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.
Saul Bitran of Cuarteto Latinoamericano says he loves practicing his violin. He says, "(it's) like filing taxes for accountants or cleaning teeth for a dentist, except my daily practice is fun." Hear Saul Bitran and his brothers play a string quartet by Alberto Ginastera on today's show.
Join us today for the world premiere performance of a concerto that composer Michael Abels wrote for Slovenian guitarist Mak Grgic. We'll hear the story behind the piece and how it became an emotional collaboration inspired by the idea of finding beauty in troubled environments.
Flutists Allison Loggins-Hull and Nathalie Joachim lived in New York City for years before meeting each other. When they finally did get together, they realized they'd make a great musical team. Hear the adventurous flute duo Flutronix play music by Steve Reich on this episode of Performance Today.
In the early 1900s, English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was deeply inspired by a hymn written four centuries earlier. Join us today to hear a Buffalo Philharmonic performance of Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.
Astor Piazzolla's music defies category. It's inspired by the tango dance music he grew up with, but he added classical and jazz elements and gave his band members room to add their own ideas and improvisations. On today's show, we'll hear a recording of "Concierto Para Quinteto," from what Piazzolla said was the greatest album of his life.
Flutists Allison Loggins-Hull and Nathalie Joachim lived in New York City for years before meeting each other. When they finally did get together, they realized they'd make a great musical team. Hear the adventurous flute duo Flutronix play music by Steve Reich on this episode of Performance Today.
Ethiopian-Hungarian violinist Samuel Nebyu recently played at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland…and his entire concert was music by composers of African descent. Join us today for highlights from that concert in Lucerne, Switzerland.
At age seventeen, composer Kayhan Kalhor left his home in Iran, fled for safety, and walked over two thousand five hundred miles to Italy alone, with just a small backpack and his beloved kamancheh (spiked fiddle). We'll hear music Kalhor wrote for Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble on today’s show.
It's 15 minutes of solemn music for solo violin, a set of variations with a few unexpected breaks in the pattern along the way. It may sound pretty straightforward, but when it's played well, it can be incredibly moving. Join us today to hear violinist Itamar Zorman play the Chaconne from J.S. Bach’s Partita in D Minor…on a violin that’s nearly as old as the music itself.
