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.
Composer Jessie Montgomery says she has tried to answer the question: "What does an anthem for the 21st century sound like in today's multicultural environment?" On today's show, hear Montgomery's answer, a rhapsody on the Star-Spangled Banner.
The Viano Quartet began as a randomly assigned group project at Indiana University's Colburn School of Music. They meshed so well that now, ten years later, they’re still going strong. On today's show, we'll take you to a recent concert at the Music@Menlo festival to hear the Viano Quartet play Anton Webern's Langsamer Satz.
For more than two billion people across many Asian cultures and the Asian diaspora, it's the start of the Lunar New Year, the year of the Fire Horse. Join us today for celebratory music from Sichuan province: He Zhanhao and Chen Gang's Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto.
French violist Antoine Tamestit plays a stunning instrument, believed to be the very first viola made by Antonio Stradivari in 1672. On today's show, Tamestit takes the stage with clarinetist Pierre Genisson for a performance of Max Bruch's Double Concerto for Clarinet and Viola at a recent concert in Verbier, Switzerland.
In Slavic folklore, the "witching hour" doesn't wait for darkness. Antonín Dvořák’s symphonic poem, The Noon Witch, brings the terrifying myth of Lady Midday to life. The story follows a mother who jokingly threatens her misbehaving child with a forest witch, only for the creature to appear in broad daylight and claim them both. Tune in today to hear Dvořák’s The Noon Witch. Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducts the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in a performance from Switzerland.
Join us today to hear Brian Raphael Nabors' orchestral work Upon Daybreak. Inspired by Maya Angelou's poem "A Brave and Startling Truth," Nabors explores the sound of a world free of hatred. ROCO performs this "ode of triumph" in concert on the campus of Rice University in Houston.
Wynton Marsalis believes the blues is more than a style—it is a way to process life's hardships and reach what he calls "a timeless higher ground." In 2015, Marsalis premiered a work that captures this journey, moving from the depths of sorrow to the vibrant, high-energy rhythms of Afro-Latin dance. In this episode, Cristian Macelaru leads the Minnesota Orchestra in a performance of Marsalis's Blues Symphony.
When Claude Debussy composed music for the ballet "Jeux," he envisioned a game of tennis between two women and a young man. In tennis, "love" means nothing; in Debussy's music, love is everything. In this episode, we'll hear romance and seduction on the courts from a recent concert in Budapest.
When you land on the homepage of pianist and composer Stephen Prutsman, you're greeted with a quote from Hans Christian Andersen: "Where words fail, music speaks." Tune in today to hear Prutsman and his music speak through his piece 'Dog' at a concert in Charleston, South Carolina.
