refining the precious metal relied on mercury – with toxic consequences. Host Frank Stasio talks about the history of silver mining with Nicholas Robins, a lecturer in the Department of History at North Carolina State University and author of the book “Mercury, Mining, and Empire: The Human and Ecological Cost of Colonial Silver Mining in the Andes" (Indiana University Press/2011).