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.
Nicola Benedetti is a classical violinist but she grew up in Scotland, hearing traditional fiddle tunes. Trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis grew up with jazz and blues in New Orleans. Marsalis recently composed a piece for Benedetti that weaves all of those threads together. On today's show, hear Nicola Benedetti play The Fiddle Dance Suite for Solo Violin, by Wynton Marsalis.
When Anyango Yarbo-Davenport turned two years old, she asked her parents if she could get her own...orchestra. Anyango's mom said she didn't think she could make enough food for an entire orchestra. Still, the gift she received instead made a profound impact. On today's show, violinist Anyango Yarbo-Davenport plays from 'Carolinian Dances' by Robert Aldridge.
Hildegard von Bingen lived 900 years ago. She had inspiring visions, she was an essayist, an herbalist, a politician, a philosopher...and a composer. On today's show, we'll hear a performance of Hildegard von Bingen's "Three Antiphons", from a concert in Seattle.
Gioacchino Rossini wrote an unusual string duet in 1824, which was played ONCE...and then disappeared for a century and a half. It's a duet for cello and double bass, and it's now back in circulation. On today's show, hear Joel Dallow and Karl Fenner of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra play Rossini's unusual duet.
The Shanghai Chinese Orchestra is an orchestra that combines Western cellos and basses with traditional Chinese instruments. On Today's show, hear the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra perform a beautiful concerto by Chinese composer Han Wenhe, from a recent concert in Shanghai.
When composer Joan Tower was a young girl, her father was a mining engineer. The family moved from New York to Bolivia for his work. On this episode of Performance Today, find out how young Joan spent her time while her father was in the mines, then we'll hear her piece called Copperwave.
Gioacchino Rossini wrote an unusual string duet in 1824, which was played ONCE...and then disappeared for a century and a half. It's a duet for cello and double bass, and it's now back in circulation. On today's show, hear Joel Dallow and Karl Fenner of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra play Rossini's unusual duet.
Composer Marc Mellits was inspired by trees when he wrote a piece called Splinters. Each movement, each "splinter" as he calls it, is based on a different kind of tree. On Today's show, we'll hear from Mellits's musical forest, played by the Akropolis Reed Quintet at a concert in San Antonio, Texas.
At the age of 27, Franz Schubert was facing his own mortality. He took a haunting song that he had written seven years earlier and wrote a set of variations for string quartet. On today's show, hear the Ariel Quartet play Schubert's String Quartet No. 14, better known by its nickname: Death and the Maiden.
