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.
The Hawai'i Symphony Orchestra asked Byron Yasui to write a concerto for ukulele. He wasn't quite sure that he could balance the quiet ukulele with the power of an orchestra, but he accepted the challenge. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear the world premiere of Yasui's concerto in Honolulu.
Ferruccio Busoni's Piano Concerto is a massive, ambitious piece of music for full orchestra, 48 male singers, and a really, really good pianist. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear it from a concert last month in Warsaw, featuring Garrick Ohlsson and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.
Every week composer Bruce Adolphe joins us for a musical game; our Piano Puzzler. Bruce re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a great composer, and we get one of our listeners on the phone who tries to guess the hidden tune and the composer whose style Bruce is imitating. Play along with the Piano Puzzler, on Wednesday's Performance Today.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski was a dashing, virtuosic pianist around the turn of the 20th century. And later, he was the Prime Minister of Poland. On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear his Piano Concerto No. 1 from a concert in his hometown of Warsaw.
Beethoven could barely hear when he conducted the premiere of his Symphony No. 8 in 1814. So, the orchestra ignored him and followed the first violinist. Conductor Jane Glover and the Aspen Chamber Orchestra had no such problems. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear their elegant performance of Beethoven's Eight.
On this weekend's Performance Today, composer Bruce Adolphe joins us for this week's Piano Puzzler. Plus, we'll head to New York for a double header: new music written and narrated by Anna Clyne, and the New York Philharmonic in concert at Lincoln Center.
On Friday's Performance Today, we're featuring musicians who are recovering from illness and injuries this year: a pianist whose hand was hurt in a seagull attack. A cellist rehabilitating his shoulder after a motorbike accident. And an astonishing 91-year-old pianist, getting back on stage after major surgery.
Trick or treat! Join Fred in the haunted PT studio for a spooky story in celebration of Halloween.
Two years ago, the Emerson Quartet had its first personnel change in 35 years: cellist Paul Watkins joined the group. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear the power and precision of the new line-up of the Emerson Quartet, as they play music by Franz Schubert in concert at the Aspen Festival.
