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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 

Hosted by Valerie Kahler, Performance Today® features live concert recordings that can’t be heard anywhere else, highlights from new album releases, and in-studio performances and interviews. Performance Today® is based at the APM studios in St. Paul, Minnesota, but is frequently on the road, with special programs broadcast from festivals and public radio stations around the country.

Shows

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Valerie Kahler

Kathryn Slusher is the senior producer of Performance Today, where she leads programming and production for the show. In her spare time, she enjoys the vibrant Twin Cities music and theater scene, and loves to read, hike and spend time with her family.


Senior Producer

Kathryn Slusher

As a Producer for Performance Today, Meghann chooses music to broadcast on the show, writes web articles and scripts, facilitates, conducts and edits interviews, creates video content and manages PT’s social media pages. She created Performance Today’s Black History Spotlight Series and the My Name is Series to highlight Black classical musicians. Meghann is also the producer for the PT Young Artist in Residence Series. In her free time, she is a mom, a part-time actress and fashion lover.

Meghann also created and hosted “Wondrous Strange”, a national radio program about uncommon musical instruments, she is the official underwriting voice for ‘The New York Times’ The Daily, and she can occasionally be heard guest-hosting Performance Today.


Producer

Meghann Oglesby

As an Associate Producer for Performance Today, Kathleen Bradbury writes scripts and assists with external communications. In her spare time, she likes to read fiction, lift heavy weights at the gym, and frolic about in nature. But above all else, Kathleen loves to sing Broadway showtunes--much to the delight of her wife, her infant son, and her rescue dog.


Kathleen Bradbury

Jon Gohman is an associate producer for Performance Today. He is responsible for various behind-the-scenes functions, including liaising with artists and creating materials for national distribution. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, playing the guitar, and thinking about Langrange points.


Associate Producer

Jon Gohman

Craig Thorson is the Technical Director for Performance Today. In addition to mastering the live music recordings that are programmed for each daily program, he records guest performances and interviews. Craig enjoys skiing, tennis, and bicycling, and boating.


Technical Director

Craig Thorson

Jeanne Barron is the technical producer of Performance Today.


Technical Producer

YourClassical MPR

Jeanne Barron

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. 


Dani Werner

Cellist Evan Kahn is Performance Today's Young Artist in Residence. On Friday's Performance Today, Evan joins Fred Child in the studio for conversation and music by Tchaikovsky, Martinu, George Kahn (Evan's father!), and more.


Cellist Evan Kahn and pianist Nicholas Dold

Performance Today®

Nate Ryan / APM

Evan Kahn

Young Artist in Residence - Evan Kahn - Part 1

Young Artist in Residence - Evan Kahn - Part 2

Young Artist in Residence - Evan Kahn - Part 3

Cellist Evan Kahn is Performance Today's Young Artist in Residence. Evan joins Fred Child in the studio for conversation and music by Tchaikovsky, Martinu, George Kahn (Evan's father!), and more.


Young Artist in Residence: Evan Kahn

Freds Favorites

Pelleas and Melisande is a story about a love triangle that can't end well, and doesn't end well... but the story is irresistable for composers. We'll hear Gabriel Faure's take on the story; his suite from Pelleas and Melisande, on Thursday's Performance Today.


wikimedia commons

Faure's take on Pelleas and Melisande

Nathalie Joachim is at the vanguard of a new approach to the classical tradition. She combines a wide range of musical styles and sounds - classical, soul, hip-hop... really, anything goes. On Wednesday's Performance Today, join us for music and conversation with flutist and composer Nathalie Joachim.


Courtesy of artist

Nathalie Joachim

Since 2000, Fred Child has been the host of Performance Today, the most-listened-to classical music radio show in America. He also is the commentator and announcer for Live From Lincoln Center, the only live performing arts series on television. He also hosts musical events on stages around the country, working with major orchestras and festivals, and connecting with audiences coast to coast.


Host

Fred Child

Le Pont Mirabeau: New music by Wang Jie, composed during PT's 2018 musical tour of Paris and Normandy.


Composer Wang Jie and cellist Timotheos Petrin deep in musical conversation

Notes from Wang Jie's composition of Le Pont Mirabeau 

Fred Child, Wang Jie, and Timotheos Petrin 

Wang Jie: Le Pont Mirabeau

Le Pont Mirabeau: new music by Wang Jie

Alan Hovhaness read Dante's Divine Comedy, including the line: "O human race, born to fly upward..." Those words sparked a lifetime of musical ideas, inspired by the idea of space travel. On Tuesday's Performance Today, hear "Star Dawn" by Alan Hovhaness, performed by the United States Marine Band.


Alan Hovhaness in a London recording session c. 1971

Photographer: John Goldsmith

Alan Hovhaness

Antonin Dvorak wrote his marvelous Bagatelles as a gift for a dear friend. He never meant them for public performance. Lucky for us, they escaped to the wider world.  We'll hear Dvorak's Bagatelles from a concert in Seattle. Plus, concert highlights from the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on the next Performance Today, from APM.


Amy Hyatt/APM

Dvorak's Bagatelles

Serge Koussevitzky was famous as a 20th century conductor, but he was also a composer... and a virtuoso on the double bass. On this this weekend's Performance Today, hear Koussevitzky's double bass Concerto, with Robin Kesselman on double bass, in concert with the Houston Symphony.


[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Koussevitzky's double bass concerto

Leonard Slatkin says conducting gives him a sense of great power and, at the same time, a feeling of helplessness. On Friday's Performance Today, Slatkin talks to us about the curious art of conducting. Plus, we'll hear him lead a performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4, from a concert in Warsaw, Poland.
