Poster Fred Child
Fred Child
MPR

Performance Today®

with host Fred Child

All Episodes

The flying fingers of TianYang Liu

The flying fingers of TianYang Liu

Our current Young Artist in Residence is double bass virtuoso TianYang Liu. On Thursday's Performance Today he'll play his own arrangement of a violin showpiece: Pablo de Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen. It's hard enough to play on the violin, but it's practically impossible on double bass. Liu and his flying fingers, however, are more than up to the challenge!

Sharleen Joynt: Flirting with love onstage and on TV

Sharleen Joynt: Flirting with love onstage and on TV

Soprano Sharleen Joynt talks about covering a role at the Metropolitan Opera, her appearance on the TV show The Bachelor, and how a career in opera begs difficult questions about what is important in life.

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The lyrical voice of the double bass

The lyrical voice of the double bass

Coming up on Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll explore the lyrical voice of the double bass with our new Young Artist in Residence: virtuoso double bassist TianYang Liu.

A beloved concerto

A beloved concerto

When pianist Jonathan Biss was a child, he adored Mozart's 22nd concerto. He even listened to a favorite recording of the concerto so many times that he wore out the tape! Coming up on Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear Biss play music he adores.

A musical sunrise

A musical sunrise

There are a few graceful, bursting sunrises in music. One by Richard Strauss, which became the iconic soundtrack for the film "2001: A Space Odyssey." And there's one in the ballet "Daphnis and Chloe" by Maurice Ravel. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear a new musical sunrise by American composer John Mackey: "Aurora Awakes."

Variations on a theme by...whom?

Variations on a theme by...whom?

We'll go to a concert in Munich to hear the Bavarian Radio Symphony play Johannes Brahms' "Variations on a Theme by Haydn." Except...the theme is not really by Haydn. The story and the music on this weekend's Performance Today.

Mark Anthony Turnage's 'Frieze'

Mark Anthony Turnage's 'Frieze'

When the New York Philharmonic asked composer Mark Anthony Turnage to write a musical response to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, he was scared stiff. But the music that Turnage came up with is anything but stiff; it's sly, witty, daring. We'll hear Turnage's piece, Frieze, on Friday's Performance Today.

Gustav Klimt's Beethoven Frieze
Also Sprach Zarathustra

Also Sprach Zarathustra

The opening of Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" is incredibly memorable. You can sing along with every bit of it: the trumpet, the timpani, the big dramatic chords. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear the entirety of Strauss' most spine-chilling composition.

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