Fred Child

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Fred Child


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Born = Huntsville, Alabama, United States
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Origin = Portland, Oregon
Instrument = Piano, guitar, marimba, bagpipes
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Occupation = Radio host, musician
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Fred Child is the host of the classical music radio program "Performance Today" on American Public Media. He is also the announcer and commentator for the PBS program "Live from Lincoln Center."

Child was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and moved to Portland, Oregon, at age five. As a child in Portland, he studied classical piano. He attended Oregon State University, where he was first exposed to radio work while hosting a jazz program on the student-run campus radio station [http://www.weku.eku.edu/FredChild.htm] . Subsequently, he was host, announcer, producer, and programmer for Oregon Public Broadcasting for ten years, including at least five (1990-94) for his two 2-hour weekend programs of World Music, Music Confluence, until moving to WNYC in New York City, where he was music director, director of cultural programming, and also host of the program "Around New York". He worked at WNYC for eight years until 2000, when he was chosen to replace Martin Goldsmith, the longtime host of "Performance Today", who stepped down to work on his book "The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany" [http://www.npr.org/about/press/990920.goldsmith.html] .

In addition to "Performance Today", Fred Child is the host of NPR's innovative "Creators @ Carnegie", a contributor to NPR's "All Things Considered", 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, New York's Lincoln Center, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Washington Performing Arts Society.

He is also a keen musician playing the piano, guitar, marimba, and bagpipes. His marimba group Balafon once opened for the Grateful Dead at Oakland Coliseum.

External links

*Biography at the "Performance Today" website [http://performancetoday.publicradio.org/about/]