Performance Today features recent concert performances by great classical artists from around the globe, as well as interviews, news and features. Listeners to Performance Today, on any given day, may hear from performances in the great concert halls of New York, Prague, London, Berlin and Paris. Hosted by Fred Child.
| Date | Service | |
| Monday at 1:00 pm | Classical MPR | Find a Station |
| Tuesday at 1:00 pm | Classical MPR | Find a Station |
| Wednesday at 1:00 pm | Classical MPR | Find a Station |
| Thursday at 1:00 pm | Classical MPR | Find a Station |
| Friday at 1:00 pm | Classical MPR | Find a Station |
Listen to violinist Joshua Bell, his mother Shirley and his son Josef read the children's book "Dance of the Violin." The book is inspired by a music competition that Bell participated in as a kid which started as a disaster, but ended as the best day ever.
Harpist Mallory McHenry is Performance Today's current Young Artist in Residence. Mallory recently joined Fred Child for conversation and music at our studio in Saint Paul. You can hear it all here!
When was the last time you listened to music without distractions or expectations? What about the last time you listened to your mind and body? Here's your chance to do both! Inspired by the Live Music Meditations at Princeton, we teamed up with Princeton University Concerts to make a mini-meditation you can do wherever you are. Take 15 minutes out of your day to try this guided meditation and experience a deeper form of listening.
We received over 120 nominations for our inaugural award celebrating the impact of women on classical music and music lovers. Read about the winner, the six finalists, and all of the nominees.
Cellist Julia Yang is Performance Today's current Young Artist in Residence. Julia recently joined Fred Child for conversation and music at our studio in Saint Paul. You can hear it all here!
Honor the women who have made a lasting impact on classical music or those who love music.
Trombonist Addison Maye-Saxon is Performance Today's current Young Artist in Residence. Addison recently joined Fred Child for conversation and music at our studio in Saint Paul. You can hear it all here!
Performance Today recently featured several poems inspired by the winter season. Here is more information about the poems that were featured.
Pianist Rodolfo Leone is Performance Today's current Young Artist in Residence. Rodolfo joins Fred Child in the studio for conversation and music, and you can hear it all here!
It's the holiday season and we've teamed up with @tattersalldistilling to create specialty cocktails inspired by classical music and musicians.
Rachel Barton Pine is so much more than a violin soloist. This October, she is seeing the start of the next phase of her enormous, 15-year project that adds to her brand publisher, researcher, advocate and educator.
We're celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month! We had the honor of speaking to Francisco Nunez, a choral conductor who won a 2011 MacArthur Genius Grant, to name one accolade, but his accomplishments are vast. Listen to this excerpt of their conversation in which Mr. Nunez tells us about what got him started, his musical idols, and role models.
Classical music is powerful, not just for what it is but what it does. It helps us feel better and live bigger. We want to hear from you. When did music make you feel better? Find out how you can share your story.
He led thrilling concerts. He traveled the world. He hobnobbed with brilliant thinkers and artists. Is there anything Leonard Bernstein missed out on in his rich life? His daughter Jamie Bernstein says yes. He would have loved the Internet, she says, but more importantly he never fully understood the impact that his music has had on the world.
Charlie Harmon worked for several years as an assistant to Leonard Bernstein. In his new book On the Road and Off the Record With Leonard Bernstein and in his interview with Fred Child, Harmon describes vividly the October day in 1990 he was called to visit Bernstein and realized it was the last time they would see each other.
Aaron Stern feels there's a reason he and Leonard Bernstein became so close. Stern says he learned a lot from Bernstein about music and feels he was able to teach Bernstein something about wisdom not long before Bernstein's death. Together they came up with the idea for the Academy for the Love of Learning which is celebrating 20 years as a nonprofit organization.
In so many ways, Leonard Bernstein was extraordinary. Talented, charismatic and handsome to boot, it was if a magic wand tapped his head at birth. His daughter Jamie Bernstein in her new book Famous Father Girl describes what the public didn't see: the doubt and guilt that nagged his conscience AND fueled his music.
Orin O'Brien was the first woman hired to perform full-time with the New York Philharmonic. Watching Leonard Bernstein conduct was certainly exciting for the audience, but this double bassist says it was exhilarating and terrifying to face the conductor as a member of his orchestra. O'Brien calls working with Bernstein "one of the best experiences of my professional life."
Growing up, Jamie Bernstein says her father was relentlessly competitive and preternaturally good at everything. Well, almost everything. In this interview highlight, she describes the glee she and her siblings felt when they found one thing their father wasn't good at. Jamie Bernstein's new memoir is called Famous Father Girl.
It sounds like the set-up for a great punch line. Three composers walk into a restaurant: Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and Michael Tilson Thomas. The first course is challenging musical trivia. The next course involves clanging spoons and glasses. Michael Tilson Thomas describes a memorable dinner with two other American composers.