Poster Fred Child
Fred Child
MPR

Performance Today®

with host Fred Child

All Episodes

Weilerstein and Bell

Weilerstein and Bell

He's still in his 20s, but conductor Joshua Weilerstein is already making a tremendous impression on orchestras and audiences around the world. On this weekend's Performance Today, Joshua Weilerstein leads the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Saint-Saens' Violin Concerto No. 3, featuring Joshua Bell.

Joshua Weilerstein

Joshua Weilerstein

He's still in his 20s, but conductor Joshua Weilerstein is already making a tremendous impression on orchestras and audiences around the world. On Friday's Performance Today, Joshua Weilerstein leads the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Saint-Saens' Violin Concerto No. 3, featuring Joshua Bell.

Gabriela Montero

Gabriela Montero

Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero has been playing the Piano Concerto by Edvard Grieg since she was 11 years old... her original copy of the music is decorated with the Hello Kitty stickers. Montero is now 46, and she just recently bought a new copy of the music. On Thursday's Performance Today, the ever-youthful Gabriela Montero performs Grieg's Piano Concerto with the Houston Symphony, Andres Orozco-Estrada conducting.

Music is Music: Music in Space

Music is Music: Music in Space

London-based composer Arthur Jeffes joins Ria Misra, host of the second season of our Music is Music podcast, to kick things off with a two-part episode on music in space.

13:14
Verdi's string quartet

Verdi's string quartet

In the spring of 1873, Giuseppe Verdi went to Naples to oversee a production of his opera, Aida. Rehearsals were postponed when the star soprano got sick. Verdi had some free time, so he wrote a string quartet, and it has stood the test of time. On Wednesday's Performance Today, hear Orion String Quartet play Verdi's Quartet in E minor, from a concert in Athens, Georgia.

Beethoven's gratitude

Beethoven's gratitude

In 1825, Ludwig van Beethoven got terribly sick. For a month, all he could do was lie miserably in bed. He began to think that he may not survive the illness. Beethoven recovered, and, so grateful for the gift of life, he expressed his gratitude in music. Hear the Pacifica Quartet play Beethoven's heartfelt "thank-you", his String Quartet No. 15, on Tuesday's Performance Today.

Pianist Drew Petersen

Pianist Drew Petersen

Drew Petersen is the 2017 winner of the American Pianists Award. He is currently pursuing his Masters in Music degree at Juilliard with Robert McDonald, and is a recipient of the prestigious Kovner Fellowship. On Monday's Performance Today, Petersen joins host Fred Child for music and conversation in the Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio in St. Paul, MN.

In studio with pianist Drew Petersen

In studio with pianist Drew Petersen

Drew Petersen, winner of the 2017 American Pianists Award, joins host Fred Child in the PT performance studio. He plays two fiendishly difficult pieces of music, and discusses his education and the musical process of constructing a fugue.

26:41
Vera Quartet

Vera Quartet

The Vera Quartet are currently Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, studying with the Pacifica Quartet. They're also our latest PT Young Artists in Residence. Get to know them on Saturday's Performance Today, and hear them perform Beethoven's String Quartet No. 9 at the Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio in St. Paul, MN.

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