NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley: Storrs, Connecticut / 297

About

From the University of Connecticut, this week’s From the Top includes an emotional performance of Rachmaninoff’s Elegie in E-flat minor performed by a young pianist from southern Connecticut, a twelve-year-old violinist brings to life all of the quixotic mood changes in Prokofiev’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, and we’ll get a dose of teenage musical philosophy from a philosophical sixteen-year-old cellist.

Performers & Repertoire

• The Clemens Quartet
  KJ McDonald, 17, Violin; Jason Corbin, 16, Violin; Patrick Marsh, 17, Viola; Alex Mansour, 17, Cello

  The first movement, Allegro, from the String Quartet No. 4, Sz. 91 by Béla Bartók
• Derek Louie, 16, cello

  Silent Woods by Antonín Dvorák
• Cassie Pilgrim, 17, oboe

  "Morceau de Salon" by Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda
• Chelsea Guo, 13, piano

  Elegie in E-flat minor, Op. 3, No. 1 by Sergei Rachmaninoff
• Charlotte Marckx, 12, violin

  The first movement, Moderato, from the Violin Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op 94a by Sergei Prokofiev
• Sempre Sisters
  Charlotte Marckx, 12, violin; Olivia Marckxs, 15, cello

  "The High Reel Set," arr. Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas

Beyond the Concert Hall

The performers on this show visited two local student groups. The first was at the Windham Middle School, where they lead a music workshop that got a crowd of 150 middle school students. During this workshop, the performers taught the students to dance to Kalliwoda, hear the layers of a Bartok string quartet, and help arrange the sequence of an original Sempre Sisters fiddle tune. The performers followed this up with a visit to the UCONN School of the Arts for a shared recital with students from the music school. Big thanks to Rodney Rock, Linda Neelly, and Jaquelyn Darbyshire for making our visits possible.

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Release Dates

• Monday, May 25, 2015
• Monday, December 1, 2014

Release date is when this show is released to NPR stations, here on our website, and to our podcast. Shows are released on a weekly basis; please check your local NPR station listing for the actual airtime in your market. If you'd like, you can visit NPR's "Find Stations" page to look for your station.

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The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation

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