Poster Fred Child
Fred Child
MPR

Performance Today®

with host Fred Child

All Episodes

A couple of breaks in the tour

A couple of breaks in the tour

It's a musician's nightmare: arriving for a concert only to find a prize instrument... broken. Guitarist Matthew Greif had it happen twice in one tour! On Tuesday's Performance Today, the story of back-to-back broken guitars, and we'll hear the LA Guitar Quartet from a concert in New York City.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Join us on New Year's Day for concert highlights that you can't hear anywhere else. On Monday's Performance Today, we head to Houston to hear Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, then drop in on a touching performance by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra at the 92nd Street Y in New York City.

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. 5 at a time when when honest words could be mortally dangerous. On this weekend's Performance Today, learn more about Shostakovich's fifth symphony, then hear it performed by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, from a concert in Birmingham, England.

Trolls, goblins, gnomes... and the blues

Trolls, goblins, gnomes... and the blues

Trolls, goblins, and gnomes. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll join them all in the Hall of the Mountain King, when we hear Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite performed at the Artosphere Festival. Then, we'll head to New York to hear two special pieces: one old, one new...but both blue.

Copland and the American West

Copland and the American West

Aaron Copland was from Brooklyn. He was a city slicker who, to a certain degree, created what we think of as the sound of the old American West. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear selections from his cowboy ballet "Billy the Kid."

Born in St. Petersburg

Born in St. Petersburg

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. 5 at a time when when honest words could be mortally dangerous. The symphony helped people in the USSR feel and experience what they were not allowed to say. On Wednesday's Performance Today, learn more about Shostakovich's fifth symphony, then hear it performed by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, from a concert in Birmingham, England.

Piano for 10 hands

Piano for 10 hands

The 5 Browns have a goal of introducing classical music to a wider, more diverse audience. They perform in various combinations, from duos to complex five-piano arrangements. On Tuesday's Performance Today, hear The 5 Browns perform an arrangement of The Planets by Gustav Holst, from a concert in Athens, Georgia.

Wishing you a merry Christmas

Wishing you a merry Christmas

Join us at Performance Today for a Christmas celebration! We're playing some of the best holiday music on Christmas Day, from an 18th century Christmas Concerto to favorite carols you'll want to sing along with. Christmas music, old and new, on Monday's Performance Today.

Venezuelan Christmas traditions

Venezuelan Christmas traditions

On this weekend's Performance Today, we celebrate Venezuelan Christmas traditions. Pianist Gabriela Montero and flutist Marco Granados share Venezuelan carols, dances, and their own Christmas memories.