Fred Child (born March 30, 1963) is an American radio host. Since 2000, he has been the host of the classical music radio program ''

Performance Today ''Performance Today'' is a Peabody Award-winning classical music radio program, first aired in 1987 and hosted since 2000 by Fred Child. It is the most listened-to daily classical music radio program in the United States, with 1.2 million listen ...

'' on

American Public Media American Public Media (APM) is an American company that produces and distributes public radio programs in the United States, the second largest company of its type after NPR. Its non-profit parent, American Public Media Group, also owns and o ...

. He is also the announcer and commentator for the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

program ''

Live from Lincoln Center ''Live from Lincoln Center'' is a seventeen-time Emmy Award-winning series that has broadcast notable performances from the Lincoln Center in New York City on PBS since 1976. The program airs between six and nine times per season. Episodes of '' ...

.''

Early life and education

Child was born in Huntsville, Alabama. He moved to

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

, Oregon, while still a young child, and began studying classical piano. He attended

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering c ...

, where he was first exposed to radio work while hosting a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

program on the student-run campus radio station.

Career

After graduation from university, Child was host, announcer, producer, and programmer for

Oregon Public Broadcasting Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) is the primary television and radio public broadcasting network for most of the U.S. state of Oregon as well as southern Washington. OPB consists of five full-power television stations, dozens of VHF or UHF tra ...

for ten years, including five years (1990–94) on his two-hour weekend program of World Music called ''Music Confluence''. Child then moved to New York City and worked at

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that ...

, where he became music director, director of cultural programming, and also host of the program ''Around New York''. He worked at WNYC until 2000, when he was chosen to replace Martin Goldsmith as host of ''

'', when Goldsmith stepped down to pursue writing. In addition to ''Performance Today'', Child is the host of

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

's ''Creators @ Carnegie''; a contributor to NPR's ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

''; and a host for live broadcasts of important concert events from New York City, Los Angeles, and London. He also appears on-stage doing pre-concert talks for the

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore SO has its principal residence at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where it performs more than 130 concerts a year. In 2005, it bega ...

, New York's

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...

, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Washington Performing Arts Society. Child is also a keen musician, playing the piano, guitar,

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

, and bagpipes. His group, Balafón Marimba Ensemble, once opened for the Grateful Dead at

Oakland Coliseum Oakland Coliseum, currently branded as RingCentral Coliseum, is a stadium in Oakland, California. It is part of the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Complex, with the adjacent Oakland Arena, near Interstate 880. The Coliseum is the home b ...

Personal life

In 2016, Child married Chinese-American composer Wang Jie.Child and Jie reside in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Discography

*''Balafón Marimba Ensemble'', Shanachie Records 67002 (1990) (as guest artist)

Notes

References

*Phillips, Lisa
"At Home on the Air: Fred Child." In ''Public Radio: Behind the Voices''.
Vanguard Press, 2006. pp. 295–300.

External links

Biography at the ''Performance Today'' websiteProfile
at

WXQR WXQR-FM (105.5 MHz) is a radio station broadcasting a Regional Mexican format. Originally based in Jacksonville, North Carolina, the station is headquartered in New Bern. History WXQR-FM is one of the oldest rock stations in America. It was ...

American radio personalities Classical music radio presenters NPR personalities American Public Media Radio personalities from Oregon Musicians from Alabama People from Huntsville, Alabama Musicians from Portland, Oregon 1963 births Living people {{Alabama-stub