Fred Child is the host of America's most-listened-to classical music radio program, NPR's Performance Today. The program reaches 1.5 million listeners on 250 stations around the country. The program features classical music in concert around the nation and the world, in concert from the NPR studios, and classical music news, interviews and issues.
From 1993-2001, Fred was in New York City, working at WNYC Radio and at Sony's SW Network. For WNYC, he hosted "Around New York," a daily program of live performance and interviews, and more recently served as Music Director and Director of Cultural Programming.
For Sony, he was the morning drive-time host of a nationally distributed classical radio service. He's been a contributor to Billboard Magazine, and a commentator for BBC Radio 3. His CD reviews appear on NPR's All Things Considered.
Fred brings classical music alive not only for radio audiences, but in pre-concert talks for New York's Lincoln Center, the Baltimore Symphony, the National Cathedral, the Aspen Festival, the Kennedy Center, and Summerfest LaJolla. His 2002 reading of the audio book Getting to Know William Shakespeare won an Audie Award from the Audio Publishers Association.
Fred is a native Oregonian, and was with Oregon Public Broadcasting from 1984-1993. At OPB he hosted daily music programs (both classical and eclectic), produced concert broadcasts from Chamber Music Northwest, and co-produced and voiced a weekly comedy series.
While growing up in Portland, Oregon, Fred studied classical piano for ten years. He also dabbles in guitar, percussion, and the bagpipes. His percussion band, "The Balafon Marimba Ensemble," opened for the Grateful Dead at the Oakland Coliseum. He recently got up the nerve to perform Brahms four-hands duets with pianist Andre Michel Schub. He's also played castanets with guitarist Sharon Isbin and the Shanghai String Quartet, and has narrated musical works at the Aspen Festival, with the Virginia Symphony, and the U.S. Marine Band.