Poster Fred Child
Fred Child
MPR

Performance Today®

with host Fred Child

All Episodes

Ivan Fischer on conducting

Ivan Fischer on conducting

Ivan Fischer believes that a conductor should never behave like a dictator; music-making should be a joyous activity. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra give a joyous performance of music by Dvorak.

Chopin reinvented

Chopin reinvented

When Chad Lawson began creating his modern interpretations of Frederic Chopin's music, he considered how some might respond to his rather audacious project. But he didn't let that stop him! On Thursday's Performance Today, Chad Lawson joins us with his gentle versions of piano works by Chopin.

In studio with Chad Lawson

In studio with Chad Lawson

Chad Lawson's latest release, The Chopin Variations, features Lawson's unique arrangements of music by Chopin, the poet of the piano.

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Theme and variations

Theme and variations

It's like a game for composers: take a simple tune, then come up with as many twists on that tune as possible. It's called theme and variations, and composers have been having fun with it for centuries. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll have fun with variations by Rachmaninoff, Bach, Bernstein, and Haydn.

Heimbach Power Plant

Heimbach Power Plant

Performance Today takes you to wherever great music is happening - even if it's happening in a hydro-electric power plant. On Tuesday's PT, we'll take you to the Heimbach Power Plant in Germany to hear a Mozart Divertimento. Plus, we'll go to Munich to hear Martin Spangenberg play Copland's Clarinet Concerto.

The legacy of Martin Luther King

The legacy of Martin Luther King

On Monday's Performance Today, we'll celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King with Joseph Schwantner's New Morning for the World, an orchestral piece that features a narrator reading words by Dr. King. Composer Joseph Schwantner will tell us how baseball star Willie Stargell became the first narrator of this now iconic piece.

Joseph Schwantner on honoring Dr. King

Joseph Schwantner on honoring Dr. King

On our Martin Luther King Day show, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Joseph Schwantner discusses New Morning For The World: 'Daybreak Of Freedom,' his tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Pianist Jonathan Biss

Pianist Jonathan Biss

Pianist Jonathan Biss loves playing for a concert audience. But playing by himself in a quiet, antiseptic studio while making a CD? Not so much. On this weekend's Performance Today, Jonathan Biss joins us to discuss the joys and travails of his 9-year Beethoven project.

Pianist Jonathan Biss

Pianist Jonathan Biss

Pianist Jonathan Biss loves playing for a concert audience. But playing by himself in a quiet, antiseptic studio while making a CD? Not so much. On Friday's Performance Today, Jonathan Biss joins us to discuss the joys and travails of his 9-year Beethoven project.

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