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.
Jean Sibelius wrote his second symphony in 1902, when Finland was struggling for its independence from Russia. The symphony came to be known as Finland's 'Symphony of Independence'. Sibelius never call it that... he simply called it Symphony No. 2. Osmo Vanska conducts Sibelius's Symphony No. 2, in concert, on Thursday's Performance Today.
Tippet Rise is an art center located on a working ranch near Fishtail, Montana, about a 2-3 hour drive from Yellowstone National Park. The center incorporates musical performance venues along with large-scale art installations. It's a peaceful and inspiring destination. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll hear pianist George Li in a concert at the Olivier Music Barn at Tippet Rise.
Drew Petersen is the 2017 winner of the American Pianists Award, as well as a recipient of the prestigious Kovner Fellowship. He is currently pursuing a master's degree at the Juilliard conservatory in New York. On Tuesday's Performance Today, Drew Petersen joins host Fred Child for music and conversation from the APM studios in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Gustav Mahler got over a bad breakup by writing his Symphony No. 1. He confided to a friend: "The music begins where the love affair ends." Mahler's First, from a concert by the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, on Monday's Performance Today.
Pianist Saleem Ashkar says he never heard classical music growing up in Israel. Then, when he was six years old, Saleem's father traded a car for a piano... and Saleem found his calling. On Saturday's Performance Today, Saleem Ashkar plays Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Luxembourg Philharmonic.
Pianist Saleem Ashkar says he never heard classical music growing up in Israel. Then, when he was six years old, Saleem's father traded a car for a piano... and Saleem found his calling. On Friday's Performance Today, Saleem Ashkar plays Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Luxembourg Philharmonic.
In 1904, French composer Florent Schmitt turned a poem by Edgar Allan Poe into an eerie, unsettling orchestral work. On Thursday's Performance Today, conductor JoAnn Falletta leads the Buffalo Philharmonic in a concert performance of "The Haunted Palace" by Florent Schmitt.
In 1874, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov traveled to the northern coast of the Black Sea. The trip left a lasting impression on the composer; he was intoxicated by the Arabic and Turkish music he heard on the streets and in coffee houses. Hear these exotic impressions in a concert performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, on Wednesday's Performance Today.
It's emotional music inspired by both the rich history and war-torn present of Aleppo, Syria. On Tuesday's Performance Today, the Apollo Chamber players perform "Aleppo" by Syrian-American composer Malek Jandali.
