Blog/News

Mai Nguyen is a member of our 2015-2016 Center for the Development of Arts Leaders. She recently performed at Goddard House Assisted Living in Brookline, Massachusetts, and sent Shea Mavros, our Education Program Manager, this great note:    Dear Shea, This is probably kind of unexpected, but I really wanted to let you know how […]

Yesterday – Sunday October 4 – was a pretty special day for us here at From the Top. In addition to having our Board of Directors and Overseers in town for our annual meeting, we also recorded episode 313 of our radio show, NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley, in celebration of our 15th […]

It’s official. From the Top alum and classical saxophonist Chad Lilley wins this year’s award for most unusual video. Chad plays a gorgeous rendition of Barry Cockcrofts’ “Ku Ku.” You can watch it here. But since we’re From the Top, we decided that a song that sounds like chickens needs to be played FOR chickens. […]

BOSTON, MA — SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 — From the Top today announced that it is a grantee recipient of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Arts Innovation and Management (AIM) program. Through the two-year initiative, Bloomberg Philanthropies is providing $30 million across 262 small and mid-sized nonprofit cultural organizations around the country to help strengthen their operational and programming […]

This post has been updated to reflect corrections and additions since it was published on Friday 9/18/15. On Sunday, September 20, we welcomed a record-breaking class to the 2015–2016 class of the Center for Development of Arts Leaders (CDAL), our Boston-based leadership and music outreach program! The five-year-old CDAL program is the first center of its kind […]

Violinist Benjamin Beilman appeared on From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley Show 84 as part of the Bay Chamber Trio. Ben was a mere 13 years old when he performed on From the Top, but we had a strong feeling that he was going places, and indeed he has. Now 25, Ben is an award-winning soloist […]

Jason Lewis is a modern day Renaissance man: an award-winning classical guitarist who loves to skateboard, a poet who plans to study neuroscience. Directed by: Dillon Buss Subscribe to our YouTube channel today for more cool music videos. Hear more from Jason on NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley Show 307. Jason’s website is www.Jasonblairlewis.com.

Guitarist Jason Lewis appeared on NPR’s From the Top Show 307, recorded at a private home in Boston’s Back Bay, which you can hear on public radio stations nationwide the week of September 7. We discovered that Jason has a passion for skateboarding as well as guitar. Here’s a sneak peek of an upcoming video featuring Jason, […]

We’re visiting some really amazing concert halls and venues this season, and we want to see your smiling faces in the audience! Join us at one of our upcoming tour stops near you: Saturday, September 19, 2015: Atlanta, Georgia Schwartz Center for Performing Arts Presented by Emory University Sunday, September 27, 2015: Big Sky, Montana […]

Flute player Ramakrishnan Kumaran was 16 when he appeared on Show 281 of NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley, recorded in Costa Mesa, California in January of 2014. He is entering his sophomore year at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. He wrote this personal essay about his tumultuous first year at the University to […]

Chad Lilley is From the Top’s first Beth Klarman Fellow, spending a summer interning with our marketing and program teams, and has appeared on NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley. This is part four of his blog series of seeing the other side of From the Top. You can read parts one, two, […]

Chad Lilley is From the Top’s first Beth Klarman Fellow, spending a summer interning with our marketing and program teams, and has appeared on NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley. This is part three of his blog series of seeing the other side of From the Top. You can read parts 1 and […]

Boston, MA – Through its grantmaking to thousands of nonprofits each year, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) promotes opportunities for people in communities across America to experience the arts and exercise their creativity. From the Top is pleased to announce that they will receive a $90,000 award to support the national tour and […]

We’re back from our week-long trip to Colorado which was packed to the brim with all sorts of events. Colorado is home to two of the best summer music festivals in America, and we were lucky enough to be invited to participate in both. We started out in Vail, as part of the Bravo! Vail […]

Chad Lilley is From the Top’s first Beth Klarman Fellow, spending a summer interning with our marketing and program teams, and has appeared on NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley. This is part two of his blog series on seeing the other side of From the Top. You can read parts 1 here. *** […]

Prologue: My name is Chad Lilley, and I’m a classical saxophonist and Washington DC area native. I appeared on NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley in the fall of my junior year: October 5, 2013, in the near acoustically (and aesthetically) perfect Jordan Hall at The New England Conservatory. In the summer after […]

July 9, 2015: Tonight we recorded Episode 309 of NPR’s From the Top with Host Christopher O’Riley at the Vilar Center at the wonderful Bravo! Vail Music Festival. You can hear this show on stations nationwide during the week of October 5, 2015. One of our featured young musicians, 17-year-old violinist Mira Yamamoto, is also a […]

Oh Chautauqua, how I miss you already! I’m home in Boston now, but just days ago I was at the Chautauqua Institution in Southwestern New York, where we recorded an episode of our radio show. If you haven’t heard of Chautauqua, let me paint a quick picture for you: imagine a huge, private summer resort completely […]

A few weeks back, we shared our cover of Charlie Puth and Wiz Khalifa’s See You Again, which has been seen by more than 100,000 viewers to date on YouTube and Facebook. At that same recording session, the From the Top band took a crack at another, quite different, current hit: FourFiveSeconds, performed by Rihanna, […]

We have heavy and grateful hearts here at From the Top today as we remember Gunther Schuller, who passed away over the weekend. Mr. Schuller appeared twice on From the Top; the first early in our history (Show 48) and then in 2011 on a very special “highlight show”, during which he and Christopher O’Riley discussed some of his favorite pieces from […]