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 APM Distribution.
When composer Jessie Montgomery inherited an eclectic record collection and one track caught her attention, a traditional lullaby from Angola. On this episode of Performance Today, hear an adaptation of that Angolan lullaby in Records from a Vanishing City, by Jessie Montgomery.
Fanny Mendelssohn wrote more than 500 pieces of music, and she also was a conductor. One musician recalled, "A gesture of her little finger ran like an electric shock through our souls." More about the multi-talented Fanny Mendelssohn this edition of Performance Today.
Robin Kesselman plays Principal Double Bass in the Houston Symphony, but Kesselman recently stood front and center to play a double bass concerto. Kesselman told the Houston Chronicle that moments like that "only happen a few times a career." On this episode of Performance Today, hear Robin Kesselman and the Houston Symphony perform the Concerto for Double Bass by Serge Koussevitzky.
Violist and Chef Toby Appel cooks an amazing meal with Fred Child during the 2018 Music From Angel Fire Music Festival.
Despite their tragic ending, Romeo and Juliet have become one of the most famous couples of all time. On this episode of Performance Today, we'll explore the music of love and devotion with selections from Romeo and Juliet, by Sergei Prokofiev.
Fanny Mendelssohn wrote more than 500 pieces of music, and she also was a conductor. One musician recalled, "A gesture of her little finger ran like an electric shock through our souls." More about the multi-talented Fanny Mendelssohn this edition of Performance Today.
Rachel Barton Pine is much more than a fine violinist. She has some concerns about the future of classical music in American society, and she's doing something about it. On this episode of Performance Today, Rachel Barton Pine joins us in the studio and tells us about the next big phase of her career.
Violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler wrote a concerto in 1927, but for about eight years, he claimed it had been written in the early 1700s, by Antonio Vivaldi. Why? On this episode of Performance Today, hear the story and the music: violinist Pekka Kuusisto leads the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in a live performance of Kreisler's Violin Concerto in C Major.
In 1908, Igor Stravinsky wrote a piece of music and proudly sent a copy to his mentor, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, but the package was returned unopened, with a shocking note attached. On this episode of Performance Today, hear the Los Angeles Philharmonic play the music that was returned to its sender: Fireworks, by Igor Stravinsky.
