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American Public Media’s Performance Today® is America’s most popular classical music radio program and a winner of the 2014 Gabriel Award for artistic achievement. The show is broadcast on hundreds of public radio stations across the country, including at 1 p.m. central weekdays on Minnesota Public Radio. More information about our stations can be found at 

Performance Today® features live concert recordings that can’t be heard anywhere else, highlights from new album releases, and in-studio performances and interviews. Performance Today® is based at the APM studios in St. Paul, Minnesota, but is frequently on the road, with special programs broadcast from festivals and public radio stations around the country. Also, each Wednesday, composer Bruce Adolphe joins host Fred Child for a classical musical game and listener favorite: the Piano Puzzler.

Shows

Since 2000, Fred Child has been the host of Performance Today, the most-listened-to classical music radio show in America. He also is the commentator and announcer for Live From Lincoln Center, the only live performing arts series on television. He also hosts musical events on stages around the country, working with major orchestras and festivals, and connecting with audiences coast to coast.


Host

Fred Child

Kathryn Slusher is the senior producer of Performance Today, where she leads programming and production for the show. In her spare time, she enjoys the vibrant Twin Cities music and theater scene, and loves to read, hike and spend time with her family.


Senior Producer

Kathryn Slusher

As a Producer for Performance Today, Meghann chooses music to broadcast on the show, writes web articles and scripts, facilitates, conducts and edits interviews, creates video content and manages PT’s social media pages. She created Performance Today’s Black History Spotlight Series and the My Name is Series to highlight Black classical musicians. Meghann is also the producer for the PT Young Artist in Residence Series. In her free time, she is a mom, a part-time actress and fashion lover.

Meghann also created and hosted “Wondrous Strange”, a national radio program about uncommon musical instruments, she is the official underwriting voice for ‘The New York Times’ The Daily, and she can occasionally be heard guest-hosting Performance Today.


Producer

Meghann Oglesby

As an Associate Producer for Performance Today, Kathleen Bradbury writes scripts and assists with external communications. In her spare time, she likes to read fiction, lift heavy weights at the gym, and frolic about in nature. But above all else, Kathleen loves to sing Broadway showtunes--much to the delight of her wife, her infant son, and her rescue dog.


Kathleen Bradbury

Jon Gohman is an associate producer for Performance Today. He is responsible for various behind-the-scenes functions, including liaising with artists and creating materials for national distribution. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, playing the guitar, and thinking about Langrange points.


Associate Producer

Jon Gohman

Craig Thorson is the Technical Director for Performance Today. In addition to mastering the live music recordings that are programmed for each daily program, he records guest performances and interviews. Craig enjoys skiing, tennis, and bicycling, and boating.


Technical Director

Craig Thorson

Jeanne Barron is the technical producer of Performance Today.


Technical Producer

YourClassical MPR

Jeanne Barron

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Performance Today

Quartet San Francisco is dedicated to advancing the traditional string quartet structure into a new world of vibrant music. On this episode of Performance Today, Quartet San Francisco stop by for music and conversation at PT's very own Maude Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio.


Performance Today®

Hasain Rasheed

A string quartet that pushes the boundaries

Everybody can recognize the tune of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, but even the lesser-known sections of the ballet are great. On this episode of Performance Today, we'll explore the Nutcracker "B-sides", with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic.


Teri Virbickis via Shutterstock

Nutcracker B-sides

A fortepiano sounds...kind of honky-tonk, but honestly, they sounds more like the pianos that Mozart would have played in his day.  On this edition of Performance Today, Richard Egarr plays a fortepiano alongside the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12.


Pianoforte by Johann Andreas Stein (Augsburg, 1775)

Photo by Gerard Janot, via Wikimedia Commons

Sound of the pianoforte

Stephen Hough is a poet, novelist, essayist, painter, and composer, but he's best known for playing the piano. On Thursday's Performance Today, hear Stephen Hough play Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff, from a concert with the Aspen Festival Orchestra.


The Guardian

Stephen Hough plays Rachmaninoff

On Wednesday's Performance Today, we celebrate Venezuelan Christmas traditions. Pianist Gabriela Montero and flutist Marco Granados share Venezuelan carols, dances, and their own Christmas memories.


Courtesy of the artist

Venezuelan Christmas traditions

Some pieces of music just don't get played as often. Conductor Carlos Kalmar calls them "step-children." On this edition of Performance Today, we'll hear from a "step-child" by Gustav Mahler, his Symphony No. 7, from a concert by the Oregon Symphony.


Conductor Carlos Kalmar with the Oregon Symphony

NashCO Photo, courtesy of the Oregon Symphony

Mahler: Symphony No. 7

Young Artist in Residence - Rodolfo Leone

Pianist Rodolfo Leone is Performance Today's current Young Artist in Residence. Rodolfo joins Fred Child in the studio for conversation and music, and you can hear it all here!


PT Originals: Rodolfo Leone at Vieux Carré

Photo Credit: Andrej Grilc

Young Artist in Residence: Rodolfo Leone

In 1829, composer Felix Mendelssohn went on a walking tour of Scotland. He sent a musical sketch in a letter back to his family, and those notes turned out to be the beginnings of his "Scottish Symphony." On this edition of Performance Today, join us for a Nashville Symphony performance of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3.


South over the Quiraing, Isle of Skye, Scotland

c User:Colinn/nWikimedia Commons

Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony

Not many orchestras even try to play the Variaciones Concertantes by Alberto Ginastera. It's not because musicians or audiences don't like the music. They do. It's just really hard to play well. On this episode of Performance Today, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra gives a thrilling performance of this challenging piece from a concert in Charleston, South Carolina.
