Poster Fred Child
Fred Child
MPR

Performance Today®

with host Fred Child

All Episodes

Billy Child's response to Ravel's Scarbo

Billy Child's response to Ravel's Scarbo

Pianist Inna Faliks recently asked a few composers to write responses to the music she loves. Joins us today to hear Faliks play the piece composer Billy Childs wrote in response to the technically demanding Scarbo from Maurice Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit.

Conductor Ruth Reinhardt

Conductor Ruth Reinhardt

Ruth Reinhardt is a powerhouse among up-and-coming conductors. This season, she's making her first appearance with fifteen different orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Nashville Symphony, and the Warsaw Philharmonic, to name a few. On today's show, Ruth Reinhardt leads the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic in a performance of Samuel Coleridge Taylor's Ballade for Orchestra.

PT Weekend: Jeannette Sorrell and Apollo's Fire

PT Weekend: Jeannette Sorrell and Apollo's Fire

Jeannette Sorrell founded the early music group Apollo's Fire back in 1992. Thirty-one years and counting, that fire is still burning hot. We'll hear Apollo's Fire at a concert in Cleveland. Plus, Bruce Adolphe has this week's Piano Puzzler.

Andrew Norman: Suspend

Andrew Norman: Suspend

In 2014, Andrew Norman composed a piece based on an exploration of two of Johannes Brahms's melodic motifs. The Los Angeles Philharmonic commissioned the work as part of a project that invited young composers to write companion pieces for some of Brahms's best-known pieces. Join us today to hear Suspend by Andrew Norman.

Shostakovich's Piano Quintet

Shostakovich's Piano Quintet

In 1940, Dmitri Shostakovich wrote a piece that fulfilled a wish for his friends as well as a wish of his own, and the result was a huge success. Join us to hear the story and the music: the Piano Quintet by Dmitri Shostakovich.

Apollo's Fire

Apollo's Fire

Jeannette Sorrell founded the early music group Apollo's Fire back in 1992. Thirty-one years and counting, that fire is still burning hot. We'll hear Apollo's Fire at a concert in Cleveland on this episode of Performance Today.

La Jota Aragonesa

La Jota Aragonesa

The jota is a rhythmic Spanish dance that often features the clacking sound of castanets. Today we’ll hear a jota by José White Lafitte (1836-1919), with violinist Samuel Nebyu playing the tune and percussion at the same time.

Trio Ad Libitum

Trio Ad Libitum

All of us at PT are proud because two of our former PT Young Artists are part of a new powerhouse trio. On today's show, we'll hear a concert from Chicago with the new Trio Ad Libitum: Tim Petrin, Jordan Bak, and the equally talented Elizabeth Fayette.

PT Weekend: Lara Downes

PT Weekend: Lara Downes

Pianist and cultural activist Lara Downes co-hosts an hour with Fred Child to kick off Women's History Month. They'll explore Downes's recent performances from Detroit and Brevard and take an exclusive sneak peek at her upcoming release on the Pentatone label.