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.
As a teenager, Blake Pouliot did some fairly high-level acting... but he realized that performing as a violinist felt much more natural. On Friday's Performance Today, meet (and hear!) our next Young Artist in Residence, violinist Blake Pouliot.
Rebecca Clarke was an English composer and violist who grew up at a time when there weren't many opportunities for female composers and musicians. Happily, she lived long enough to see her work played and appreciated around the world. On Thursday's Performance Today, hear Rebecca Clarke's 'Morpheus', a piece that she debuted in 1918 under the pen name of... Anthony Trent.
In the early 1900s, Bela Bartok traveled the dusty back-roads of eastern Europe with a heavy Edison recording machine. He recorded thousands of folk songs that, in turn, inspired his own work. On Wednesday's Performance Today, the Romanian Dances by Bela Bartok, from a concert by the Sinfonietta of Riverdale, New York.
It's a showpiece for the tuba by composer John Williams... an actual concerto for tuba and orchestra. Alan Baer solos, in concert, with the New York Philharmonic, on the Tuesday's Performance Today.
The Olmos Ensemble wants to make classical music accessible for everyone. One way they're doing that is by letting audience members choose how much to pay for tickets. People pay what they can... some a little more, some a little less. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll drop in on a concert in San Antonio, Texas, and hear the Olmos Ensemble perform a quintet by Anton Reicha.
Benny Goodman had a keen interest in classical music. In 1947, he asked Aaron Copland for a new piece. Copland listened to all of Goodman's recordings and tried to write something that was a perfect fit. Copland's jazzy Clarinet Concerto, on Saturday's Performance Today.
In the early 1900s, English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was editing a collection of hymns when he came across an unpublished melody written in the mid 1500s, and he spun that old tune into a gorgeous new piece. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear it: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, by Ralph Vaughan Williams, from a concert at the Grand Teton Music Festival.
Serge Koussevitzky was famous as a 20th century conductor, but he was also a composer... and a virtuoso on the double bass. On Thursday's Performance Today, hear Koussevitzky's double bass Concerto, with Robin Kesselman on double bass, in concert with the Houston Symphony.
In 1895, Richard Strauss composed a musical fairy-tale... a 15-minute orchestral romp that celebrates a crass, anti-establishment prankster. On Wednesday's Performance Today, take a seat at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and hear the LA Philharmonic perform "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks" by Richard Strauss.
